The Complete Poetry of John Milton (59 page)

   180     
Seest thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wild,

               
The seat of desolation, voyd of light,

               
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames

               
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend

               
From off the tossing of these fiery waves,

   185     
There rest, if any rest can harbour there,

               
And reassembling our afflicted
²⁵
Powers,

               
Consult how we may henceforth most offend

               
Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,

               
How overcome this dire Calamity,

   190     
What reinforcement we may gain from Hope,

               
If not what resolution from despair.

           
      
       Thus Satan talking to his neerest Mate

               
With Head up-lift above the wave, and Eyes

               
That sparkling blaz’d, his other Parts besides

   195     
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large

               
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge

               
As whom the Fables name of monstrous size,

               
Titanian
,
²⁶
or
Earth-born
, that warr’d on
Jove
,

               
Briareos
or
Typhon
, whom the Den

   200     
By ancient
Tarsus
held, or that Sea-beast

               
Leviathan
,
²⁷
which God of all his works

               
Created hugest that swim th’ Ocean stream:

               
Him haply slumbring on the
Norway
foam

               
The Pilot of some small night-founder’d Skiff,

   205     
Deeming some Island, oft, as Sea-men tell,

               
With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind

               
Moors by his side under the Lee, while Night

               
Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes:

               
So stretcht out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay

   210     
Chain’d on the burning Lake, nor ever thence

               
Had ris’n or heav’d his head, but that the will

               
And high permission of all-ruling Heav’n

               
Left him at large to his own dark designs,

               
That with reiterated crimes he might

   215     
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought

               
Evil to others, and enrag’d might see

               
How all his malice serv’d but to bring forth

               
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shewn

               
On Man by him seduc’t, but on himself

   220     
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance
²⁸
pour’d.

               
Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool

               
His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames

               
Drivn backward slope thir pointing spires, and rowl’d

               
In billows, leave i’ th’ midst a horrid Vale.

   225     
Then with expanded wings he stears his flight

               
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air

               
That felt unusual weight, till on dry Land

               
He lights, if it were Land that ever burn’d

               
With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire;

   230     
And such appear’d in hue,
²⁹
as when the force

               
Of subterranean wind transports a Hill

               
Torn from
Pelorus
,
³⁰
or the shatter’d side

               
Of thundring
Ætna
, whose combustible

               
And fewel’d entrails thence conceiving Fire,

   235     
Sublim’d
³¹
with Mineral fury, aid the Winds,

               
And leave a singed bottom all involv’d

               
With stench and smoak: Such resting found the sole

               
Of unblest feet. Him followed his next Mate,

               
Both glorying to have scap’t the
Stygian
flood

   240     
As Gods, and by thir own recover’d strength,

               
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power.

           
      
       Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,

               
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat

               
That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom

   245     
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

               
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid

               
What shall be right: fardest from him is best

               
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream

               
Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields

   250     
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail

               
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell

               
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings

               
A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.

               
The mind is its own place, and in it self

   255     
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

               
What matter where, if I be still the same,

               
And what I should be, all but less than he

               
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least

               
We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built

   260     
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

               
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce

               
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

               
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.

               
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

   265     
Th’ associates and copartners of our loss

               
Lye thus astonisht on th’ oblivious Pool,
³²

               
And call them not to share with us their part

               
In this unhappy Mansion, or once more

               
With rallied Arms to try what may be yet

   270     
Regaind in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?

           
      
       So
Satan
spake, and him
Beëlzebub

               
Thus answer’d. Leader of those Armies bright,

               
Which but th’ Omnipotent none could have foyl’d,

               
If once they hear that voyce, thir liveliest pledge

   275     
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

               
In worst extreams, and on the perilous edge

               
Of battel when it rag’d, in all assaults

               
Thir surest signal, they will soon resume

               
New courage and revive, though now they lye

   280     
Groveling and prostrate on yon Lake of Fire,

               
As we erewhile, astounded and amaz’d,

               
No wonder, fall’n such a pernicious highth.

           
      
       He scarce had ceas’t when the superiour Fiend

               
Was moving toward the shoar; his ponderous shield

   285     
Ethereal temper, massy, large and round,

               
Behind him cast; the broad circumference

               
Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose Orb

               
Through Optic Glass the
Tuscan
Artist
³³
views

               
At Ev’ning from the top of
Fesole
,

   290     
Or in
Valdarno
, to descry new Lands,

               
Rivers or Mountains in her spotty Globe.

               
His Spear, to equal which the tallest Pine

               
Hewn on
Norwegian
hills, to be the Mast

               
Of some great Ammiral,
³⁴
were but a wand,

   295     
He walkt with to support uneasie steps

               
Over the burning Marl, not like those steps

               
On Heavens Azure, and the torrid Clime

               
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire;

               
Nathless he so endur’d, till on the Beach

   300     
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d

               
His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans’t

               
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks

               
In
Vallombrosa
,
³⁵
where th’
Etrurian
shades

               
High overarch’t imbowr; or scatterd sedge

   305     
Afloat, when with fierce Winds
Orion
³⁶
arm’d

               
Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast, whose waves orethrew

               
Busiris
and his
Memphian
Chivalry,

               
While with perfidious hatred they pursu’d

               
The Sojourners of
Goshen
, who beheld

   310     
From the safe shore thir floating Carkases

               
And broken Chariot Wheels, so thick bestrown

               
Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood,

               
Under amazement of thir hideous change.

               
He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep

   315     
Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates,

               
Warriers, the Flowr of Heav’n, once yours, now lost,

               
If such astonishment as this can sieze

               
Eternal spirits; or have ye chos’n this place

               
After the toyl of Battel to repose

   320     
Your wearied vertue, for the ease you find

               
To slumber here, as in the Vales of Heav’n?

               
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

               
T’ adore the Conquerour? who now beholds

               
Cherub and Seraph rowling in the Flood

   325     
With scatter’d Arms and Ensigns, till anon

               
His swift pursuers from Heav’n Gates discern

               
Th’ advantage, and descending tread us down

               
Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts

               
Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulf.

   330     
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.

           
      
       They heard, and were abasht, and up they sprung

               
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch

               
On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,

               
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.