:PARADISE LOST

: by John Milton



:  PARADISE LOST

:  BOOK I.


    Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
  Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
  Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
  With loss of EDEN, till one greater Man
  Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
  Sing Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
  Of OREB, or of SINAI, didst inspire
  That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
  In the Beginning how the Heavens and Earth
  Rose out of CHAOS: Or if SION Hill
  Delight thee more, and SILOA'S Brook that flowed
  Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
  Invoke thy aid to my adventurous Song,
  That with no middle flight intends to soar
  Above the AONIAN Mount, while it pursues
  Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme.
  And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
  Before all Temples the' upright heart and pure,
  Instruct me, for Thou knows; Thou from the first
  Was present, and with mighty wings outspread
  Dove-like sat brooding on the vast Abyss
  And made it pregnant: What in me is dark
  Illumine, what is low raise and support;
  That to the height of this great Argument
  I may assert the Eternal Providence,
  And justify the ways of God to men.

    Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view
  Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
  Moved our Grand Parents in that happy State,
  Favored of Heav'n so highly, to fall off
  From their Creator, and transgress his Will
  For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
  Who first seduced them to that fowl revolt?
  The infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
  Stirred up with Envy and Revenge, deceived
  The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
  Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host
  Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
  To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
  He trusted to have equaled the most High,
  If he opposed; and with ambitious aim
  Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
  Raised impious War in Heav'n and Battle proud
  With vain attempt.  Him the Almighty Power
  Hurled headlong flaming from the Ethereal Sky
  With hideous ruin and combustion down
  To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
  In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
  Who durst defy the Omnipotent to Arms.
  Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night
  To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
  Lay vanquished, rowling in the fiery Gulf
  Confounded though immortal: But his doom
  Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought
  Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
  Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
  That witnessed huge affliction and dismay
  Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate:
  At once as far as Angels ken he views
  The dismal Situation waste and wild,
  A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
  As one great Furnace flamed, yet from those flames
  No light, but rather darkness visible
  Served only to discover sights of woe,
  Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
  And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
  That comes to all; but torture without end
  Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
  With ever-burning Sulphur unconsumed:
  Such place Eternal Justice had prepared
  For those rebellious, here their Prison ordained
  In utter darkness, and their portion set
  As far removed from God and light of Heav'n
  As from the Center thrice to the utmost Pole.
  O how unlike the place from whence they fell!
  There the companions of his fall, overwhelmed
  With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
  He soon discerns, and weltering by his side
  One next himself in power, and next in crime,
  Long after known in PALESTINE, and named
  BEELZEBUB.  To whom the Arch-Enemy,
  And thence in Heav'n called Satan, with bold words
  Breaking the horrid silence thus began.

    If thou beast he; But O how fallen! how changed
  From him, who in the happy Realms of Light
  Clothed with transcendent brightness didst outshine
  Myriads though bright: If he whom mutual league,
  United thoughts and counsels, equal hope,
  And hazard in the Glorious Enterprise,
  Joined with me once, now misery hath joined
  In equal ruin: into what Pit thou sees
  From what height fallen, so much the stronger provd
  He with his Thunder: and till then who knew
  The force of those dire Arms? yet not for those
  Nor what the Potent Victor in his rage
  Can else inflict do I repent or change,
  Though changed in outward luster; that fixed mind
  And high disdain, from sense of injured merit,
  That with the mightiest raised me to contend,
  And to the fierce contention brought along
  Innumerable force of Spirits armed
  That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,
  His utmost power with adverse power opposed
  In dubious Battle on the Plains of Heav'n,
  And shook his throne.  What though the field be lost?
  All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
  And study of revenge, immortal hate,
  And courage never to submit or yield:
  And what is else not to be overcome?
  That Glory never shall his wrath or might
  Extort from me.  To bow and sue for grace
  With suppliant knee, and deify his power
  Who from the terror of this Arm so late
  Doubted his Empire, that were low indeed,
  That were an ignominy and shame beneath
  This downfall; since by Fate the strength of Gods
  And this Empyreal substance cannot fail,
  Since through experience of this great event
  In Arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,
  We may with more successful hope resolve
  To wage by force or guile eternal War
  Irreconcilable, to our grand Foe,
  Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy
  Sole reigning holds the Tyranny of Heav'n.