Paradise Lost

by John Milton

Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree

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

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all, but torture without end

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. 70 Such place Eternal Justice has prepared For those rebellious; here their prison ordained In utter darkness, and their portion set, As far removed from God and light of Heaven As from the centre thrice to th’ utmost pole.

All is not lost—the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome?

To do aught good never will be our task, 160 But ever to do ill our sole delight,

If then his providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labour must be to pervert that end, 165 And out of good still to find means of evil;

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 Heaven?—this mournful gloom 245 For that celestial light?

The mind is its own place, and in itself 255 Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

“My sentence is for open war. Of wiles, More unexpert, I boast not: them let those Contrive who need, or when they need; not now. For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest— 55 Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait The signal to ascend—sit lingering here, Heaven’s fugitives, and for their dwelling-place Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, The prison of his tyranny who reigns

Fear to be worse destroyed! What can be worse Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned In this abhorred deep to utter woe! Where pain of unextinguishable fire Must exercise us without hope of end

To waste his whole creation, or possess All as our own, and drive, as we were driven, The puny habitants; or, if not drive, Seduce them to our party, that their God May prove their foe, and with repenting hand 370 Abolish his own works. This would surpass Common revenge, and interrupt his joy In our confusion, and our joy upraise In his disturbance; when his darling sons, Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse

By Satan, and in part proposed: for whence, But from the author of all ill, could spring So deep a malice, to confound the race Of mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell To mingle and involve, done all to spite

But Fate withstands, and, to oppose th’ attempt, Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards The ford, and of itself the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 615 In confused march forlorn, th’ adventurous bands,

Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Obominable, inutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.

Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore; Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called In secret, riding through the air she comes, Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance

And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring

Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind in the happy garden plac’d Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivall’d love, In blissful solitude; he then survey’d

And man there plac’d, with purpose to assay If him by force he can destroy, or, worse, By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert; For man will hearken to his glozing lies, And easily transgress the sole command,

His far more pleasant garden God ordained; Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste; And all amid them stood the tree of life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit

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: