The Complete Poetry of John Milton (119 page)

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Authors: John Milton

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BOOK: The Complete Poetry of John Milton
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1010

   1010   
But
Adam
with such counsel nothing sway’d,

               
To better hopes his more attentive mind

               
Labouring had rais’d, and thus to
Eve
repli’d.

            
      
       
Eve
, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems

               
To argue in thee somthing more sublime

1015

   1015   
And excellent then what thy mind contemns;

               
But self-destruction therefore saught, refutes

               
That excellence thought in thee, and implies,

               
Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret

               
For loss of life and pleasure overlov’d.

1020

   1020   
Or if thou covet death, as utmost end

               
Of miserie, so thinking to evade

               
The penaltie pronounc’t, doubt not but God

               
Hath wiselier arm’d his vengeful ire then so

               
To be forestall’d; much more I fear least Death

1025

   1025   
So snatcht will not exempt us from the pain

               
We are by doom to pay; rather such acts

               
Of contumacie will provoke the highest

               
To make death in us live: Then let us seek

               
Som safer resolution, which methinks

1030

   1030   
I have in view, calling to mind with heed

               
Part of our Sentence, that thy Seed shall bruise

               
The Serpents head; piteous amends, unless

               
Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand Foe

               
Satan
, who in the Serpent hath contriv’d

1035

   1035   
Against us this deceit: to crush his head

               
Would be revenge indeed; which will be lost

               
By death brought on our selves, or childless days

               
Resolv’d, as thou proposest; so our Foe

               
Shall scape his punishment ordain’d, and wee

1040

   1040   
Instead shall double ours upon our heads.

               
No more be mention’d then of violence

               
Against our selves, and wilful barrenness,

               
That cuts us off from hope, and savours onely

               
Rancor and pride, impatience and despite,

1045

   1045   
Reluctance
90
against God and his just yoke

               
Laid on our Necks. Remember with what mild

               
And gracious temper he both heard and judg’d

               
Without wrauth or reviling; wee expected

               
Immediate dissolution, which we thought

1050

   1050   
Was meant by Death that day, when lo, to thee

               
Pains onely in Child-bearing were foretold,

               
And bringing forth, soon recompenc’t with joy,

               
Fruit of thy Womb: On mee the Curse aslope

               
Glanc’d on the ground, with labour I must earn

1055

   1055   
My bread; what harm? Idleness had bin worse;

               
My labour will sustain me; and least Cold

               
Or Heat should injure us, his timely care

               
Hath unbesaught provided, and his hands

               
Cloath’d us unworthie, pitying while he judg’d;

1060

   1060   
How much more, if we pray him, will his ear

               
Be open, and his heart to pitie incline,

               
And teach us further by what means to shun

               
Th’ inclement Seasons, Rain, Ice, Hail and Snow,

               
Which now the Skie with various Face begins

1065

   1065   
To shew us in this Mountain, while the Winds

               
Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks

               
Of these fair spreading Trees; which bids us seek

               
Som better shroud, som better warmth to cherish

               
Our Limbs benumm’d, ere this diurnal Starr

1070

   1070   
Leave cold the Night, how we his gather’d beams

               
Reflected, may with matter sere foment,

               
Or by collision of two bodies grind

               
The Air attrite
91
to Fire, as late the Clouds

               
Justling or pusht with Winds rude in thir shock

1075

   1075   
Tine
92
the slant Lightning, whose thwart flame driv’n down

               
Kindles the gummie bark of Firr or Pine,

               
And sends a comfortable heat from farr,

               
Which might supplie the Sun: such Fire to use,

               
And what may else be remedie or cure

1080

   1080   
To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,

               
Hee will instruct us praying, and of Grace

               
Beseeching him, so as we need not fear

               
To pass commodiously this life, sustain’d

               
By him with many comforts, till we end

1085

   1085   
In dust, our final rest and native home.

               
What better can we do, then to the place

               
Repairing where he judg’d us, prostrate fall

               
Before him reverent, and there confess

               
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears

1090

   1090   
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the Air

               
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign

               
Of sorrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek.

               
Undoubtedly he will relent and turn

               
From his displeasure; in whose look serene,

1095

   1095   
When angry most he seem’d and most severe,

               
What else but favor, grace, and mercie shon?

            
      
       So spake our Father penitent, nor
Eve

               
Felt less remorse: they forthwith to the place

               
Repairing where he judg’d them prostrate fell

1100

   1100   
Before him reverent, and both confess’d

               
Humbly thir faults, and pardon beg’d, with tears

               
Watering the ground, and with thir sighs the Air

               
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign

               
Of sorrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek.

1
perfectly equipped.

2
succeed.

3
the force which tends to produce motion.

4
remains.

5
transferred.

6
illuminate.

7
proved guilty.

8
that is, neither shall be bound to Satan as penalty.

9
border, surrounding area.

10
descent.

11
duty to meet me.

12
easily seen.

13
role.

14
Dust is, ironically, what constitutes Man; see l. 208.

15
Lines 175–81 derive from Gen. iii. 14–15. Note that only bruising is involved, but its consequence for Satan will be more momentous than for the Son as man.

16
because of you (since also Adam is made of the dust).

17
The skins come from beasts slain for that purpose or those recovered by new skins after shedding the old, like the snake.

18
did not object to.

19
attractive power.

20
movement back and forth between, as opposed to “transmigration” (passage to one place only).

21
making into a shoal.

22
the Arctic Ocean.

23
the supposed passage to the east (Cathay) along the Siberian shore where flows the Pechora.

24
one of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea created by Neptune with his trident and firmly fixed in place by Zeus.

25
petrifying.

26
the outer shell of the created universe.

27
both unenclosed (wide-extending) and defenseless.

28
without impediments.

29
the biblical Shushan, founded by Memnon’s father Tithonus.

30
pertaining to building bridges, and punning on “papal.”

31
The bridge to Hell joins the passage between Heaven and Earth (III, 510).

32
Aries, under whose sign the Sun (Uriel) rises, lies opposite to Scorpio, near which is Centaurus; that is, Earth is placed between Satan and Uriel. Compare IV, n. 65. At this point, as Albert R. Cirillo shows (
ELH
, XXIX [1962], 372–95), the Sun (Son) and Satan each has reached his opposite noon / midnight; that is, at the Sun’s rising has come Satan’s fall (compare
PR
III, 201–2). The vernal equinox begins the year anew yielding hope and rebirth, and creating a metaphoric perpetual noon that is an image of eternity.

33
unawares.

34
the coverings of fig leaves.

35
the bridge from hell.

36
mutual dependence.

37
Concepts of squareness and circularity are fallaciously contrasted: male, female; imperfect, perfect; justice, mercy. Heaven was a square according to Rev. xxi. 16.

38
prove.

39
Three meanings are intended: achievement; action for one’s own advantage; and “unfolding” of his serpentine form at the temptation.

40
unfavorably affected (as the planets themselves were considered to influence men).

41
that is, of the Sun (Son), as at the crucifixion.

42
causeway.

43
compared.

44
(his command).

45
an outpost on the Volga.

46
king of Persia.

47
Tauris (Tabriz) and Casbeen were Persian cities ruled by Aladule.

48
led back.

49
canopy.

50
council.

51
unknown.

52
“unoriginated,” since nothing existed before it.

53
in parody of Ps. ii. 4; see II, 191 and n.

54
tripped.

55
revolt.

56
twisted together. Among the fabulous serpents which follow are the amphisbaena, which had a head at both ends, the hydrus (a watersnake), the ellops (probably a swordfish), and the dipsas, whose bite provoked thirst. Serpents sprang from the blood of Medusa, and Ophiusa (“full of snakes”) is one of the Balearic islands. Python was killed by Apollo at Delphi.

57
upraised.

58
one of the Furies.

59
the Dead Sea. The fair apples of Sodom were but ashes inside.

60
gusto, great relish.

61
sickened.

62
a Titan whose name means “serpent”; his wife was Eurynome, whose name means “wide-encroaching.” Jove, son of Saturn and Rhea (Ops), had a shrine at Mount Dicte in Crete.

63
from Rev. vi. 8.

64
originally “to die.”

65
not bound by his hide.

66
shutting the eyes.

67
Rev. xv. 3: “And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord, God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints.”

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