The Complete Poetry of John Milton (109 page)

   735     
Fixt on the Fruit she gaz’d, which to behold

               
Might tempt alone, and in her ears the sound

               
Yet rung of his perswasive words, impregn’d

               
With Reason, to her seeming, and with Truth;

               
Mean while the hour of Noon
⁵⁹
drew on, and wak’d

   740     
An eager appetite, rais’d by the smell

               
So savorie of that Fruit, which with desire,

               
Inclinable now grown to touch or taste,

               
Sollicited her longing eye; yet first

               
Pausing a while, thus to her self she mus’d.

   745  
      
       Great are thy Vertues, doubtless, best of Fruits,

               
Though kept from Man, and worthy to be admir’d,

               
Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay

               
Gave elocution to the mute, and taught

               
The Tongue not made for Speech to speak thy praise:

   750     
Thy praise hee also who forbids thy use,

               
Conceals not from us, naming thee the Tree

               
Of Knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;

               
Forbids us then to taste, but his forbidding

               
Commends thee more, while it inferrs the good

   755     
By thee communicated, and our want:

               
For good unknown, sure is not had, or had

               
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.

               
In plain then, what forbids he but to know,

               
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?

   760     
Such prohibitions bind not. But if Death

               
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then

               
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat

               
Of this fair Fruit, our doom is, we shall die.

               
How dies the Serpent? hee hath eat’n and lives,

   765     
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,

               
Irrational till then. For us alone

               
Was death invented? or to us deni’d

               
This intellectual food, for beasts reserv’d?

               
For Beasts it seems: yet that one Beast which first

   770     
Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy

               
The good befall’n him, Author unsuspect,
⁶⁰

               
Friendly to man, farr from deceit or guile.

               
What fear I then, rather what know to fear

               
Under this ignorance of Good and Evil,

   775     
Of God or Death, of Law or Penaltie?

               
Here grows the Cure of all, this Fruit Divine,

               
Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste,

               
Of vertue to make wise: what hinders then

               
To reach, and feed at once both Bodie and Mind?

   780  
      
       So saying, her rash hand in evil hour

               
Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck’d, she eat:
⁶¹

               
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

               
Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,

               
That all was lost. Back to the Thicket slunk

   785     
The guiltie Serpent, and well might, for
Eve

               
Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else

               
Regarded, such delight till then, as seemd,

               
In Fruit she never tasted, whether true

               
Or fansied so, through expectation high

   790     
Of knowledge, nor was God-head from her thought.

               
Greedily she ingorg’d without restraint,

               
And knew not eating Death:
⁶²
Satiate at length,

               
And hight’n’d as with Wine, jocond and boon,
⁶³

               
Thus to her self she pleasingly began.

   795  
      
       O Sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees

               
In Paradise, of operation blest

               
To Sapience,
⁶⁴
hitherto obscur’d, infam’d,
⁶⁵

               
And thy fair Fruit let hang, as to no end

               
Created; but henceforth my early care,

   800     
Not without Song, each Morning, and due praise

               
Shall tend thee, and the fertil burden ease

               
Of thy full branches offer’d free to all;

               
Till dieted by thee I grow mature

               
In knowledge, as the Gods who all things know;

   805     
Though others envie what they cannot give;

               
For had the gift bin theirs, it had not here

               
Thus grown. Experience, next to thee I owe,

               
Best guide; not following thee, I had remaind

               
In ignorance, thou op’nst Wisdoms way,

   810     
And giv’st access, though secret she retire.

               
And I perhaps am secret; Heav’n is high,

               
High and remote to see from thence distinct

               
Each thing on Earth; and other care perhaps

               
May have diverted from continual watch

   815     
Our great Forbidder, safe with all his Spies

               
About him. But to
Adam
in what sort

               
Shall I appeer? shall I to him make known

               
As yet my change, and give him to partake

               
Full happiness with me, or rather not,

   820     
But keep the odds of Knowledge in my power

               
Without Copartner? so to add what wants

               
In Femal Sex, the more to draw his Love,

               
And render me more equal, and perhaps,

               
A thing not undesirable, somtime

   825     
Superior; for inferior who is free?

               
This may be well: but what if God have seen,

               
And Death ensue? then I shall be no more,

               
And
Adam
wedded to another
Eve
,

               
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;

   830     
A death to think. Confirm’d then I resolve,

               
Adam
shall share with me in bliss or woe:

               
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths

               
I could endure, without him live no life.

           
      
       So saying, from the Tree her step she turnd,

   835     
But first low Reverence don, as to the power

               
That dwelt within, whose presence had infus’d

               
Into the plant sciential
⁶⁶
sap, deriv’d

               
From Nectar, drink of Gods.
Adam
the while

               
Waiting desirous her return, had wove

   840     
Of choicest Flowrs a Garland to adorn

               
Her Tresses, and her rural labours crown,

               
As Reapers oft are wont thir Harvest Queen.

               
Great joy he promis’d to his thoughts, and new

               
Solace in her return, so long delay’d;

   845     
Yet oft his heart, divine
⁶⁷
of somthing ill,

               
Misgave him; hee the faultring measure felt;

               
And forth to meet her went, the way she took

               
That Morn when first they parted; by the Tree

               
Of Knowledge he must pass, there he her met,

   850     
Scarse from the Tree returning; in her hand

               
A bough of fairest fruit that downie smil’d,

               
New gatherd, and ambrosial smell diffus’d.

               
To him she hasted, in her face excuse

               
Came Prologue, and Apologie to prompt,

   855     
Which with bland words at will she thus addrest.

           
      
       Hast thou not wonderd,
Adam
, at my stay?

               
Thee I have misst, and thought it long, depriv’d

               
Thy presence, agonie of love till now

               
Not felt, nor shall be twice, for never more

   860     
Mean I to trie, what rash untri’d I sought,

               
The pain of absence from thy sight. But strange

               
Hath bin the cause, and wonderful to hear:

               
This Tree is not as we are told, a Tree

               
Of danger tasted, nor to evil unknown

   865     
Op’ning the way, but of Divine effect

               
To open Eyes, and make them Gods who taste;

               
And hath bin tasted such: the Serpent wise,

               
Or not restraind as wee, or not obeying,

               
Hath eat’n of the fruit, and is become,

   870     
Not dead, as we are threat’n’d, but thenceforth

               
Endu’d with human voice and human sense,

               
Reasoning to admiration, and with mee

               
Perswasively hath so prevaild, that I

               
Have also tasted, and have also found

   875     
Th’ effects to correspond, opener mine Eyes,

               
Dimm erst, dilated Spirits, ampler Heart,

               
And growing up to Godhead; which for thee

               
Chiefly I sought, without thee can despise.

               
For bliss, as thou hast part, to me is bliss,

   880     
Tedious, unshar’d with thee, and odious soon.

               
Thou therfore also taste, that equal Lot

               
May joyn us, equal Joy, as equal Love;

               
Least thou not tasting, different degree

               
Disjoyn us, and I then too late renounce

   885     
Deitie for thee, when Fate will not permit.

           
      
       Thus
Eve
with Countnance blithe her storie told;

               
But in her Cheek distemper flushing glowd.

               
On th’ other side,
Adam
, soon as he heard

               
The fatal Trespass don by
Eve
, amaz’d,

   890     
Astonied
⁶⁸
stood and Blank, while horror chill

               
Ran through his veins, and all his joynts relax’d;

               
From his slack hand the Garland wreath’d for
Eve

               
Down drop’d, and all the faded Roses shed:

               
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length