The Complete Poetry of John Milton (85 page)

   275     
At once on th’ Eastern cliff of Paradise

               
He lights, and to his proper shape returns

               
A Seraph wing’d; six wings he wore, to shade

               
His lineaments Divine; the pair that clad

               
Each shoulder broad, came mantling o’re his brest

   280     
With regal Ornament; the middle pair

               
Girt like a Starrie Zone his waste, and round

               
Skirted his loins and thighs with downie Gold

               
And colours dipt in Heav’n; the third his feet

               
Shaddowd from either heel with featherd mail

   285     
Skie-tinctur’d grain.
²⁰
Like
Maia’s
son
²¹
he stood,

               
And shook his Plumes, that Heav’nly fragrance filld

               
The circuit wide. Strait knew him all the Bands

               
Of Angels under watch; and to his state,

               
And to his message high in honour rise;

   290     
For on som message high they guess’d him bound.

               
Thir glittering Tents he pass’d, and now is come

               
Into the blissful field, through Groves of Myrrh,

               
And flowring Odours, Cassia, Nard, and Balm;

               
A Wilderness of sweets; for Nature here

   295     
Wantond as in her prime, and plaid at will

               
Her Virgin Fancies, pouring forth more sweet,

               
Wild above Rule or Art; enormous bliss.

               
Him through the spicie Forrest onward com

               
Adam
discernd, as in the dore he sat

   300     
Of his cool Bowr, while now the mounted Sun

               
Shot down direct his fervid Raies to warm

               
Earths inmost womb, more warmth then
Adam
needs;

               
And
Eve
within, due at her hour prepar’d

               
For dinner savourie fruits, of taste to please

   305     
True appetite, and not disrelish thirst

               
Of nectarous draughts between, from milkie stream,
²²

               
Berrie or Grape: to whom thus
Adam
call’d.

           
      
       Haste hither
Eve
, and worth thy sight behold

               
Eastward among those Trees, what glorious shape

   310     
Comes this way moving; seems another Morn

               
Ris’n on mid-noon; som great behest from Heav’n

               
To us perhaps he brings, and will voutsafe

               
This day to be our Guest. But goe with speed,

               
And what thy stores contain, bring forth and pour

   315     
Abundance, fit to honour and receive

               
Our Heav’nly stranger; well we may afford

               
Our givers thir own gifts, and large bestow

               
From large bestowd, where Nature multiplies

               
Her fertil growth, and by disburd’ning grows

   320     
More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare.

           
      
       To whom thus
Eve. Adam
, earths hallowd mould,

               
Of God inspir’d, small store will serve, where store,

               
All seasons, ripe for use hangs on the stalk;

               
Save what by frugal storing firmness gains

   325     
To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes:

               
But I will haste and from each bough and break,

               
Each Plant and juiciest Gourd will pluck such choice

               
To entertain our Angel guest, as hee

               
Beholding shall confess that here on Earth

   330     
God hath dispenst his bounties as in Heav’n.

           
      
       So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste

               
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent

               
What choice to chuse for delicacie best,

               
What order, so contriv’d as not to mix

   335     
Tastes, not well joynd, inelegant, but bring

               
Taste after taste upheld with kindliest
²³
change,

               
Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk

               
Whatever Earth all-bearing Mother yeilds

               
In
India
East or West,
²⁴
or middle shoar

   340     
In
Pontus
or the
Punic
Coast,
²⁵
or where

               
Alcinous
reign’d, fruit of all kinds, in coat,

               
Rough, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell

               
She gathers, Tribute large, and on the board

               
Heaps with unsparing hand; for drink the Grape

   345     
She crushes, inoffensive moust, and meaths
²⁶

               
From many a berrie, and from sweet kernels prest

               
She tempers dulcet creams, nor these to hold

               
Wants her fit vessels pure, then strews the ground

               
With Rose and Odours from the shrub unfum’d.
²⁷

   350     
Mean while our Primitive great Sire, to meet

               
His god-like Guest, walks forth, without more train

               
Accompani’d then with his own compleat

               
Perfections, in himself was all his state,

               
More solemn then the tedious pomp that waits

   355     
On Princes, when thir rich Retinue long

               
Of Horses led, and Grooms besmeard with Gold

               
Dazles the crowd, and sets them all agape.

               
Neerer his presence
Adam
though not awd,

               
Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek,

   360     
As to a superior Nature, bowing low,

               
Thus said. Native of Heav’n, for other place

               
None can then Heav’n such glorious shape contain;

               
Since by descending from the Thrones above,

               
Those happie places thou hast deign’d a while

   365     
To want, and honour these, voutsafe with us

               
Two onely, who yet by sov’ran gift possess

               
This spacious ground, in yonder shadie Bowr

               
To rest, and what the Garden choicest bears

               
To sit and taste, till this meridian heat

   370     
Be over, and the Sun more cool decline.

           
      
       Whom thus th’ Angelic Vertue answerd mild.

               
Adam
, I therefore came, nor art thou such

               
Created, or such place hast here to dwell,

               
As may not oft invite, though Spirits of Heav’n

   375     
To visit thee; lead on then where thy Bowr

               
Oreshades; for these mid-hours, till Eevning rise

               
I have at will. So to the Silvan Lodge

               
They came, that like
Pomona’s
²⁸
Arbour smil’d

               
With flowrets deck’t and fragrant smells; but
Eve

   380     
Undeckt, save with her self more lovely fair

               
Then Wood-Nymph, or the fairest Goddess feign’d

               
Of three
²⁹
that in Mount
Ida
naked strove,

               
Stood t’ entertain her guest from Heav’n; no vail

               
Shee needed, Vertue-proof, no thought infirm

   385     
Alterd her cheek. On whom the Angel
Hail

               
Bestowd, the holy salutation us’d

               
Long after to blest
Marie
, second
Eve.

           
      
       Hail Mother of Mankind, whose fruitful Womb

               
Shall fill the World more numerous with thy Sons

   390     
Then with these various fruits the Trees of God

               
Have heap’d this Table. Rais’d of grassie terf

               
Thir Table was, and mossie seats had round,

               
And on her ample Square from side to side

               
All
Autumn
pil’d, though
Spring
and
Autumn
here

   395     
Danc’d hand in hand. A while discourse they hold;

               
No fear lest Dinner cool; when thus began

               
Our Authour. Heav’nly stranger, please to taste

               
These bounties which our Nourisher, from whom

               
All perfet good unmeasur’d out, descends,

   400     
To us for food and for delight hath caus’d

               
The Earth to yeild; unsavourie food perhaps

               
To spiritual Natures; only this I know,

               
That one Celestial Father gives to all.

           
      
       To whom the Angel. Therefore what he gives

   405     
(Whose praise be ever sung) to man in part

               
Spiritual, may of purest Spirits be found

               
No ingrateful food: and food alike those pure

               
Intelligential substances require

               
As doth your Rational; and both contain

   410     
Within them every lower facultie

               
Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste,

               
Tasting concoct,
³⁰
digest, assimilate,

               
And corporeal to incorporeal turn.

               
For know, whatever was created, needs

   415     
To be sustaind and fed; of Elements

               
The grosser feeds the purer, Earth the Sea,

               
Earth and the Sea feed Air, the Air those Fires

               
Ethereal, and as lowest first the Moon;

               
Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurg’d

   420     
Vapours not yet into her substance turnd.
³¹

               
Nor doth the Moon no nourishment exhale

               
From her moist Continent to higher Orbs.

               
The Sun that light imparts to all, receives

               
From all his alimental recompence

   425     
In humid exhalations, and at Ev’n

               
Sups with the Ocean: though in Heav’n the Trees

               
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines

               
Yeild Nectar, though from off the boughs each Morn

               
We brush mellifluous Dews, and find the ground