While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases And broken chariot wheels: so thick bestrewn, Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He called so loud, that all the hollow deep Of hell resounded :-'Princes, Potentates, Warriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal spirits; or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the Conqueror? who now beholds Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon His swift pursuers from heaven-gates discern The advantage, and descending, tread us down Thus drooping, or with linkèd thunderbolts Transfix us to the botton of this gulf.— Awake! arise! or be for ever fallen!'
HAIL, holy Light, offspring of heaven first born!
Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam,
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream, Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun, Before the heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Thee I revisit now with bolder wing,
Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained
In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight Through utter and through middle darkness borne, With other notes than to the Orphéan lyre,
I sung of Chaos and eternal Night;
Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to re-ascend Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe, And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs, Or dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more Cease I to wander where the muses haunt Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath, That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget Those other two equalled with me in fate, So were I equalled with them in renown, Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides, And Tiresias, and Phineas, prophets old: Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid, Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair,
Presented with a universal blank
Of nature's works to me expunged and rased, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial Light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.
THE ADORATION OF THE ANGELS.
O sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all The multitude of angels, with a shout,
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy, heaven rung With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled
The eternal regions. Lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground With solemn adoration down they cast
Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold; Immortal amarant, a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To heaven removed where first it grew, there grows,
And flowers aloft shading the fount of life,
And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream.
With these that never fade the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams. Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone, Impurpled with celestial roses smiled.
Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took, Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet Of charming symphony they introduce Their sacred song, and waken raptures high: No voice exempt, no voice but well could join Melodious part, such concord is in heaven.
Paradise Lost, Book III.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ADAM AND EVE.
'WO of far nobler shape, erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native honour clad, In naked majesty seemed lords of all, And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine The image of their glorious Maker shone, Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure (Severe, but in true filial freedom placed), Whence true authority in men; though both Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed; For contemplation he and valour formed; For softness she, and sweet attractive grace; He for God only, she for God in him: His fair large front and eye sublime declared Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks Round from his parted forelock manly hung Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad: She, as a veil down to the slender waist, Her unadorned golden tresses wore Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved, As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied Subjection, but required with gentle sway, And by her yielded, by him best received, Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay.
« AnteriorContinuar » |