Paradise Lost

by John Milton

rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous 5 age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre;

true musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity 15 of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory.

the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming.

Satan in the serpent; who revolting from 5 God, and drawing to his side many legions of angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his crew into the great deep.

The deep? As in hell, hades, the underworld? Or?

place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos:

Pandaemonium the palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the deep: the infernal Peers there sit in council.

what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the heighth of this great argument18 25 I may assert Eternal Providence,19 And justify the ways of God to men.

what cause21 Moved our grand parents in that happy state,22 30 Favoured of Heav’n so highly, to fall off23 From their Creator and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the world besides? Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?24 Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile25 35 Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived26 The mother of mankind,

All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate,50 And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome?51 110 That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me.

Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,78 The seat of desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames79 Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend80 From off the tossing of these fiery waves, 185 There rest, if any rest can harbour there,81 And reassembling our afflicted powers,82 Consult how we may henceforth most offend83 Our Enemy, our own loss how repair, How overcome this dire calamity, 190 What reinforcement we may gain from hope, If not what resolution from despair.

Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom102 245 For that celestial light? Be it so, since he Who now is sov’reign can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best

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 itself103 255 Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

The sojourners of Goshen,

black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.

And Elealè to th’ Asphaltic pool.

For Spirits when they please Can either sex assume, or both; so soft 425 And uncompounded is their essence pure;164 Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,165 430 Can execute their airy purposes, And works of love or enmity fulfil.

Smoke Hades

the love-tale171 Infected Sion’s daughters with like heat, Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 455 Ezekiel saw, when by the vision led His eye surveyed the dark idolatries Of alienated Judah.

After these appeared A crew who under names of old renown, Osiris, Isis, Orus and their train180 With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused181

Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd188 Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love Vice for itself: to him no temple stood Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he In temples and at altars, when the priest 495 Turns atheist, as did Eli’s sons, who filled189 With lust and violence the house of God. In courts and palaces he also reigns And in luxurious cities, where the noise190 Of riot ascends above their loftiest tow’rs,191 500 And injury and outrage: and when night192, 193 Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.194

yet such wherein appeared207 Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their chief 525 Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost208 In loss itself;

Ten thousand banners rise into the air With orient colours waving: with them rose218 A forest huge of spears: and thronging helms Appeared, and serried shields in thick array219 Of depth immeasurable: anon they move 550 In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood220, 221 Of flutes and soft recorders;

Thus they 560 Breathing united force with fixèd thought223 Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed Their painful steps o’er the burnt soil;

Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell263 680 From Heav’n, for ev’n in Heav’n his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of Heav’n’s pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed In vision beatific: by him first264 685 Men also, and by his suggestion taught,265 Ransacked the centre, and with impious hands266, 267 Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth For treasures better hid.

Pandaemonium, the high capital293, 294 Of Satan and his peers:

third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or 5 tradition in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature equal or not much inferior to themselves, about this time to be created: their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search: Satan their chief undertakes alone the voyage, is honoured and applauded.

Powers and Dominions, deities of Heaven,6

let us rather choose Armed with Hell flames and fury all at once O’er Heav’n’s high tow’rs to force resistless way, Turning our tortures into horrid arms16 Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise 65 Of his almighty engine he shall hear17 Infernal thunder, and for lightning see Black fire and horror shot with equal rage

Belial, in act more graceful and humane:34 110 A fairer person lost not Heav’n; he seemed35 For dignity composed and high explóit: But all was false and hollow; though his tongue Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear The better reason, to perplex and dash36 115 Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were low; To vice industrious,

Upborne with indefatigable wings Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive116 410 The happy isle;

long is the way123 And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light;

(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense,)

Four ways their flying march, along the banks 575 Of four infernal rivers that disgorge179 Into the burning lake their baleful streams; Abhorrèd Styx the flood of deadly hate, Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 580 Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Far off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethe the river of oblivion rolls Her wat’ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks, 585 Forthwith his former state and being forgets, Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.

riding through the air she comes Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance 665 With Lapland witches,

Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof,217, 218 Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heav’n.

False fugitive,

the snaky sorceress that sat 725 Fast by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key,

last

then in the key-hole turns Th’ intricate wards, and every bolt and bar248 Of massy iron or solid rock with ease Unfastens: on a sudden open fly 880 With impetuous recoil and jarring sound Th’ infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus. She opened, but to shut249 Excelled her power; the gates wide open stood, 885 That with extended wings a bannered host250 Under spread ensigns marching might pass through

Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, The consort of his reign; and by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name283 965 Of Demogorgon; Rumour next and Chance,284 And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled, And Discord with a thousand various mouths.

The keeps of the Underworld, where souls await the aftermath of the next global trauma. After a great dying they are reanimated by the goddesses

first Hell Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath; Now lately heav’n and earth, another world295 1005 Hung o’er my realm, linked in a golden chain296 To that side Heav’n from whence your legions fell:

pyramid of fire299

Isn’t that a Sor Juana image?

10 God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards man without the satisfaction of divine justice; man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death must die, unless someone can be found sufficient to answer for his 15 offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man: the Father accepts him, ordains his Incarnation, pronounces his Exaltation above all names in Heaven and earth;

Compare with Macaria and her sister

the sun; he finds there Uriel the regent of that orb,

Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;23 And in the lowest deep a lower deep Still threat’ning to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav’n.

The lower still I fall, only supreme In misery; such joy ambition finds.

Due entrance he disdained,

Catalog all the uses of “disdain”

And thou sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem

Patron of liberty, who more than thou Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored319 960 Heav’n’s awful Monarch?

as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,7 Her hand soft touching, whispered thus.8 Awake My fairest, my espoused, my latest found, Heav’n’s last best gift,

The first fight described: Satan and his powers retire under night: he calls a council, invents devilish engines, which in the second 5 day’s fight put Michael and his angels to some disorder; but they at length pulling up mountains overwhelmed both the force and machines of Satan: