Paradise Lost: Book 02 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBBCDEBBFBFBGHBFIB JKLBMNOPCBCQHBRBSBBT UVWBCBXBYZA2B2C2BBND 2PE2F2G2TH2I2NBJ2K2L 2M2N2O2P2Q2BHBGR2BRS 2BQYBO2L2BT2L2U2V2W2 BX2AWY2BZ2FA3LB3BU2B 2C3BBD3GE3O2F3NG3H3B KBXH2I3CJ3B3BXR2WBTK 3BBLBQL2J3BJ2L3F2WBB BB2O2G3L3V2CBM3N3BO2 KBH2O3BBTYDJ2P3RHBL2 HM2KBTQ3E2R3BYS3UT3B U3BA2FNYV3BBBBO2HBGL 3C3C2CBBBDW3X3Z2BY3C 3BBZ3H3BO2A4B4ZFC3RB C4C3U2D4BBBY3LWE4F4D G4X3BBBBVLXWS2GHYGC3 BBGBBGQBH4BI4GJ4DBK4 BBTBBK3BC3L4V3M4TBBB GV3GK3J4FN4O4BFGFBGP 4BZFFBBGD4BBBQ4FBBGF BBR4FGJFFGBFBO2BIZ2B BS4BD2FBJ4XGQ2B4BFBG BBGBBM2BGXFT4BBU4V4U 4U4U4U4W4GTBU4WU4QBU 4FV4BU4BGR2BBU4U4FBD 4GU4BBBU4BBU4T4FX4Y4 BU4BU4BBZBZ4TJ4BBBBB ZU4GTBGBBU4BBWBU4U4B BGN4FGS3BBU4U4QA3FBV U4U4T3BFBBBTU4U4BBBF BBBBU4Z2U4BBGBT4U4U4 BGJ3U4C4U4V4BU4BU4BU 4D4BBU4T3BD4D4U4QD4B U4TU4BFFD4BU4D4U4FU4 U4U4QGGBGU4BBWHBU4D4 WBBU4BT3BBBFD4D4D4D4 BBZ2U4BU4BU4U4BR2BFJ 2D4U4U4U4FBU4BU4U4BG GBBZ3U4U4FBGBBZ4U4O2 BU4U4BFU4BBN2U4R2U4B U4U4U4BGFFQU4BU4T3BU 4U4WBR2BGU4GBR2GBBBB D3R2D4BU4U4GBU4U4FR2 FD4BBQBFBBBBBBFR2U4T U4D4FBD4FU4U4FBFFFGB U4U4BGR2BBBBGBU4FU4F BO2GQBS3U4D3BD4FBFBD 4UBU4B4BBZ3BU4D4T3BF FD4BD4GBBWFD4BBBBBBF FFBWBBU4BO2BQFHD4R2U 4BD4FU4BTFU4D4BBU4GB BT3BBD4FBBU4FGU4T3FB FR2U4BBGGU4Z3O2D4FBB O2HBU4BFU4BT3BBBBFFB BTGFBGBWU4BBP3FBBFFB BFTFD3FU4BD4P4FBU4U4 GU4T3BBP4BBBBTD4GBBB BU4BU4WU4O2U4H4U4GU4 TGU4O4GBBFU4BUBGU4U4 D4U4FU4S2Q4U4U4U4U4G U4BD4BD4U4BN2U4N2BBG TU4BBGU4GU4G4U4FBBU4 BD4U4BU4U4U4T3TBTBVU 4U4WT4U4U4BU4TGBB3BB BBFBR2BU4U4GBU4QBFQG BFT3GBGBBBU4BBBD4QFF TTU4O2D4U4U4FBU4GO2F U4BU4FGBBBBBFGFB3U4| High on a throne of royal state which far | A |
| Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind | B |
| Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand | B |
| Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold | B |
| Satan exalted sat by merit raised | B |
| To that bad eminence and from despair | C |
| Thus high uplifted beyond hope aspires | D |
| Beyond thus high insatiate to pursue | E |
| Vain war with Heaven and by success untaught | B |
| His proud imaginations thus displayed | B |
| Powers and Dominions Deities of Heaven | F |
| For since no deep within her gulf can hold | B |
| Immortal vigour though oppressed and fallen | F |
| I give not Heaven for lost from this descent | B |
| Celestial Virtues rising will appear | G |
| More glorious and more dread than from no fall | H |
| And trust themselves to fear no second fate | B |
| Me though just right and the fixed laws of Heaven | F |
| Did first create your leader next free choice | I |
| With what besides in council or in fight | B |
| Hath been achieved of merit yet this loss | J |
| Thus far at least recovered hath much more | K |
| Established in a safe unenvied throne | L |
| Yielded with full consent The happier state | B |
| In Heaven which follows dignity might draw | M |
| Envy from each inferior but who here | N |
| Will envy whom the highest place exposes | O |
| Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim | P |
| Your bulwark and condemns to greatest share | C |
| Of endless pain Where there is then no good | B |
| For which to strive no strife can grow up there | C |
| From faction for none sure will claim in Hell | Q |
| Precedence none whose portion is so small | H |
| Of present pain that with ambitious mind | B |
| Will covet more With this advantage then | R |
| To union and firm faith and firm accord | B |
| More than can be in Heaven we now return | S |
| To claim our just inheritance of old | B |
| Surer to prosper than prosperity | B |
| Could have assured us and by what best way | T |
| Whether of open war or covert guile | U |
| We now debate Who can advise may speak | V |
| He ceased and next him Moloch sceptred king | W |
| Stood up the strongest and the fiercest Spirit | B |
| That fought in Heaven now fiercer by despair | C |
| His trust was with th' Eternal to be deemed | B |
| Equal in strength and rather than be less | X |
| Cared not to be at all with that care lost | B |
| Went all his fear of God or Hell or worse | Y |
| He recked not and these words thereafter spake | Z |
| My sentence is for open war Of wiles | A2 |
| More unexpert I boast not them let those | B2 |
| Contrive who need or when they need not now | C2 |
| For while they sit contriving shall the rest | B |
| Millions that stand in arms and longing wait | B |
| The signal to ascend sit lingering here | N |
| Heaven's fugitives and for their dwelling place | D2 |
| Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame | P |
| The prison of his ryranny who reigns | E2 |
| By our delay No let us rather choose | F2 |
| Armed with Hell flames and fury all at once | G2 |
| O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way | T |
| Turning our tortures into horrid arms | H2 |
| Against the Torturer when to meet the noise | I2 |
| Of his almighty engine he shall hear | N |
| Infernal thunder and for lightning see | B |
| Black fire and horror shot with equal rage | J2 |
| Among his Angels and his throne itself | K2 |
| Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire | L2 |
| His own invented torments But perhaps | M2 |
| The way seems difficult and steep to scale | N2 |
| With upright wing against a higher foe | O2 |
| Let such bethink them if the sleepy drench | P2 |
| Of that forgetful lake benumb not still | Q2 |
| That in our porper motion we ascend | B |
| Up to our native seat descent and fall | H |
| To us is adverse Who but felt of late | B |
| When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear | G |
| Insulting and pursued us through the Deep | R2 |
| With what compulsion and laborious flight | B |
| We sunk thus low Th' ascent is easy then | R |
| Th' event is feared Should we again provoke | S2 |
| Our stronger some worse way his wrath may find | B |
| To our destruction if there be in Hell | Q |
| Fear to be worse destroyed What can be worse | Y |
| Than to dwell here driven out from bliss condemned | B |
| In this abhorred deep to utter woe | O2 |
| Where pain of unextinguishable fire | L2 |
| Must exercise us without hope of end | B |
| The vassals of his anger when the scourge | T2 |
| Inexorably and the torturing hour | L2 |
| Calls us to penance More destroyed than thus | U2 |
| We should be quite abolished and expire | V2 |
| What fear we then what doubt we to incense | W2 |
| His utmost ire which to the height enraged | B |
| Will either quite consume us and reduce | X2 |
| To nothing this essential happier far | A |
| Than miserable to have eternal being | W |
| Or if our substance be indeed divine | Y2 |
| And cannot cease to be we are at worst | B |
| On this side nothing and by proof we feel | Z2 |
| Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven | F |
| And with perpetual inroads to alarm | A3 |
| Though inaccessible his fatal throne | L |
| Which if not victory is yet revenge | B3 |
| He ended frowning and his look denounced | B |
| Desperate revenge and battle dangerous | U2 |
| To less than gods On th' other side up rose | B2 |
| Belial in act more graceful and humane | C3 |
| A fairer person lost not Heaven he seemed | B |
| For dignity composed and high exploit | B |
| But all was false and hollow though his tongue | D3 |
| Dropped manna and could make the worse appear | G |
| The better reason to perplex and dash | E3 |
| Maturest counsels for his thoughts were low | O2 |
| To vice industrious but to nobler deeds | F3 |
| Timorous and slothful Yet he pleased the ear | N |
| And with persuasive accent thus began | G3 |
| I should be much for open war O Peers | H3 |
| As not behind in hate if what was urged | B |
| Main reason to persuade immediate war | K |
| Did not dissuade me most and seem to cast | B |
| Ominous conjecture on the whole success | X |
| When he who most excels in fact of arms | H2 |
| In what he counsels and in what excels | I3 |
| Mistrustful grounds his courage on despair | C |
| And utter dissolution as the scope | J3 |
| Of all his aim after some dire revenge | B3 |
| First what revenge The towers of Heaven are filled | B |
| With armed watch that render all access | X |
| Impregnable oft on the bodering Deep | R2 |
| Encamp their legions or with obscure wing | W |
| Scout far and wide into the realm of Night | B |
| Scorning surprise Or could we break our way | T |
| By force and at our heels all Hell should rise | K3 |
| With blackest insurrection to confound | B |
| Heaven's purest light yet our great Enemy | B |
| All incorruptible would on his throne | L |
| Sit unpolluted and th' ethereal mould | B |
| Incapable of stain would soon expel | Q |
| Her mischief and purge off the baser fire | L2 |
| Victorious Thus repulsed our final hope | J3 |
| Is flat despair we must exasperate | B |
| Th' Almighty Victor to spend all his rage | J2 |
| And that must end us that must be our cure | L3 |
| To be no more Sad cure for who would lose | F2 |
| Though full of pain this intellectual being | W |
| Those thoughts that wander through eternity | B |
| To perish rather swallowed up and lost | B |
| In the wide womb of uncreated Night | B |
| Devoid of sense and motion And who knows | B2 |
| Let this be good whether our angry Foe | O2 |
| Can give it or will ever How he can | G3 |
| Is doubtful that he never will is sure | L3 |
| Will he so wise let loose at once his ire | V2 |
| Belike through impotence or unaware | C |
| To give his enemies their wish and end | B |
| Them in his anger whom his anger saves | M3 |
| To punish endless 'Wherefore cease we then ' | N3 |
| Say they who counsel war 'we are decreed | B |
| Reserved and destined to eternal woe | O2 |
| Whatever doing what can we suffer more | K |
| What can we suffer worse ' Is this then worst | B |
| Thus sitting thus consulting thus in arms | H2 |
| What when we fled amain pursued and struck | O3 |
| With Heaven's afflicting thunder and besought | B |
| The Deep to shelter us This Hell then seemed | B |
| A refuge from those wounds Or when we lay | T |
| Chained on the burning lake That sure was worse | Y |
| What if the breath that kindled those grim fires | D |
| Awaked should blow them into sevenfold rage | J2 |
| And plunge us in the flames or from above | P3 |
| Should intermitted vengeance arm again | R |
| His red right hand to plague us What if all | H |
| Her stores were opened and this firmament | B |
| Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire | L2 |
| Impendent horrors threatening hideous fall | H |
| One day upon our heads while we perhaps | M2 |
| Designing or exhorting glorious war | K |
| Caught in a fiery tempest shall be hurled | B |
| Each on his rock transfixed the sport and prey | T |
| Or racking whirlwinds or for ever sunk | Q3 |
| Under yon boiling ocean wrapt in chains | E2 |
| There to converse with everlasting groans | R3 |
| Unrespited unpitied unreprieved | B |
| Ages of hopeless end This would be worse | Y |
| War therefore open or concealed alike | S3 |
| My voice dissuades for what can force or guile | U |
| With him or who deceive his mind whose eye | T3 |
| Views all things at one view He from Heaven's height | B |
| All these our motions vain sees and derides | U3 |
| Not more almighty to resist our might | B |
| Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles | A2 |
| Shall we then live thus vile the race of Heaven | F |
| Thus trampled thus expelled to suffer here | N |
| Chains and these torments Better these than worse | Y |
| By my advice since fate inevitable | V3 |
| Subdues us and omnipotent decree | B |
| The Victor's will To suffer as to do | B |
| Our strength is equal nor the law unjust | B |
| That so ordains This was at first resolved | B |
| If we were wise against so great a foe | O2 |
| Contending and so doubtful what might fall | H |
| I laugh when those who at the spear are bold | B |
| And venturous if that fail them shrink and fear | G |
| What yet they know must follow to endure | L3 |
| Exile or igominy or bonds or pain | C3 |
| The sentence of their Conqueror This is now | C2 |
| Our doom which if we can sustain and bear | C |
| Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit | B |
| His anger and perhaps thus far removed | B |
| Not mind us not offending satisfied | B |
| With what is punished whence these raging fires | D |
| Will slacken if his breath stir not their flames | W3 |
| Our purer essence then will overcome | X3 |
| Their noxious vapour or inured not feel | Z2 |
| Or changed at length and to the place conformed | B |
| In temper and in nature will receive | Y3 |
| Familiar the fierce heat and void of pain | C3 |
| This horror will grow mild this darkness light | B |
| Besides what hope the never ending flight | B |
| Of future days may bring what chance what change | Z3 |
| Worth waiting since our present lot appears | H3 |
| For happy though but ill for ill not worst | B |
| If we procure not to ourselves more woe | O2 |
| Thus Belial with words clothed in reason's garb | A4 |
| Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth | B4 |
| Not peace and after him thus Mammon spake | Z |
| Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven | F |
| We war if war be best or to regain | C3 |
| Our own right lost Him to unthrone we then | R |
| May hope when everlasting Fate shall yield | B |
| To fickle Chance and Chaos judge the strife | C4 |
| The former vain to hope argues as vain | C3 |
| The latter for what place can be for us | U2 |
| Within Heaven's bound unless Heaven's Lord supreme | D4 |
| We overpower Suppose he should relent | B |
| And publish grace to all on promise made | B |
| Of new subjection with what eyes could we | B |
| Stand in his presence humble and receive | Y3 |
| Strict laws imposed to celebrate his throne | L |
| With warbled hyms and to his Godhead sing | W |
| Forced hallelujahs while he lordly sits | E4 |
| Our envied sovereign and his altar breathes | F4 |
| Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers | D |
| Our servile offerings This must be our task | G4 |
| In Heaven this our delight How wearisome | X3 |
| Eternity so spent in worship paid | B |
| To whom we hate Let us not then pursue | B |
| By force impossible by leave obtained | B |
| Unacceptable though in Heaven our state | B |
| Of splendid vassalage but rather seek | V |
| Our own good from ourselves and from our own | L |
| Live to ourselves though in this vast recess | X |
| Free and to none accountable preferring | W |
| Hard liberty before the easy yoke | S2 |
| Of servile pomp Our greatness will appear | G |
| Then most conspicuous when great things of small | H |
| Useful of hurtful prosperous of adverse | Y |
| We can create and in what place soe'er | G |
| Thrive under evil and work ease out of pain | C3 |
| Through labour and endurance This deep world | B |
| Of darkness do we dread How oft amidst | B |
| Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all ruling Sire | G |
| Choose to reside his glory unobscured | B |
| And with the majesty of darkness round | B |
| Covers his throne from whence deep thunders roar | G |
| Mustering their rage and Heaven resembles Hell | Q |
| As he our darkness cannot we his light | B |
| Imitate when we please This desert soil | H4 |
| Wants not her hidden lustre gems and gold | B |
| Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise | I4 |
| Magnificence and what can Heaven show more | G |
| Our torments also may in length of time | J4 |
| Become our elements these piercing fires | D |
| As soft as now severe our temper changed | B |
| Into their temper which must needs remove | K4 |
| The sensible of pain All things invite | B |
| To peaceful counsels and the settled state | B |
| Of order how in safety best we may | T |
| Compose our present evils with regard | B |
| Of what we are and where dismissing quite | B |
| All thoughts of war Ye have what I advise | K3 |
| He scarce had finished when such murmur filled | B |
| Th' assembly as when hollow rocks retain | C3 |
| The sound of blustering winds which all night long | L4 |
| Had roused the sea now with hoarse cadence lull | V3 |
| Seafaring men o'erwatched whose bark by chance | M4 |
| Or pinnace anchors in a craggy bay | T |
| After the tempest Such applause was heard | B |
| As Mammon ended and his sentence pleased | B |
| Advising peace for such another field | B |
| They dreaded worse than Hell so much the fear | G |
| Of thunder and the sword of Michael | V3 |
| Wrought still within them and no less desire | G |
| To found this nether empire which might rise | K3 |
| By policy and long process of time | J4 |
| In emulation opposite to Heaven | F |
| Which when Beelzebub perceived than whom | N4 |
| Satan except none higher sat with grave | O4 |
| Aspect he rose and in his rising seemed | B |
| A pillar of state Deep on his front engraven | F |
| Deliberation sat and public care | G |
| And princely counsel in his face yet shone | F |
| Majestic though in ruin Sage he stood | B |
| With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear | G |
| The weight of mightiest monarchies his look | P4 |
| Drew audience and attention still as night | B |
| Or summer's noontide air while thus he spake | Z |
| Thrones and Imperial Powers Offspring of Heaven | F |
| Ethereal Virtues or these titles now | F |
| Must we renounce and changing style be called | B |
| Princes of Hell for so the popular vote | B |
| Inclines here to continue and build up here | G |
| A growing empire doubtless while we dream | D4 |
| And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed | B |
| This place our dungeon not our safe retreat | B |
| Beyond his potent arm to live exempt | B |
| From Heaven's high jurisdiction in new league | Q4 |
| Banded against his throne but to remain | F |
| In strictest bondage though thus far removed | B |
| Under th' inevitable curb reserved | B |
| His captive multitude For he to be sure | G |
| In height or depth still first and last will reign | F |
| Sole king and of his kingdom lose no part | B |
| By our revolt but over Hell extend | B |
| His empire and with iron sceptre rule | R4 |
| Us here as with his golden those in Heaven | F |
| What sit we then projecting peace and war | G |
| War hath determined us and foiled with loss | J |
| Irreparable terms of peace yet none | F |
| Vouchsafed or sought for what peace will be given | F |
| To us enslaved but custody severe | G |
| And stripes and arbitrary punishment | B |
| Inflicted and what peace can we return | F |
| But to our power hostility and hate | B |
| Untamed reluctance and revenge though slow | O2 |
| Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least | B |
| May reap his conquest and may least rejoice | I |
| In doing what we most in suffering feel | Z2 |
| Nor will occasion want nor shall we need | B |
| With dangerous expedition to invade | B |
| Heaven whose high walls fear no assault or siege | S4 |
| Or ambush from the Deep What if we find | B |
| Some easier enterprise There is a place | D2 |
| If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven | F |
| Err not another World the happy seat | B |
| Of some new race called Man about this time | J4 |
| To be created like to us though less | X |
| In power and excellence but favoured more | G |
| Of him who rules above so was his will | Q2 |
| Pronounced among the Gods and by an oath | B4 |
| That shook Heaven's whole circumference confirmed | B |
| Thither let us bend all our thoughts to learn | F |
| What creatures there inhabit of what mould | B |
| Or substance how endued and what their power | G |
| And where their weakness how attempted best | B |
| By force of subtlety Though Heaven be shut | B |
| And Heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure | G |
| In his own strength this place may lie exposed | B |
| The utmost border of his kingdom left | B |
| To their defence who hold it here perhaps | M2 |
| Some advantageous act may be achieved | B |
| By sudden onset either with Hell fire | G |
| To waste his whole creation or possess | X |
| All as our own and drive as we were driven | F |
| The puny habitants or if not drive | T4 |
| Seduce them to our party that their God | B |
| May prove their foe and with repenting hand | B |
| Abolish his own works This would surpass | U4 |
| Common revenge and interrupt his joy | V4 |
| In our confusion and our joy upraise | U4 |
| In his disturbance when his darling sons | U4 |
| Hurled headlong to partake with us shall curse | U4 |
| Their frail original and faded bliss | U4 |
| Faded so soon Advise if this be worth | W4 |
| Attempting or to sit in darkness here | G |
| Hatching vain empires Thus beelzebub | T |
| Pleaded his devilish counsel first devised | B |
| By Satan and in part proposed for whence | U4 |
| But from the author of all ill could spring | W |
| So deep a malice to confound the race | U4 |
| Of mankind in one root and Earth with Hell | Q |
| To mingle and involve done all to spite | B |
| The great Creator But their spite still serves | U4 |
| His glory to augment The bold design | F |
| Pleased highly those infernal States and joy | V4 |
| Sparkled in all their eyes with full assent | B |
| They vote whereat his speech he thus renews | U4 |
| Well have ye judged well ended long debate | B |
| Synod of Gods and like to what ye are | G |
| Great things resolved which from the lowest deep | R2 |
| Will once more lift us up in spite of fate | B |
| Nearer our ancient seat perhaps in view | B |
| Of those bright confines whence with neighbouring arms | U4 |
| And opportune excursion we may chance | U4 |
| Re enter Heaven or else in some mild zone | F |
| Dwell not unvisited of Heaven's fair light | B |
| Secure and at the brightening orient beam | D4 |
| Purge off this gloom the soft delicious air | G |
| To heal the scar of these corrosive fires | U4 |
| Shall breathe her balm But first whom shall we send | B |
| In search of this new World whom shall we find | B |
| Sufficient who shall tempt with wandering feet | B |
| The dark unbottomed infinite Abyss | U4 |
| And through the palpable obscure find out | B |
| His uncouth way or spread his airy flight | B |
| Upborne with indefatigable wings | U4 |
| Over the vast abrupt ere he arrive | T4 |
| The happy Isle What strength what art can then | F |
| Suffice or what evasion bear him safe | X4 |
| Through the strict senteries and stations thick | Y4 |
| Of Angels watching round Here he had need | B |
| All circumspection and we now no less | U4 |
| Choice in our suffrage for on whom we send | B |
| The weight of all and our last hope relies | U4 |
| This said he sat and expectation held | B |
| His look suspense awaiting who appeared | B |
| To second or oppose or undertake | Z |
| The perilous attempt But all sat mute | B |
| Pondering the danger with deep thoughts and each | Z4 |
| In other's countenance read his own dismay | T |
| Astonished None among the choice and prime | J4 |
| Of those Heaven warring champions could be found | B |
| So hardy as to proffer or accept | B |
| Alone the dreadful voyage till at last | B |
| Satan whom now transcendent glory raised | B |
| Above his fellows with monarchal pride | B |
| Conscious of highest worth unmoved thus spake | Z |
| O Progeny of Heaven Empyreal Thrones | U4 |
| With reason hath deep silence and demur | G |
| Seized us though undismayed Long is the way | T |
| And hard that out of Hell leads up to light | B |
| Our prison strong this huge convex of fire | G |
| Outrageous to devour immures us round | B |
| Ninefold and gates of burning adamant | B |
| Barred over us prohibit all egress | U4 |
| These passed if any pass the void profound | B |
| Of unessential Night receives him next | B |
| Wide gaping and with utter loss of being | W |
| Threatens him plunged in that abortive gulf | |
| If thence he scape into whatever world | B |
| Or unknown region what remains him less | U4 |
| Than unknown dangers and as hard escape | |
| But I should ill become this throne O Peers | U4 |
| And this imperial sovereignty adorned | B |
| With splendour armed with power if aught proposed | B |
| And judged of public moment in the shape | |
| Of difficulty or danger could deter | G |
| Me from attempting Wherefore do I assume | N4 |
| These royalties and not refuse to reign | F |
| Refusing to accept as great a share | G |
| Of hazard as of honour due alike | S3 |
| To him who reigns and so much to him due | B |
| Of hazard more as he above the rest | B |
| High honoured sits Go therefore mighty Powers | U4 |
| Terror of Heaven though fallen intend at home | |
| While here shall be our home what best may ease | U4 |
| The present misery and render Hell | Q |
| More tolerable if there be cure or charm | A3 |
| To respite or deceive or slack the pain | F |
| Of this ill mansion intermit no watch | |
| Against a wakeful foe while I abroad | B |
| Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek | V |
| Deliverance for us all This enterprise | U4 |
| None shall partake with me Thus saying rose | U4 |
| The Monarch and prevented all reply | T3 |
| Prudent lest from his resolution raised | B |
| Others among the chief might offer now | F |
| Certain to be refused what erst they feared | B |
| And so refused might in opinion stand | B |
| His rivals winning cheap the high repute | B |
| Which he through hazard huge must earn But they | T |
| Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice | U4 |
| Forbidding and at once with him they rose | U4 |
| Their rising all at once was as the sound | B |
| Of thunder heard remote Towards him they bend | B |
| With awful reverence prone and as a God | B |
| Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven | F |
| Nor failed they to express how much they praised | B |
| That for the general safety he despised | B |
| His own for neither do the Spirits damned | B |
| Lose all their virtue lest bad men should boast | B |
| Their specious deeds on earth which glory excites | U4 |
| Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal | Z2 |
| Thus they their doubtful consultations dark | |
| Ended rejoicing in their matchless Chief | |
| As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds | U4 |
| Ascending while the north wind sleeps o'erspread | B |
| Heaven's cheerful face the louring element | B |
| Scowls o'er the darkened landscape snow or shower | G |
| If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet | B |
| Extend his evening beam the fields revive | T4 |
| The birds their notes renew and bleating herds | U4 |
| Attest their joy that hill and valley rings | U4 |
| O shame to men Devil with devil damned | B |
| Firm concord holds men only disagree | G |
| Of creatures rational though under hope | J3 |
| Of heavenly grace and God proclaiming peace | U4 |
| Yet live in hatred enmity and strife | C4 |
| Among themselves and levy cruel wars | U4 |
| Wasting the earth each other to destroy | V4 |
| As if which might induce us to accord | B |
| Man had not hellish foes enow besides | U4 |
| That day and night for his destruction wait | B |
| The Stygian council thus dissolved and forth | |
| In order came the grand infernal Peers | U4 |
| Midst came their mighty Paramount and seemed | B |
| Alone th' antagonist of Heaven nor less | U4 |
| Than Hell's dread Emperor with pomp supreme | D4 |
| And god like imitated state him round | B |
| A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed | B |
| With bright emblazonry and horrent arms | U4 |
| Then of their session ended they bid cry | T3 |
| With trumpet's regal sound the great result | B |
| Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim | D4 |
| Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy | D4 |
| By herald's voice explained the hollow Abyss | U4 |
| Heard far adn wide and all the host of Hell | Q |
| With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim | D4 |
| Thence more at ease their minds and somewhat raised | B |
| By false presumptuous hope the ranged Powers | U4 |
| Disband and wandering each his several way | T |
| Pursues as inclination or sad choice | U4 |
| Leads him perplexed where he may likeliest find | B |
| Truce to his restless thoughts and entertain | F |
| The irksome hours till his great Chief return | F |
| Part on the plain or in the air sublime | D4 |
| Upon the wing or in swift race contend | B |
| As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields | U4 |
| Part curb their fiery steeds or shun the goal | |
| With rapid wheels or fronted brigades form | D4 |
| As when to warn proud cities war appears | U4 |
| Waged in the troubled sky and armies rush | |
| To battle in the clouds before each van | F |
| Prick forth the airy knights and couch their spears | U4 |
| Till thickest legions close with feats of arms | U4 |
| From either end of heaven the welkin burns | U4 |
| Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell | Q |
| Rend up both rocks and hills and ride the air | G |
| In whirlwind Hell scarce holds the wild uproar | G |
| As when Alcides from Oechalia crowned | B |
| With conquest felt th' envenomed robe and tore | G |
| Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines | U4 |
| And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw | B |
| Into th' Euboic sea Others more mild | B |
| Retreated in a silent valley sing | W |
| With notes angelical to many a harp | |
| Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall | H |
| By doom of battle and complain that Fate | B |
| Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance | U4 |
| Their song was partial but the harmony | D4 |
| What could it less when Spirits immortal sing | W |
| Suspended Hell and took with ravishment | B |
| The thronging audience In discourse more sweet | B |
| For Eloquence the Soul Song charms the Sense | U4 |
| Others apart sat on a hill retired | B |
| In thoughts more elevate and reasoned high | T3 |
| Of Providence Foreknowledge Will and Fate | B |
| Fixed fate free will foreknowledge absolute | B |
| And found no end in wandering mazes lost | B |
| Of good and evil much they argued then | F |
| Of happiness and final misery | D4 |
| Passion and apathy and glory and shame | D4 |
| Vain wisdom all and false philosophy | D4 |
| Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm | D4 |
| Pain for a while or anguish and excite | B |
| Fallacious hope or arm th' obdured breast | B |
| With stubborn patience as with triple steel | Z2 |
| Another part in squadrons and gross bands | U4 |
| On bold adventure to discover wide | B |
| That dismal world if any clime perhaps | U4 |
| Might yield them easier habitation bend | B |
| Four ways their flying march along the banks | U4 |
| Of four infernal rivers that disgorge | |
| Into the burning lake their baleful streams | U4 |
| Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate | B |
| Sad Acheron of sorrow black and deep | R2 |
| Cocytus named of lamentation loud | B |
| Heard on the rueful stream fierce Phlegeton | F |
| Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage | J2 |
| Far off from these a slow and silent stream | D4 |
| Lethe the river of oblivion rolls | U4 |
| Her watery labyrinth whereof who drinks | U4 |
| Forthwith his former state and being forgets | U4 |
| Forgets both joy and grief pleasure and pain | F |
| Beyond this flood a frozen continent | B |
| Lies dark and wild beat with perpetual storms | U4 |
| Of whirlwind and dire hail which on firm land | B |
| Thaws not but gathers heap and ruin seems | U4 |
| Of ancient pile all else deep snow and ice | U4 |
| A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog | |
| Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old | B |
| Where armies whole have sunk the parching air | G |
| Burns frore and cold performs th' effect of fire | G |
| Thither by harpy footed Furies haled | B |
| At certain revolutions all the damned | B |
| Are brought and feel by turns the bitter change | Z3 |
| Of fierce extremes extremes by change more fierce | U4 |
| From beds of raging fire to starve in ice | U4 |
| Their soft ethereal warmth and there to pine | F |
| Immovable infixed and frozen round | B |
| Periods of time thence hurried back to fire | G |
| They ferry over this Lethean sound | B |
| Both to and fro their sorrow to augment | B |
| And wish and struggle as they pass to reach | Z4 |
| The tempting stream with one small drop to lose | U4 |
| In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe | O2 |
| All in one moment and so near the brink | |
| But Fate withstands and to oppose th' attempt | B |
| Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards | U4 |
| The ford and of itself the water flies | U4 |
| All taste of living wight as once it fled | B |
| The lip of Tantalus Thus roving on | F |
| In confused march forlorn th' adventurous bands | U4 |
| With shuddering horror pale and eyes aghast | B |
| Viewed first their lamentable lot and found | B |
| No rest Through many a dark and dreary vale | N2 |
| They passed and many a region dolorous | U4 |
| O'er many a frozen many a fiery alp | R2 |
| Rocks caves lakes fens bogs dens and shades of death | |
| A universe of death which God by curse | U4 |
| Created evil for evil only good | B |
| Where all life dies death lives and Nature breeds | U4 |
| Perverse all monstrous all prodigious things | U4 |
| Obominable inutterable and worse | U4 |
| Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived | B |
| Gorgons and Hydras and Chimeras dire | G |
| Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man | F |
| Satan with thoughts inflamed of highest design | F |
| Puts on swift wings and toward the gates of Hell | Q |
| Explores his solitary flight sometimes | U4 |
| He scours the right hand coast sometimes the left | B |
| Now shaves with level wing the deep then soars | U4 |
| Up to the fiery concave towering high | T3 |
| As when far off at sea a fleet descried | B |
| Hangs in the clouds by equinoctial winds | U4 |
| Close sailing from Bengala or the isles | U4 |
| Of Ternate and Tidore whence merchants bring | W |
| Their spicy drugs they on the trading flood | B |
| Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape | R2 |
| Ply stemming nightly toward the pole so seemed | B |
| Far off the flying Fiend At last appear | G |
| Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof | |
| And thrice threefold the gates three folds were brass | U4 |
| Three iron three of adamantine rock | |
| Impenetrable impaled with circling fire | G |
| Yet unconsumed Before the gates there sat | B |
| On either side a formidable Shape | R2 |
| The one seemed woman to the waist and fair | G |
| But ended foul in many a scaly fold | B |
| Voluminous and vast a serpent armed | B |
| With mortal sting About her middle round | B |
| A cry of Hell hounds never ceasing barked | B |
| With wide Cerberean mouths full loud and rung | D3 |
| A hideous peal yet when they list would creep | R2 |
| If aught disturbed their noise into her womb | D4 |
| And kennel there yet there still barked and howled | B |
| Within unseen Far less abhorred than these | U4 |
| Vexed Scylla bathing in the sea that parts | U4 |
| Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore | G |
| Nor uglier follow the night hag when called | B |
| In secret riding through the air she comes | U4 |
| Lured with the smell of infant blood to dance | U4 |
| With Lapland witches while the labouring moon | F |
| Eclipses at their charms The other Shape | R2 |
| If shape it might be called that shape had none | F |
| Distinguishable in member joint or limb | D4 |
| Or substance might be called that shadow seemed | B |
| For each seemed either black it stood as Night | B |
| Fierce as ten Furies terrible as Hell | Q |
| And shook a dreadful dart what seemed his head | B |
| The likeness of a kingly crown had on | F |
| Satan was now at hand and from his seat | B |
| The monster moving onward came as fast | B |
| With horrid strides Hell trembled as he strode | B |
| Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admired | B |
| Admired not feared God and his Son except | B |
| Created thing naught valued he nor shunned | B |
| And with disdainful look thus first began | F |
| Whence and what art thou execrable Shape | R2 |
| That dar'st though grim and terrible advance | U4 |
| Thy miscreated front athwart my way | T |
| To yonder gates Through them I mean to pass | U4 |
| That be assured without leave asked of thee | D4 |
| Retire or taste thy folly and learn by proof | |
| Hell born not to contend with Spirits of Heaven | F |
| To whom the Goblin full of wrath replied | B |
| Art thou that traitor Angel art thou he | D4 |
| Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith till then | F |
| Unbroken and in proud rebellious arms | U4 |
| Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons | U4 |
| Conjured against the Highest for which both thou | F |
| And they outcast from God are here condemned | B |
| To waste eternal days in woe and pain | F |
| And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven | F |
| Hell doomed and breath'st defiance here and scorn | F |
| Where I reign king and to enrage thee more | G |
| Thy king and lord Back to thy punishment | B |
| False fugitive and to thy speed add wings | U4 |
| Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue | U4 |
| Thy lingering or with one stroke of this dart | B |
| Strange horror seize thee and pangs unfelt before | G |
| So spake the grisly Terror and in shape | R2 |
| So speaking and so threatening grew tenfold | B |
| More dreadful and deform On th' other side | B |
| Incensed with indignation Satan stood | B |
| Unterrified and like a comet burned | B |
| That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge | |
| In th' arctic sky and from his horrid hair | G |
| Shakes pestilence and war Each at the head | B |
| Levelled his deadly aim their fatal hands | U4 |
| No second stroke intend and such a frown | F |
| Each cast at th' other as when two black clouds | U4 |
| With heaven's artillery fraught came rattling on | F |
| Over the Caspian then stand front to front | B |
| Hovering a space till winds the signal blow | O2 |
| To join their dark encounter in mid air | G |
| So frowned the mighty combatants that Hell | Q |
| Grew darker at their frown so matched they stood | B |
| For never but once more was wither like | S3 |
| To meet so great a foe And now great deeds | U4 |
| Had been achieved whereof all Hell had rung | D3 |
| Had not the snaky Sorceress that sat | B |
| Fast by Hell gate and kept the fatal key | D4 |
| Risen and with hideous outcry rushed between | F |
| O father what intends thy hand she cried | B |
| Against thy only son What fury O son | F |
| Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart | B |
| Against thy father's head And know'st for whom | D4 |
| For him who sits above and laughs the while | U |
| At thee ordained his drudge to execute | B |
| Whate'er his wrath which he calls justice bids | U4 |
| His wrath which one day will destroy ye both | B4 |
| She spake and at her words the hellish Pest | B |
| Forbore then these to her Satan returned | B |
| So strange thy outcry and thy words so strange | Z3 |
| Thou interposest that my sudden hand | B |
| Prevented spares to tell thee yet by deeds | U4 |
| What it intends till first I know of thee | D4 |
| What thing thou art thus double formed and why | T3 |
| In this infernal vale first met thou call'st | B |
| Me father and that phantasm call'st my son | F |
| I know thee not nor ever saw till now | F |
| Sight more detestable than him and thee | D4 |
| T' whom thus the Portress of Hell gate replied | B |
| Hast thou forgot me then and do I seem | D4 |
| Now in thine eye so foul once deemed so fair | G |
| In Heaven when at th' assembly and in sight | B |
| Of all the Seraphim with thee combined | B |
| In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King | W |
| All on a sudden miserable pain | F |
| Surprised thee dim thine eyes and dizzy swum | D4 |
| In darkness while thy head flames thick and fast | B |
| Threw forth till on the left side opening wide | B |
| Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright | B |
| Then shining heavenly fair a goddess armed | B |
| Out of thy head I sprung Amazement seized | B |
| All th' host of Heaven back they recoiled afraid | B |
| At first and called me Sin and for a sign | F |
| Portentous held me but familiar grown | F |
| I pleased and with attractive graces won | F |
| The most averse thee chiefly who full oft | B |
| Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing | W |
| Becam'st enamoured and such joy thou took'st | B |
| With me in secret that my womb conceived | B |
| A growing burden Meanwhile war arose | U4 |
| And fields were fought in Heaven wherein remained | B |
| For what could else to our Almighty Foe | O2 |
| Clear victory to our part loss and rout | B |
| Through all the Empyrean Down they fell | Q |
| Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven down | F |
| Into this Deep and in the general fall | H |
| I also at which time this powerful key | D4 |
| Into my hands was given with charge to keep | R2 |
| These gates for ever shut which none can pass | U4 |
| Without my opening Pensive here I sat | B |
| Alone but long I sat not till my womb | D4 |
| Pregnant by thee and now excessive grown | F |
| Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes | U4 |
| At last this odious offspring whom thou seest | B |
| Thine own begotten breaking violent way | T |
| Tore through my entrails that with fear and pain | F |
| Distorted all my nether shape thus grew | U4 |
| Transformed but he my inbred enemy | D4 |
| Forth issued brandishing his fatal dart | B |
| Made to destroy I fled and cried out Death | |
| Hell trembled at the hideous name and sighed | B |
| From all her caves and back resounded Death | |
| I fled but he pursued though more it seems | U4 |
| Inflamed with lust than rage and swifter far | G |
| Me overtook his mother all dismayed | B |
| And in embraces forcible and foul | |
| Engendering with me of that rape begot | B |
| These yelling monsters that with ceaseless cry | T3 |
| Surround me as thou saw'st hourly conceived | B |
| And hourly born with sorrow infinite | B |
| To me for when they list into the womb | D4 |
| That bred them they return and howl and gnaw | F |
| My bowels their repast then bursting forth | |
| Afresh with conscious terrors vex me round | B |
| That rest or intermission none I find | B |
| Before mine eyes in opposition sits | U4 |
| Grim Death my son and foe who set them on | F |
| And me his parent would full soon devour | G |
| For want of other prey but that he knows | U4 |
| His end with mine involved and knows that I | T3 |
| Should prove a bitter morsel and his bane | F |
| Whenever that shall be so Fate pronounced | B |
| But thou O father I forewarn thee shun | F |
| His deadly arrow neither vainly hope | R2 |
| To be invulnerable in those bright arms | U4 |
| Through tempered heavenly for that mortal dint | B |
| Save he who reigns above none can resist | B |
| She finished and the subtle Fiend his lore | G |
| Soon learned now milder and thus answered smooth | |
| Dear daughter since thou claim'st me for thy sire | G |
| And my fair son here show'st me the dear pledge | |
| Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven and joys | U4 |
| Then sweet now sad to mention through dire change | Z3 |
| Befallen us unforeseen unthought of know | O2 |
| I come no enemy but to set free | D4 |
| From out this dark and dismal house of pain | F |
| Both him and thee and all the heavenly host | B |
| Of Spirits that in our just pretences armed | B |
| Fell with us from on high From them I go | O2 |
| This uncouth errand sole and one for all | H |
| Myself expose with lonely steps to tread | B |
| Th' unfounded Deep and through the void immense | U4 |
| To search with wandering quest a place foretold | B |
| Should be and by concurring signs ere now | F |
| Created vast and round a place of bliss | U4 |
| In the purlieus of Heaven and therein placed | B |
| A race of upstart creatures to supply | T3 |
| Perhaps our vacant room though more removed | B |
| Lest Heaven surcharged with potent multitude | B |
| Might hap to move new broils Be this or aught | B |
| Than this more secret now designed I haste | B |
| To know and this once known shall soon return | F |
| And bring ye to the place where thou and Death | |
| Shall dwell at ease and up and down unseen | F |
| Wing silently the buxom air embalmed | B |
| With odours There ye shall be fed and filled | B |
| Immeasurably all things shall be your prey | T |
| He ceased for both seemed highly pleased and Death | |
| Grinned horrible a ghastly smile to hear | G |
| His famine should be filled and blessed his maw | F |
| Destined to that good hour No less rejoiced | B |
| His mother bad and thus bespake her sire | G |
| The key of this infernal Pit by due | B |
| And by command of Heaven's all powerful King | W |
| I keep by him forbidden to unlock | |
| These adamantine gates against all force | U4 |
| Death ready stands to interpose his dart | B |
| Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might | B |
| But what owe I to his commands above | P3 |
| Who hates me and hath hither thrust me down | F |
| Into this gloom of Tartarus profound | B |
| To sit in hateful office here confined | B |
| Inhabitant of Heaven and heavenly born | F |
| Here in perpetual agony and pain | F |
| With terrors and with clamours compassed round | B |
| Of mine own brood that on my bowels feed | B |
| Thou art my father thou my author thou | F |
| My being gav'st me whom should I obey | T |
| But thee whom follow Thou wilt bring me soon | F |
| To that new world of light and bliss among | D3 |
| The gods who live at ease where I shall reign | F |
| At thy right hand voluptuous as beseems | U4 |
| Thy daughter and thy darling without end | B |
| Thus saying from her side the fatal key | D4 |
| Sad instrument of all our woe she took | P4 |
| And towards the gate rolling her bestial train | F |
| Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew | B |
| Which but herself not all the Stygian Powers | U4 |
| Could once have moved then in the key hole turns | U4 |
| Th' intricate wards and every bolt and bar | G |
| Of massy iron or solid rock with ease | U4 |
| Unfastens On a sudden open fly | T3 |
| With impetuous recoil and jarring sound | B |
| Th' infernal doors and on their hinges grate | B |
| Harsh thunder that the lowest bottom shook | P4 |
| Of Erebus She opened but to shut | B |
| Excelled her power the gates wide open stood | B |
| That with extended wings a bannered host | B |
| Under spread ensigns marching mibht pass through | B |
| With horse and chariots ranked in loose array | T |
| So wide they stood and like a furnace mouth | |
| Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame | D4 |
| Before their eyes in sudden view appear | G |
| The secrets of the hoary Deep a dark | |
| Illimitable ocean without bound | B |
| Without dimension where length breadth and height | B |
| And time and place are lost where eldest Night | B |
| And Chaos ancestors of Nature hold | B |
| Eternal anarchy amidst the noise | U4 |
| Of endless wars and by confusion stand | B |
| For Hot Cold Moist and Dry four champions fierce | U4 |
| Strive here for mastery and to battle bring | W |
| Their embryon atoms they around the flag | |
| Of each his faction in their several clans | U4 |
| Light armed or heavy sharp smooth swift or slow | O2 |
| Swarm populous unnumbered as the sands | U4 |
| Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil | H4 |
| Levied to side with warring winds and poise | U4 |
| Their lighter wings To whom these most adhere | G |
| He rules a moment Chaos umpire sits | U4 |
| And by decision more embroils the fray | T |
| By which he reigns next him high arbiter | G |
| Chance governs all Into this wild Abyss | U4 |
| The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave | O4 |
| Of neither sea nor shore nor air nor fire | G |
| But all these in their pregnant causes mixed | B |
| Confusedly and which thus must ever fight | B |
| Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain | F |
| His dark materials to create more worlds | U4 |
| Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend | B |
| Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while | U |
| Pondering his voyage for no narrow frith | |
| He had to cross Nor was his ear less pealed | B |
| With noises loud and ruinous to compare | G |
| Great things with small than when Bellona storms | U4 |
| With all her battering engines bent to rase | U4 |
| Some capital city or less than if this frame | D4 |
| Of Heaven were falling and these elements | U4 |
| In mutiny had from her axle torn | F |
| The steadfast Earth At last his sail broad vans | U4 |
| He spread for flight and in the surging smoke | S2 |
| Uplifted spurns the ground thence many a league | Q4 |
| As in a cloudy chair ascending rides | U4 |
| Audacious but that seat soon failing meets | U4 |
| A vast vacuity All unawares | U4 |
| Fluttering his pennons vain plumb down he drops | U4 |
| Ten thousand fathom deep and to this hour | G |
| Down had been falling had not by ill chance | U4 |
| The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud | B |
| Instinct with fire and nitre hurried him | D4 |
| As many miles aloft That fury stayed | B |
| Quenched in a boggy Syrtis neither sea | D4 |
| Nor good dry land nigh foundered on he fares | U4 |
| Treading the crude consistence half on foot | B |
| Half flying behoves him now both oar and sail | N2 |
| As when a gryphon through the wilderness | U4 |
| With winged course o'er hill or moory dale | N2 |
| Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealth | |
| Had from his wakeful custody purloined | B |
| The guarded gold so eagerly the Fiend | B |
| O'er bog or steep through strait rough dense or rare | G |
| With head hands wings or feet pursues his way | T |
| And swims or sinks or wades or creeps or flies | U4 |
| At length a universal hubbub wild | B |
| Of stunning sounds and voices all confused | B |
| Borne through the hollow dark assaults his ear | G |
| With loudest vehemence Thither he plies | U4 |
| Undaunted to meet there whatever Power | G |
| Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss | U4 |
| Might in that noise reside of whom to ask | G4 |
| Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies | U4 |
| Bordering on light when straight behold the throne | F |
| Of Chaos and his dark pavilion spread | B |
| Wide on the wasteful Deep With him enthroned | B |
| Sat sable vested Night eldest of things | U4 |
| The consort of his reign and by them stood | B |
| Orcus and Ades and the dreaded name | D4 |
| Of Demogorgon Rumour next and Chance | U4 |
| And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled | B |
| And Discord with a thousand various mouths | U4 |
| T' whom Satan turning boldly thus Ye Powers | U4 |
| And Spirtis of this nethermost Abyss | U4 |
| Chaos and ancient Night I come no spy | T3 |
| With purpose to explore or to disturb | T |
| The secrets of your realm but by constraint | B |
| Wandering this darksome desert as my way | T |
| Lies through your spacious empire up to light | B |
| Alone and without guide half lost I seek | V |
| What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds | U4 |
| Confine with Heaven or if some other place | U4 |
| From your dominion won th' Ethereal King | W |
| Possesses lately thither to arrive | T4 |
| I travel this profound Direct my course | U4 |
| Directed no mean recompense it brings | U4 |
| To your behoof if I that region lost | B |
| All usurpation thence expelled reduce | U4 |
| To her original darkness and your sway | T |
| Which is my present journey and once more | G |
| Erect the standard there of ancient Night | B |
| Yours be th' advantage all mine the revenge | B3 |
| Thus Satan and him thus the Anarch old | B |
| With faltering speech and visage incomposed | B |
| Answered I know thee stranger who thou art | B |
| That mighty leading Angel who of late | B |
| Made head against Heaven's King though overthrown | F |
| I saw and heard for such a numerous host | B |
| Fled not in silence through the frighted Deep | R2 |
| With ruin upon ruin rout on rout | B |
| Confusion worse confounded and Heaven gates | U4 |
| Poured out by millions her victorious bands | U4 |
| Pursuing I upon my frontiers here | G |
| Keep residence if all I can will serve | |
| That little which is left so to defend | B |
| Encroached on still through our intestine broils | U4 |
| Weakening the sceptre of old Night first Hell | Q |
| Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath | |
| Now lately Heaven and Earth another world | B |
| Hung o'er my realm linked in a golden chain | F |
| To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell | Q |
| If that way be your walk you have not far | G |
| So much the nearer danger Go and speed | B |
| Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain | F |
| He ceased and Satan stayed not to reply | T3 |
| But glad that now his sea should find a shore | G |
| With fresh alacrity and force renewed | B |
| Springs upward like a pyramid of fire | G |
| Into the wild expanse and through the shock | |
| Of fighting elements on all sides round | B |
| Environed wins his way harder beset | B |
| And more endangered than when Argo passed | B |
| Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks | U4 |
| Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned | B |
| Charybdis and by th' other whirlpool steered | B |
| So he with difficulty and labour hard | B |
| Moved on with difficulty and labour he | D4 |
| But he once passed soon after when Man fell | Q |
| Strange alteration Sin and Death amain | F |
| Following his track such was the will of Heaven | F |
| Paved after him a broad and beaten way | T |
| Over the dark Abyss whose boiling gulf | |
| Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length | |
| From Hell continued reaching th' utmost orb | T |
| Of this frail World by which the Spirits perverse | U4 |
| With easy intercourse pass to and fro | O2 |
| To tempt or punish mortals except whom | D4 |
| God and good Angels guard by special grace | U4 |
| But now at last the sacred influence | U4 |
| Of light appears and from the walls of Heaven | F |
| Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night | B |
| A glimmering dawn Here Nature first begins | U4 |
| Her farthest verge and Chaos to retire | G |
| As from her outmost works a broken foe | O2 |
| With tumult less and with less hostile din | F |
| That Satan with less toil and now with ease | U4 |
| Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light | B |
| And like a weather beaten vessel holds | U4 |
| Gladly the port though shrouds and tackle torn | F |
| Or in the emptier waste resembling air | G |
| Weighs his spread wings at leisure to behold | B |
| Far off th' empyreal Heaven extended wide | B |
| In circuit undetermined square or round | B |
| With opal towers and battlements adorned | B |
| Of living sapphire once his native seat | B |
| And fast by hanging in a golden chain | F |
| This pendent World in bigness as a star | G |
| Of smallest magnitude close by the moon | F |
| Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge | B3 |
| Accursed and in a cursed hour he hies | U4 |
John Milton
(1)
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