John Milton, The Complete English Poems

John Milton, The Complete English Poems, Ed. Gordon Campbell, Everyman’s Library, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1992.

That glorious form, that light unsufferable,

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

Wherewith he wont at heaven’s high council-table

To sit the midst of trinal unity,

He laid aside, and here with us to be,

Forsook the courts of everlasting day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

(On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity)

It was the winter wild,

While the heaven-born child

All meanly wrapped in the rude manger lies;

Nature, in awe to him,

Had doffed her gaudy trim,

With her great master so to sympathise;

It was no season them for her

To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.

(On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity)

While the creator great

His constellations set,

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung,

And cast the dark foundations deep,

(On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity)

For, if such holy song

Enwrap our fancy long,

Time will run back and fetch the age of gold;

And speckle vanity

Will sicken soon and die,

And leprous sin will melt form earthly mould,

And hell itself will pass away,

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

…

But wisest fate says no,

This must not yet be so;

(On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity)

With such a horrid clang

As on Mount Sinai rang,

While the red fire and smouldering clouds out brake:

The aged earth, aghast,

With terror of that blast,

Shall from the surface of the centre shake,

When, at the world’s last session,

The dreadful judge in the middle air shall spread his throne.

(On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity)

The daintiest dishes shall be served up last.

(At a Vacation Exercise in the College, Part  Latin, Part English)

Befriend me, night, best patroness of grief,

(The Passion)

And merely mortal dross;

(On Time)

The pride of her carnation train,

Plucked up by some unheedy swain,

Who only thought to crop the flower

New shot up from vernal shower;

But the fair blossom hangs the head

Sideways as on a dying bed,

And those pearls of dew she wears

Prove to be presaging tears

Which the sad morn had let fall

On her hastening funeral.

(An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester)

Ease was his chief disease; and, to judge right,

He died for heaviness that his cart went light;

His leisure told him that his time was come,

And lack of load made his life burdensome,

That even to his last breath (there be that say’t)

As he were pressed to death, he cried, ‘More weight!’

(Another on the Same)

The frolic wind that breathes the spring,

(L’Allegro)

Mirth, admit of thy crew,

To live with her, and live with thee,

In unreproved pleasures free;

To hear the lark begin his flight,

And, singing, startle the dull night,

From his watch-tower in the skies,

Till the dappled dawn doth rise;

(L’Allegro)

While the cock, with lively din,

Scatters the rear of the darkness think;

And to the stack, or the barn-door,

Stoutly struts his dames before,

(L’Allegro)

And young and old come forth to play

On a sunshine holiday,

Till the livelong daylight fail,

Then to a spicy nut-brown ale,

With stories told of many a feat,

How Fairy Mab the junkets eat;

(L’Allegro)

Basks at the fire his hairy strength

(L’Allegro)

And ever, against eating cares,

Lap me in soft Lydian airs,

Married to immortal verse,

Such as the meeting soul may pierce,

In notes with many a winding bout

Of linked sweetness long drawn out

With wanton heed and giddy cunning

The melting voice through mazes running,

Untwisting all the chains that tie

The hidden soul of harmony.

That Orpheus’ self may heave his head

From golden slumber on a bed

Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear

Such strains as would have won the ear

Of Pluto to have quite set free

His half-regained Eurydice.

These delights if thou canst give,

Mirth, with thee I mean to live.

(L’Allegro; Lydian airs were thought to be morally enervating)

Come, pensive nun, devout and pure,

Sober, steadfast, and demure,

All in a robe of darkest grain,

Flowing with majestic train,

And sable stole of cypress lawn

Over the decent shoulders drawn.

Come, but keep thy wonted state,

With even step, and musing gait,

And looks commercing with the skies,

Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:

There, held in holy passion still,

Forget thyself to marble, till

With a sad leaden downward cast

Thou fix them on the earth as fast.

(Il Penseroso, nun: The primary meaning is that of a pagan priestess; grain = color; cypress lawn = black fine linen)

Far from all resort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,

Or the bellman’s drowsy charm

To bless the doors from nightly harm;

(Il Penseroso)

Hide me from day’s garish eye,

(Il Penseroso)

And may at last my weary age

Find out the peaceful hermitage,

The hairy gown and mossy cell,

Where I may sit and rightly spell

Of every star that heaven doth show,

And every herb that sips the dew,

Till old experience do attain

To something like prophetic strain.

These pleasures, Melancholy, give;

And I with thee will choose to live.

(Il Penseroso)

And all my plants I save from nightly ill

Of noisome winds and blasting vapours chill;

And from the boughs brush off the evil dew,

And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue,

Or what the cross dire-looking planet smites,

Or hurtful worm with cankered venom bites.

When evening grey doth rise, I fetch my round

Over the mount, and all this hallowed ground,

And early, ere the odorous breath of morn

Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about,

Number my ranks, and visit every sprout

With puissant words and murmurs made to bless;

But else, in deep of night, when drowsiness

Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen i

To the celestial sirens’ harmony,

(Arcades)

Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more

Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,

And with forced fingers rude

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear

Compels me to disturb your season due;

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,

(Lycidas)

The willows, and the hazel copses green,

Shall now no more be seen

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.

(Lycidas)

‘Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,

Nor in the glistening foil

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies,

But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes

And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;

As he pronounces lastly on each deed,

Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.’

(Lycidas; foil= the setting of a jewel)

Two massy keys he bore of metals twain

(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).

(Lycidas)

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,

But, swoll’n with wind and the rank mist they draw,

Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;

Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw

Daily devours apace, …

(Lycidas)

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,

For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor.

So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,

And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky;

(Lycidas)

...bright aerial spirits live ensphered

In region mild of clam and serene air,

Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot

Which men call earth…

(Comus)

Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles

That, like to rich and various gems, inlay

The unadorned bosom of the deep;

(Comus)

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape

Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine,

(Comus)

This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks,

With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth,

Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son

Much like his father, but his mother more,

Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named:

Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age,

Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields,

At last betakes him to this ominous wood,

And, in thick shelter of black shades embowered,

Excels his mother at her mighty art,

Offering to every weary traveler

His orient liquor in a crystal glass,

To quench the drought of Phoebus; which as they taste

(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),

Soon as the portion works, their human countenance,

The express resemblance of the gods, is changed

Into some brutish form of wolf or bear,

Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,

All other parts remaining as they were,

And they, so perfect in their misery,

Nor once perceive their foul disfigurement,

But boast themselves more comely than before,

And all their friends and native home forget,

To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.

(Comus)

…But I hear the tread

Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now.

(Comus)

Wha hath night to do with sleep?

(Comus)

…Thus I hurl

My dazzling spells into the spongy air,

Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion,

And give it false presentments, lest the place,

And my quaint habits breed astonishment,

And put the damsel to suspicious flight;

(Comus)

…I should be loath

To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence

Of such late wassailers; …

(Comus)

But where they are, and why they came not back,

Is now the labour of my tohughts; ’tis likeliest

They had engaged their wandering steps too far;

And envious darkness, ere they could return,

Had stole them from me: else, O thievest Night,

Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,

In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars

That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps

With everlasting oil to give due light

To the misled and lonely traveler?

(Comus)

These thoughts may startle well, but not astound

The virtuous mind, …

(Comus)

Sure something holy lodges in that breast,

And with these raptures moves the vocal air

To testify his hidden residence;

(Comus)

Shepherd, I take thy word,

And trust the honest-offered courtesy,

Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds,

With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls

And courts of princes, where it first was names,

And yet is most pretended: …

(Comus)

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,

His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,

Or do his grey hairs any violence?

(Comus)

The unpolluted temple of the mind,

(Comus)

But evil of itself shall back recoil,

And mix no more with goodness, when at last,

Gathered like scum, and settled to itself,

It shall be in eternal restless change

Self-fed and self-consumed. …

(Comus)

Brought to mind a certain shepherd lad

Of small regard…

(Comus)

Amongst the rest a small unsightly root,

But of divine effect, he culled me out;

The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,

But in another country, as he said,

Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:

Unknowns, and like esteemed, and the dull swain

Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon;

And yet more med’cinal is it than that moly

That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.

He called it haemony, and gave it me,

And bade me keep it as of sovereign use

’Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp,

Or ghastly Furies’ apparition;

(Comus)

Why should you be so cruel to yourself,

And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent

For gentle usage and soft delicacy?

But you invert the covenants of her trust,

And harshly deal, like an ill borrower,

With that which you received on other terms,

Scorning the unexempt condition

By which all mortal frailty must subsist,

Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,

(Comus)

Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth

With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,

Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks,

Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,

But all to please and sate the curious taste?

And set to work millions of spinning worms,

That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk,

To deck her sons; and, that no corner might

Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins

She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems,

To store her children with; if all the world

Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse,

Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,

The all-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised,

Not half his riches known, and yet despised;

And we should serve him as a grudging master,

As a penurious niggard of his wealth,

And live like Nature’s bastards, not her sons,

Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight,

And strangled with her waste fertility:

The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes,

The herds would over-multitude their lords,

The sea o’erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds

Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep,

And so bestud with stars, that they below

Would grow inured to light, and come at last

To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.

(Comus)

…for swinish gluttony

Ne’er looks to heaven amidst his gorgeous feast,

But with besotted base ingratitude

Crams, and blasphemies his feeder. Shall I go on?

Or have I said enough? To him that dares

Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words

Against the sun-clad power of chastity

Fain would I something say—yet to what end?

Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend

The sublime notions and high mystery

That must be uttered to unfold the sage

And serious doctrine of Virginity;

(Comus)

May thy lofty head be crowned

With many a tower and terrace round,

And here and there thy banks upon

With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.

(Comus)

There eternal summer dwells,

And west winds with musky wing

About the cedarn alleys fling

Nard and cassia’s balmy smells.

(Comus)

O nightingale that on yon bloomy spray

Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still,

Thou with fresh hope the lover’s heart dost fill,

While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.

Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day,

First heard before the shallow cuckoo’s bill,

Portend success in love. O, if Jove’s will

Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay,

Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate

Foretell my hopeless doom, in some grove nigh;

As thou from year to year hast sung too late

For my relief, yet hadst no reason why.

Whether the Muse or Love call thee his mate,

Both them I serve, and of their train am I.

(Sonnet I, Complete)

Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth

Wisely hast shunned the broad way and the green,

(Sonnet IX)

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide,

‘Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?’

I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, ‘god doth not need

Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve his best: his state

Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed,

And post o’er land and ocean without rest;

They also serve who only stand and wait.’

(Sonnet XIX, Comlete)

Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire,

Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire

Help waste a sullen day, …

(Sonnet XX)

Methought I saw my late espoused saint

…

Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint.

(Sonnet XXIII)

Of Man's 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 th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss,
And mad'st 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 Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

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,

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

"If thou beest 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 seest
From what height fallen: so much the stronger proved
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 lustre, that fixed mind,
And high disdain from sense of injured merit,
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,
And to the fierce contentions 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 Heaven,
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

Here swallowed up in endless misery.
But what if he our Conqueror (whom I now
Of force believe almighty, since no less
Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours)
Have left us this our spirit and strength entire,
Strongly to suffer and support our pains,
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Or do him mightier service as his thralls
By right of war, whate'er his business be,
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,
Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep?
What can it the avail though yet we feel
Strength undiminished, or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment?"

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

…If then his providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil;

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

…the sulphurous hail,
Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid
The fiery surge that from the precipice
Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder,
Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage,
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.
Let us not slip th' occasion, whether scorn
Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
The seat of desolation, void of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful?...

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,
Receive thy new possessor--one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called
His legions—Angel Forms, who lay entranced
Thick as autumnal leaves…

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

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…

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

…his form had yet not lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than Archangel ruined, and th' excess
Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams,…

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

…Mammon led them on—
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific; by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransacked the centre, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Opened into the hill a spacious wound,
And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane.

(Paradise Lost, Book I)

…insatiate to pursue

Vain war with heaven; and, by success untaught,

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

And with perpetual inroads to alarm,

Though inaccessible, his fatal throne:

(Paradise Lost, Book II; alarm = v)

Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire,

Belike through impotence or unaware,

To give his enemies their wish, and end

Them in his anger whom his anger saves

To punish endless?...

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason’s garb,

Counseled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth,

Not peace; …

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

…how wearisome

Eternity so spent in worship paid

To whom we hate. …

(Paradise Lost, Book II; Mammon)

…This deep world
Of darkness do we dread? How oft amidst
Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling Sire
Choose to reside, his glory unobscured,
And with the majesty of darkness round
Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar.
Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell!
As he our darkness, cannot we his light
Imitate when we please? This desert soil
Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;
Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise
Magnificence; and what can Heaven show more?
Our torments also may, in length of time,
Become our elements, these piercing fires
As soft as now severe,…

(Paradise Lost, Book II; Mammon)

…for so the popular vote
Inclines--here to continue, and build up here
A growing empire; doubtless! while we dream,
And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed
This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat
Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt
From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league
Banded against his throne, but to remain
In strictest bondage, though thus far removed,
Under th' inevitable curb, reserved
His captive multitude. For he, to be sure,
In height or depth, still first and last will reign
Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part
By our revolt, but over Hell extend
His empire, and with iron sceptre rule
Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven.

(Paradise Lost, Book II; Beelzebub)

…either with hell-fire

To waste his whole creation, or possess

All as our own, and drive, as we are driven,

The puny habitants; or if not drive,

Seduce them to our party, …

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

…Thus saying, rose
The Monarch, and prevented all reply;
Prudent lest, from his resolution raised,
Others among the chief might offer now,
Certain to be refused, what erst they feared,
And, so refused, might in opinion stand
His rivals, winning cheap the high repute
Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they
Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice
Forbidding; and at once with him they rose;

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

…And know’st for whom?

For him who sits above, and laughs the while

At thee, ordained his drudged to execute

Whate’er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids—

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright,
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed,
Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized
All th' host of Heaven; back they recoiled afraid
At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign
Portentous held me; but, familiar grown,
I pleased, and with attractive graces won
The most averse--thee chiefly, who, full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
Becam'st enamoured; and such joy thou took'st
With me in secret that my womb conceived
A growing burden…

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

And my fair son here show’st me, the dear pledge 

Of dalliance had with thee in heaven, …

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

…the place where thou and Death

Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen

Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed

With odours; there ye shall be fed and filled

Immeasurably: all things shall be your prey.

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

But what owe I to his commands above,

Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down

Into this gloom…

…

Thou art my father, thou my author, thou

My being gav’st me; whom should I pbey

But thee, whom follow? Thou wilt bring me soon

To that new world of light and bliss, among

The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign

At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems

Thy daughter and thy darling, with end.’

(Paradise Lost, Book II)

…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 quench'd their orbs,
Or dim suffusion veil'd. 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 hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget
So were I equall'd with them in renown,
Thy sovran command, that Man should find grace;
Blind Thamyris, and blind Maeonides,
And Tiresias, and Phineus, prophets old:
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid,

(Paradise Lost, Book III)

For man will…

…easily transgress the sole command,

Sole pledge of his obedience: so will fall

He and his faithless progeny: whose fault?

Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me

All he could have; I made him just and right,

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.

(Paradise Lost, Book III)

…to appease betimes

The incensed Deity, …

(Paradise Lost, Book III)

…on me let Death wreak all his rage.
Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquished. Thou hast given me to possess
Life in myself for ever; by thee I live;
Though now to Death I yield, and am his due,
All that of me can die, yet, that debt paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave
His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul
For ever with corruption there to dwell;

(Paradise Lost, Book III; Death is the surmountable rage of the Father, and a minor feature of the Father’s being)

Then, all thy saints assembled, thou shalt judge
Bad Men and Angels; they, arraigned, shall sink
Beneath thy sentence; Hell, her numbers full,
Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Mean while
The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell,
And, after all their tribulations long,
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and peace triumphing, and fair truth.
Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by,
For regal scepter then no more shall need;

(Paradise Lost, Book III)

Thus they in heaven, above the starry sphere,

Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.

Meanwhile, upon the firm opacous globe

Of this round world, …

Satan alighted walks; …

…a boundless continent,

Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night

Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms

Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky,

…

So, on this windy sea of land, the Fiend
Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey;
Alone, for other creature in this place,
Living or lifeless, to be found was none;
None yet,…

…

All who have their reward on earth, the fruits
Of painful superstition and blind zeal,
Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find
Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;
All the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand,
Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed,
Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,
Till final dissolution, wander here;
Not in the neighbouring moon as some have dreamed;

(Paradise Lost, Book III)

His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir
The Hell within him; for within him Hell
He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell
One step, no more than from himself, can fly
By change of place: Now conscience wakes despair,
That slumbered; wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
Of Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all?
Be then his love accursed, since love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues.

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

But say I could repent, and could obtain,
By act of grace, my former state; how soon
Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore? Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
For never can true reconcilement grow,
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep;

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

Satan had journeyed on, pensive and slow;
But further way found none, so thick entwined,
As one continued brake, the undergrowth
Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplexed
All path of man or beast that passed that way.
One gate there only was, and that looked east
On the other side: which when the arch-felon saw,
Due entrance he disdained; and, in contempt,
At one flight bound high over-leaped all bound
Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

…who…

Have nothing merited, nor can perform

Aught whereof he hath need; …

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

But let us ever praise him, and extol
His bounty, following our delightful task,
To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers,
Which were it toilsome, yet with thee were sweet.

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

While other animals unactive range,
And of their doings God takes no account.
To-morrow, ere fresh morning streak the east
With first approach of light, we must be risen,
And at our pleasant labour, to reform
Yon flowery arbours, yonder alleys green,
Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown,
That mock our scant manuring, and require
More hands than ours to lop their wanton growth:
Those blossoms also, and those dropping gums,
That lie bestrown, unsightly and unsmooth,
Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease;
Mean while, as Nature wills, night bids us rest.

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep:
All these with ceaseless praise his works behold
Both day and night: How often from the steep
Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard
Celestial voices to the midnight air,
Sole, or responsive each to others note,
Singing their great Creator; …

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source

Of human offspring, sole propriety

In Paradise of all things common else.

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

…to the bower direct

In search of whom they sought; him there they found

Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

So started up in his own shape the Fiend.
Back stept those two fair Angels, half amazed
So sudden to behold the grisly king;
Yet thus, unmoved with fear, accost him soon.
Which of those rebel Spirits adjudged to Hell
Comest thou, escaped thy prison? and, transformed,
Why sat'st thou like an enemy in wait,
Here watching at the head of these that sleep?
Know ye not then said Satan, filled with scorn,
Know ye not me? ye knew me once no mate
For you, there sitting where ye durst not soar:
Not to know me argues yourselves unknown,
The lowest of your throng; or, if ye know,
Why ask ye, and superfluous begin
Your message, like to end as much in vain?

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

And with them comes a third, of regal port,

But faded splendor wan, who by his gait

And fierce demeanour seems the prince of hell—

(Paradise Lost, Book IV)

I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;
To find thee I directed then my walk;
And on, methought, alone I passed through ways
That brought me on a sudden to the tree
Of interdicted knowledge: fair it seemed,
Much fairer to my fancy than by day:
And, as I wondering looked, beside it stood
One shaped and winged like one of those from Heaven
By us oft seen; his dewy locks distilled
Ambrosia; on that tree he also gazed;
And 'O fair plant,' said he, 'with fruit surcharged,
'Deigns none to ease thy load, and taste thy sweet,
'Nor God, nor Man? Is knowledge so despised?

(Paradise Lost, Book V)

Lest willfully transgressing he pretend

Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned.’

(Paradise Lost, Book V)

Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh,
And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm;
A wilderness of sweets; for Nature here
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will
Her virgin fancies pouring forth more sweet,
Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.

(Paradise Lost, Book V)

Son, thou in whom my glory I behold

In full resplendence, …

(Paradise Lost, Book V)

O Heaven! that such resemblance of the Highest
Should yet remain, where faith and realty
Remain not: Wherefore should not strength and might
There fail where virtue fails,…

(Paradise Lost, Book VI)

…who, while they feel

Vigour divine within them, can allow

Omnipotence to none. …

(Paradise Lost, Book VI)

So spake the Prince of Angels; to whom thus
The Adversary. Nor think thou with wind
Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds
Thou canst not. …

(Paradise Lost, Book VI)

The strife which thou callest evil, but we style
The strife of glory; which we mean to win,
Or turn this Heaven itself into the Hell
Thou fablest;…

(Paradise Lost, Book VI)

I might relate of thousands, and their names
Eternize here on earth; but those elect
Angels, contented with their fame in Heaven,
Seek not the praise of men: The other sort,
In might though wonderous and in acts of war,
Nor of renown less eager, yet by doom
Cancelled from Heaven and sacred memory,
Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell
For strength from truth divided, and from just,
Illaudable, nought merits but dispraise
And ignominy, yet to glory aspires
Vain-glorious, and through infamy seeks fame:
Therefore eternal silence be their doom.

(Paradise Lost, Book VI; ‘let them dwell’= central verb phrase; insert ‘in earthly memory’ before ‘let them dwell’, insert semicolon after ‘dwell’)

…Satan beheld their plight,
And to his mates thus in derision called.
O Friends! why come not on these victors proud
Ere while they fierce were coming; and when we,
To entertain them fair with open front
And breast, (what could we more?) propounded terms
Of composition, straight they changed their minds,
Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell,
As they would dance; yet for a dance they seemed
Somewhat extravagant and wild; perhaps
For joy of offered peace: But I suppose,
If our proposals once again were heard,
We should compel them to a quick result.

(Paradise Lost, Book VI; after blasting the angels with cannons)

Go then, Thou Mightiest, in thy Father's might;
Ascend my chariot, guide the rapid wheels
That shake Heaven's basis, bring forth all my war;

(Paradise Lost, Book VI)

Whom to obey, is happiness entire.

(Paradise Lost, Book VI)

Stand still in bright array, ye Saints; here stand,
Ye Angels armed; this day from battle rest:
Faithful hath been your warfare, and of God
Accepted, fearless in his righteous cause;
And as ye have received, so have ye done,
Invincibly: But of this cursed crew
The punishment to other hand belongs;
Vengeance is his, or whose he sole appoints:
Number to this day's work is not ordained,
Nor multitude; stand only, and behold
God's indignation on these godless poured
By me; not you, but me, they have despised,
Yet envied; against me is all their rage,
Because the Father, to whom in Heaven s'preme
Kingdom, and power, and glory appertains,
Hath honoured me, according to his will.
Therefore to me their doom he hath assigned;
That they may have their wish, to try with me
In battle which the stronger proves; they all,
Or I alone against them; since by strength
They measure all, of other excellence
Not emulous, nor care who them excels;
Nor other strife with them do I vouchsafe.

(Paradise Lost, Book VI)

Gently, for our instruction, to impart
Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned
Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemed,
Deign to descend now lower, and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known,
How first began this Heaven which we behold
Distant so high, with moving fires adorned
Innumerable; and this which yields or fills
All space, the ambient air wide interfused
Embracing round this floried Earth; what cause
Moved the Creator, in his holy rest
Through all eternity, so late to build
In Chaos; and the work begun, how soon
Absolved; if unforbid thou mayest unfold
What we, not to explore the secrets ask
Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify his works, the more we know.

(Paradise Lost, Book VII)

But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temperance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain;
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.

(Paradise Lost, Book VII)

Boundless the deep, because I am who fill

Infinitude; …

(Paradise Lost, Book VII)

The angel ended, and in Adam’s ear

So charming left his voice that he a while

Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear;

(Paradise Lost, Book VIII)

When I behold this goodly frame, this world

…

And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll

…

…merely to officiate light

Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot,

One day and night, in all their vast survey

Useless besides—reasoning, I oft admire

How nature, wise and frugal, could commit

Such disproportions…

(Paradise Lost, Book VIII)

Her husband the relater she preferred
Before the Angel, and of him to ask
Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix
Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute
With conjugal caresses:…

(Paradise Lost, Book VIII)

…the rest
From Man or Angel the great Architect
Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge
His secrets to be scanned by them who ought
Rather admire;…

(Paradise Lost, Book VIII)

As new waked from soundest sleep,
Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid,
In balmy sweat; which with his beams the sun
Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed.
Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes I turned,
And gazed a while the ample sky; till, raised
By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung,
As thitherward endeavouring, and upright
Stood on my feet: about me round I saw
Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,
And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these,
Creatures that lived and moved, and walked, or flew;
Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled;
With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed.
Myself I then perused, and limb by limb
Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran
With supple joints, as lively vigour led:
But who I was, or where, or from what cause,
Knew not; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake;
My tongue obeyed, and readily could name
Whate'er I saw. Thou Sun, said I, fair light,
And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay,
Ye Hills, and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plains,
And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell,
Tell, if ye saw, how I came thus, how here?--
Not of myself;--by some great Maker then,
In goodness and in power pre-eminent:
Tell me, how may I know him, how adore,
From whom I have that thus I move and live,
And feel that I am happier than I know.--
While thus I called, and strayed I knew not whither,
From where I first drew air, and first beheld
This happy light; when, answer none returned,
On a green shady bank, profuse of flowers,
Pensive I sat me down: There gentle sleep
First found me, and with soft oppression seised
My droused sense, untroubled, though I thought
I then was passing to my former state
Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:

(Paradise Lost, Book VIII)

But of the tree whose operation brings
Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set
The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,
Amid the garden by the tree of life,
Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,
And shun the bitter consequence: for know,
The day thou eatest thereof, my sole command
Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die,

(Paradise Lost, Book VIII)

What higher in her society thou find’st

Attractive, human, rational, love still:

In loving thou dost well; in passion not,

Wherein true love consists not; …

(Paradise Lost, Book VIII)

Revenge, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils:
Let it; I reck not, so it light well aimed,
Since higher I fall short, on him who next
Provokes my envy, this new favourite
Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite,
Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker raised
From dust: Spite then with spite is best repaid.

(Paradise Lost, Book IX; long & short syntactic alternation)

But, that thou shouldst my firmness therefore doubt
To God or thee, because we have a foe
May tempt it, I expected not to hear.

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

… only our foe,
Tempting, affronts us with his foul esteem
Of our integrity: his foul esteem
Sticks no dishonour on our front,…

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

…and toward Eve
Addressed his way: not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that towered
Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape
And lovely;…

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

With tract oblique
At first, as one who sought access, but feared
To interrupt, side-long he works his way.
As when a ship, by skilful steersmen wrought
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail:
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye; she, busied, heard the sound
Of rusling leaves, but minded not, as used
To such disport before her through the field,
From every beast; more duteous at her call,
Than at Circean call the herd disguised.
He, bolder now, uncalled before her stood,
But as in gaze admiring: oft he bowed
His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck,
Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she trod.
His gentle dumb expression turned at length
The eye of Eve to mark his play; he, glad
Of her attention gained, with serpent-tongue
Organick, or impulse of vocal air,
His fraudulent temptation thus began:

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

But say, where grows the tree? from hence how far?
For many are the trees of God that grow
In Paradise, and various, yet unknown
To us; in such abundance lies our choice,
As leaves a greater store of fruit untouched,
Still hanging incorruptible, till men
Grow up to their provision, and more hands
Help to disburden Nature of her birth.

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving Plant,
Mother of science! now I feel thy power
Within me clear; not only to discern
Things in their causes, but to trace the ways
Of highest agents, deemed however wise.
Queen of this universe! do not believe
Those rigid threats of death: ye shall not die:
How should you? by the fruit? it gives you life
To knowledge; by the threatener? look on me,
Me, who have touched and tasted; yet both live,
And life more perfect have attained than Fate
Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot.
Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast
Is open? or will God incense his ire
For such a petty trespass? and not praise
Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of death denounced, whatever thing death be,
Deterred not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

…He knows that in the day
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,
Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as Gods,
Knowing both good and evil, as they know.
That ye shall be as Gods, since I as Man,
Internal Man, is but proportion meet;
I, of brute, human; ye, of human, Gods.
So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off
Human, to put on Gods; death to be wished,
Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring.

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, so long delayed:
Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill,
Misgave him; he the faltering measure felt;
And forth to meet her went, the way she took
That morn when first they parted:…

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

There they their fill of love and love's disport
Took largely,…

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

…up they rose
As from unrest; and, each the other viewing,
Soon found their eyes how opened, and their minds
How darkened; innocence, that as a veil
Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gone;
Just confidence, and native righteousness,
And honour, from about them, naked left
To guilty Shame; he covered, but his robe
Uncovered more…

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

How shall I behold the face
Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy
And rapture so oft beheld? Those heavenly shapes
Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze
Insufferably bright. O might I here
In solitude live savage; in some glade
Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable
To star or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad
And brown as evening: Cover me, ye Pines;
Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs
Hide me, where I may never see them more.

(Paradise Lost, Book IX)

Attendance none shall need, nor train, where none
Are to behold the judgement, but the judged,
Those two;…

(Paradise Lost, Book X)

Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey
Before his voice? or was she made thy guide,
Superiour, or but equal, that to her
Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
And for thee, whose perfection far excelled
Hers in all real dignity? Adorned
She was indeed, and lovely, to attract
Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts
Were such, as under government well seemed;
Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part
And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.

(Paradise Lost, Book X)

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
Till thou return unto the ground; for thou
Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth,
For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.

(Paradise Lost, Book X)

…too late

I thus contest; then should have been refused

Those terms, whatever, when they were proposed;

Thou didst accept them: wilt thou enjoy the good,

Then cavil the conditions? …

(Paradise Lost, Book X)

…Why delays

His hand to execute what his decree

Fixed on this day? Why do I overlive,

Why am I mocked with death, …

(Paradise Lost, Book X)

Yet one doubt
Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die;
Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of Man
Which God inspired, cannot together perish
With this corporeal clod; then, in the grave,
Or in some other dismal place, who knows
But I shall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! Yet why?...

(Paradise Lost, Book X)

…But say
That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,
Bereaving sense, but endless misery
From this day onward; which I feel begun
Both in me, and without me;…

(Paradise Lost, Book X)

But rise;—let us no more contend, nor blame
Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; but strive
In offices of love, how we may lighten
Each other's burden, in our share of woe;
Since this day's death denounced, if aught I see,
Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced evil;
A long day's dying, to augment our pain;
And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived.

(Paradise Lost, Book X)

…rather such acts

Of contumacy will provoke the highest

To make death in us live; …

(Paradise Lost, Book X; on suicide)

So mayest thou live; till, like ripe fruit, thou drop
Into thy mother's lap; or be with ease
Gathered, nor harshly plucked; for death mature:
This is Old Age; but then, thou must outlive
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty; which will change
To withered, weak, and gray; thy senses then,
Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forego,
To what thou hast; and, for the air of youth,
Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign
A melancholy damp of cold and dry,

(Paradise Lost, Book XI)