Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose
mortal tast
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 Heav'nly 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
Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of CHAOS: Or if SION
Hill
Delight thee more, and SILOA'S
Brook that
flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I
thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous
Song,
That with no middle flight
intends to soar
Above th' AONIAN Mount, while
it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose
or Rhime.
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 satst 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 highth of this
great Argument
I may assert th' Eternal
Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God
to men.
Say first, for Heav'n hides
nothing from
thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say
first what
cause
Mov'd our Grand Parents in that
happy State,
Favour'd of Heav'n so highly,
to fall off
From their Creator, and
transgress his
Will
For one restraint, Lords of the
World besides?
Who first seduc'd them to that
fowl revolt?
Th' infernal Serpent; he it
was, whose
guile
Stird up with Envy and Revenge,
deceiv'd
The Mother of Mankinde, what
time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav'n,
with all
his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid
aspiring
To set himself in Glory above
his Peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the
most High,
If he oppos'd; and with
ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy
of God
Rais'd impious War in Heav'n
and Battel
proud
With vain attempt. Him the
Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th'
Ethereal
Skie
With hideous ruine and
combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there
to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal
Fire,
|
