Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
335
Nor did they not perceave the evil plight
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to thir Generals Voyce they soon obeyd
Innumerable. As when the potent Rod
Of
Amrams
Son
37
in
Egypts
evill day
340
Wav’d round the Coast, up call’d a pitchy cloud
Of
Locusts
, warping
38
on the Eastern Wind,
That ore the Realm of impious
Pharaoh
hung
Like Night, and darken’d all the Land of
Nile:
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
345
Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell
’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding Fires;
Till, as a signal giv’n, th’ uplifted Spear
Of thir great Sultan waving to direct
Thir course, in even ballance down they light
350
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain;
A multitude, like which the populous North
Pour’d never from her frozen loyns, to pass
Rhene
or the
Danaw
,
39
when her barbarous Sons
Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread
355
Beneath
Gibralter
to the
Lybian
sands.
40
Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band
The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood
Thir great Commander; Godlike shapes and forms
Excelling human, Princely Dignities,
360
And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones;
Though of thir Names in heav’nly Records now
Be no memorial blotted out and raz’d
By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.
41
Nor had they yet among the Sons of
Eve
365
Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth,
Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,
By falsities and lyes the greatest part
Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake
God thir Creator, and th’ invisible
370
Glory of him that made them, to transform
Oft to the Image of a Brute, adorn’d
With gay Religions full of Pomp and Gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various Names,
375
And various Idols through the Heathen World.
Say, Muse, thir Names then known, who first, who last,
Rous’d from thir slumber, on that fiery Couch,
At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
380
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof?
The chief were those who from the Pit of Hell
Roaming to seek thir prey on earth, durst fix
Thir Seats long after next the Seat of God,
Thir Altars by his Altar, Gods ador’d
385
Among the Nations round, and durst abide
Jehovah
thundring out of
Sion
, thron’d
Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac’d
Within his Sanctuary it self thir Shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
390
His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profan’d,
And with thir darkness durst affront his light.
First
Moloch
,
42
horrid King besmear’d with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud
395
Thir childrens cries unheard, that past through fire
To his grim Idol. Him the
Ammonite
Worshipt in
Rabba
and her watry Plain,
In
Argob
and in
Basan
, to the stream
Of utmost
Arnon.
Nor content with such
400
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of
Solomon
he led by fraud to build
His Temple right against the Temple of God
On that opprobrious Hill,
43
and made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of
Hinnom, Tophet
thence
405
And black
Gehenna
call’d, the Type of Hell.
Next
Chemos
,
44
th’ obscene dread of
Moabs
Sons,
From
Aroar
to
Nebo
, and the wild
Of Southmost
Abarim;
in
Hesebon
And
Horonaim, Seons
45
Realm, beyond
410
The flowry Dale of
Sibma
clad with Vines,
And
Eleale
to th’
Asphaltick
Pool.
46
Peor
his other Name, when he entic’d
Israel
in
Sittim
on thir march from
Näe
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
415
Yet thence his lustful Orgies he enlarg’d
Ev’n to that Hill of scandal, by the Grove
Of
Moloch
homicide, lust hard by hate;
Till good
Josiah
drove them thence to Hell.
With these came they, who from the bordring flood
420
Of old
Euphrates
to the Brook
47
that parts
Egypt
from
Syrian
ground, had general Names
Of
Baalim
and
Ashtaroth
,
48
those male,
These Feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft
425
And uncompounded is thir Essence pure,
Not ti’d or manacl’d with joynt or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condens’t, bright or obscure,
430
Can execute thir aerie purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfill.
For these the Race of
Israel
oft forsook
Thir living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down
435
To bestial Gods; for which thir heads as low
Bow’d down in Battel, sunk before the Spear
Of despicable foes. With these in troop
Came
Astoreth
, whom the
Phœnicians
call’d
Astarte
, Queen of Heav’n, with crescent Horns;
440
To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon
Sidonian
Virgins paid thir Vows and Songs,
In
Sion
also not unsung, where stood
Her Temple on th’ offensive Mountain, built
By that uxorious King,
49
whose heart though large,
445
Beguil’d by fair Idolatresses, fell
To Idols foul.
Thammuz
50
came next behind,
Whose annual wound in
Lebanon
allur’d
The
Syrian
Damsels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a Summers day,
450
While smooth
Adonis
from his native Rock
Ran purple to the Sea, suppos’d with blood
Of
Thammuz
yearly wounded: the Love-tale
Infected
Sions
daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
455
Ezekiel
saw, when by the Vision led
His eye survay’d the dark Idolatries
Of alienated
Judah.
51
Next came one
Who mourn’d in earnest, when the Captive Ark
Maim’d his brute Image, head and hands lopt off
460
In his own Temple, on the grunsel
52
edge,
Where he fell flat, and sham’d his Worshipers:
Dagon
53
his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man
And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high
Rear’d in
Azotus
, dreaded through the Coast
465
Of
Palestine, in Gath
and
Ascalon
And
Accaron
and
Gaza’s
frontier bounds.
Him follow’d
Rimmon
, whose delightful Seat
Was fair
Damascus
, on the fertil Banks
Of
Abbana
and
Pharphar
, lucid streams.
470
He also against the house of God was bold:
A Leper
54
once he lost and gain’d a King,
Ahaz
his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew
Gods Altar to disparage and displace
For one of
Syrian
mode, whereon to burn
475
His odious offrings, and adore the Gods
Whom he had vanquisht. After these appear’d
A crew who under Names of old Renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus
55
and thir Train
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus’d