Of Heav'n artiv'd, the gate self-open'd wide, Our heav'nly stranger: well we may afford
On golden hinges turning, as by work

Our givers their own gifts, and large bestow
Divine, the Sovereign architect had fram'd. From large bestow'd, where Nature multiplies
From hence no cloud, or, to obstruct his sight, Her fertile growth, and by disburd’ning grows
Star interpos’d, however small he sees,

More fruitful, which instructs us not to spare. Not unconform to other shining globes,

To whom thus Eve. Adam, earth's hallow'd Earth, and the gard'n of God, with cedars crown'd

mould, Above all hills. As when by night the glass

Of God inspir’d, small store will serve, where store, Of Galileo, less assur'd, observes

All seasons, ripe for use, hangs on the stalk; Imagin'd lands and regions in the moon ;

Save what by frugal storing firmness gains Or pilot, from amidst the Cyclades,

To nourish, and superfluous moist consumes: Delos or Samos, first appearing, keus,

But I will haste, and from each bough and brake, A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight

Each plant and juiciest gourd, will pluck such choice He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky

To entertain our Angel guest, as he Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing.

Beholding shall confess, that here on earth Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan

God hath dispens'd his bounties as in Heaven.
Wipnows the buxom air; till within soar

So saying, with dispatchful looks in haste
Of tow'ring eagles, to all the fowls he seems She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent,
A phenix, gaz'd by all, as that sole bird,

What choice to choose for delicacy best,
When to inshrine his reliques in the sun's

What order, so contriv'd as not to mix Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies.

Tastes, not well join'd, inelegant, but bring At once on th' eastern cliff of Paradise

Taste after taste upheld with kindliest change ; He lights, and to his proper shape returns

Bestirs her then, and from each tender stalk A Seraph wing’d; six wings he wore, to shade

Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields His lineaments divine; the pair that clad

In India East or West, or middle shore Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast

In Pontus or the Punic coast, or where With regal ornament; the middle pair

Alcinous reign’d, fruit of all kinds, in coat Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round Rough or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell, Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold She gathers, tribute large, and on the board And colours dipt in Heav'n; the third his feet Heaps with unsparing hand; for drink the grape Shadow'd from either heel with feather'd mail, She crushes, inoffensive must, and meaths Sky-tinctur'd grain. Like Maia's son he stood, From many a berry, and from sweet kernels pressid And shook his plumes, that heav'nly fragrance fill'd She tempers dulcet creams; nor these to hold The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands Wants her fit vessels pure; then strows the ground Of angels under watch; and to his state

With rose and odours from the shrub unfum'd. And to his message high in honour rise;

Meanwhile our primitive great sire, to meet
For on some message high they guess'd him bound. His god-like guest, walks forth, without more train
Their glittering tents he pass’d, and now is come Accompanied than with his own complete
Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh,

Perfections; in himself was all his state,
And flow'ring odours, cassia, nard, and balm; More solemn than the tedious pomp that waits
A wilderness of sweets; for Nature here

On princes, when their rich retinue long
Wanton'd as in her prime, and play'd at will Of horses led, and grooms besmear'd with gold,
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet,

Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape. Wild above rule or art; enormous bliss.

Nearer his presence Adam, tho' not aw'd, Him through the spicy forest onward come

Yet with submiss approach and reverence meek, Adam discern'd, as in the door he sat

As to a superior nature, bowing low, Of his cool bow'r, while now the mounted sun Thus said. Native of Heav'n, for other place Shot down direct his fervid rays to warm [needs: None can than Heav'n such glorious shape contain ; Earth's inmost womb, more warmth than Adam Since by descending from the thrones above, And Eve within, due at her hour, prepar'd

Those happy places thou hast deign'd a while For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please

To want, and honour these, vouchsafe with us True appetite, and not disrelish thirst

Two only, who yet by sov'reign gift possess Of nect'rous draughts between, from milky stream, This spacious ground, in yonder shady bower Berry or grape: to whom thus Adam callid:

To rest, and what the garden choicest bears Haste hither Eve, and worth thy sight behold To sit and taste, till this meridian heat Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape Be over, and the sun more cool decline. Comes this way moving; seems another morn Whom thus th' angelic Virtue answer'd mild: Ris'n on mid-noon; some great behest from Heaven Adam, I therefore came; nor art thou such To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe

Created, or such place hast here to dwell, This day to be our guest. But go with speed, As may not oft invite, tho' Spirits of Heaven, And what thy stores contain, bring forth, and pour To visit thee; lead on then where thy bower Abundance, fit to honour and receive

O'ershades; for these mid-hours, till ev'ning rise,

I have at will. So to the sylvan lodge

Through Spirits with ease ; nor wonder, if by fire They came, that like Pomona's arbour smil'd Of sooty coal th’ empiric alchemist With flow’rets deck'd and fragrant smells; but Eve Can turn, or holds it possible to turn, Undeck’d, save with herself, more lovely fair

Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold Than Wood-Nymph, or the fairest Goddess feign'd As from the mine. Mean while at table Eve Of three that in mount Ida naked strove,

Minister'd naked, and their flowing cups Stood to entertain her guest from Heav'n; no veil With pleasant liquors crown'd: O innocence She needed, virtue-proof; no thought infirm Deserving Paradise ! if ever, then, Alter'd her cheek. On whom the Angel hail Then had the sons of God excuse to have been Bestow'd, the holy salutation usd

Enamour'd at that sight; but in those hearts Long after to blest Mary, second Eve.

Love unlibidinous reign’d, nor jealousy
Hail Mother of Mankind, whose fruitful womb Was understood, the injur'd lover's hell.
Shall fill the world more numerous with thy sons
Than with these various fruits the trees of God
Have heap'd this table. Rais'd of grassy turf

RAPHAEL'S ACCOUNT OF THE CREATheir table was, and mossy seats had round,

TION. And on ber ample square from side to side

Let there be light, said God, and forth with light All autumn pil'd, tho' spring and autumn here

Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Danc'd hand in hand. Awhile discourse they hold: Sprung from the deep, and from her native east No fear lest dinner cool; when thus began

To journey through the airy gloom began, Our Author. Heav'nly stranger, please to taste

Spher'd in a radiant cloud; for yet the sun These bounties, which our Nourisher, from whom Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle All perfect good, unmeasur'd out, descends, Sojourn’d the while; God saw the light was good; To us for food and for delight hath caus'd

And light from darkness by the hemisphere The earth to yield; unsavoury food perhaps Divided: light the day, and darkness night To spiritual natures; only this I know,

He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn: That one celestial Father gives to all.

Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung To whom the Angel. Therefore what he gives By the celestial quires, when orient light (Whose praise be ever sung) to man in part

Exhaling first from darkness, they beheld; Spiritual, may of purest Spirits be found

Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth ; with joy and shout No ingrateful food : and food alike those pure The hollow universal orb they fillid, Intelligential substances require,

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd As doth your rational; and both contain

God and his works, Creator, him they sung, Within them every lower faculty

Both when first evening was, and when first morn. Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste, Again, said God, let there be firmament Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate,

Amid the waters, and let it divide And corporeal to incorporeal turn.

The waters from the waters: and God made For know, whatever was created, needs

The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure, To be sustain's and fed; of elements

Transparent, elemental air, diffus'd
The
grosser feeds the purer, earth the sea,

In circuit to the uttermost convex
Earth and the sea feed air, the air those fires Of this great round: partition firm and sure,
Ethereal, and as lowest first the moon;

The waters underneath from those above
Whence in her visage round those spots unpurgʻd Dividing : for as Earth, so he the world
Tapours not yet into her substance turn'd.

Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide Nor doth the moon no nourishments exhale

Christalline ocean, and the loud misrule From her moist continent to higher orbs.

Of Chaos far remov’d, lest fierce extremes The sun, that light imparts to all, receives

Contiguous might distemper the whole frame : irom all bis alimental recompense

And Heav'n he nam'd the firmament: so even E humid exhalations, and at even

And morning chorus sung the second day.
Sups with the ocean. Though in Heav'n the trees The earth was form’d; but in the womb as yet
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines

Of waters, embryon immature involv’d,
Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn Appear'd not: over all the face of Earth
Te brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm
Corer'd with pearly grain: yet God hath here Prolific humour soft’ning all her globe,
l'aried his bounty so with new delights,

Fermented the great mother to conceive,
As may compare with Heaven; and to taste Satiate with genial moisture, when God said,
Think not I shall be nice. So down they sat, Be gather'd now, ye waters under Heav'n,
And to their viands fell; nor seemingly

Into one place, and let dry land appear.
The Angel, nor in mist, the common gloss

Immediately the mountains huge appear Of theologians; but with keen dispatch

Emergent, and their bare broad backs upheave Of real hunger, and concoctive heat

Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky: To transubstantiate: what redounds, transpires So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low

Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad and deep, T' illuminate the Earth, and rule the day
Capacious bed of waters : thither they

In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
Hasted with glad precipitance, uprollid

And light from darkness to divide. God saw, As drops on dust conglobing from the dry;

Surveying his great work, that it was good: Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,

For of celestial bodies first the sun For haste; such flight the great command impress'd A mighty sphere he fram’d, unlightsome first, On the swift floods: as armies at the call

Tho' of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)

Globose, and every magnitude of stars, Troop to their standard, so the wat’ry throng, And sow'd with stars the Heav'n thick as a field: Wave rolling after wave, where way they found, Of light by far the greater part he took, If steep with torrent rapture, if through plain, Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and plac'd Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill, Iu the sun's orb, made porous to receive But they, or under ground, or circuit wide

And drink the liquid light, firm to retain With serpent error wand'ring, found their way, Her gather'd beams, great palace now of light. And on the washy oose deep channels wore;

Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,

Repairing in their golden urns draw light,
All but within those banks, where rivers now And hence the morning planet gilds her horns ;
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train. By tinctures or reflection they augment
The dry land Earth, and the great receptacle Their small peculiar, though from human sight
Of congregated waters, he call’d Seas :

So far remote, with diminution seen.
And saw that it was good, and said, Let th’ Earth First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, Regent of day, and all th' horison round
And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,

Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
Whose seed is in herself upon the Earth.

His longitude thro' Heav'n's high road; the gray He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc’d, Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd,

Shedding sweet influence : less bright the moon, Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad But opposite in level'd west was set, Her universal face with pleasant green,

His mirror, with full face borrowing her light Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd From him, for other light she needed none Opening their various colours, and made gay In that aspect, and still that distance keeps Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown, Till night; then in the east her turn she shines, Forth flourish'd thick the clust’ring vine,forth crept

Revolv'd on Heav'n's great axle, and her reign The smelling gourd, up stood the corny reed

With thousand lesser lights dividual holds, Imbattel'd in her field, and th' humble shrub,

With thousand thousand stars, that then appear'd And bush with frizzled hair implicit: last

Spangling the hemisphere: then first adorn'd Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread With their bright luminaries that set and rose, Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm’d Gladev’ning and glad morn crown'd the fourth day. Their blossoms; with high woods the hills were

And God said, Let the waters generate crown'd

Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul: With tufts the vallies, and each fountain side; And let fowl fly above the Earth, with wings With borders long the rivers: that Earth now Display'd on th’ open firmament of Heav'n; Seem'd like to Heav'n, a seat where Gods might And God created the great whales, and each Or wander with delight, and love to haunt [dwell

Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously Her sacred shades: tho' God had not yet rain'd The waters generated by their kinds, Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground

And every bird of wing after his kind; None was, but from the Earth a dewy mist

And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, saying, Went up and water'd all the ground, and each Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas, Plant of the field, which, ere it was in th' Earth And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill; God made, and every herb, before it grew

And let the fowl be multiply'd on th' Earth. On the green stem; God saw that it was good: Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay So ev'n and morn recorded the third day.

With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals Again th’ Almighty spake, Let there be lights Of fish that with their fins and shining scales High in th' expanse of Heaven, to divide

Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft The day from night; and let them be for signs, Bank the mid sea: part single or with mate For seasons, and for days, and circling years, Graze the sea-weed their pasture,and through grores And let them be for lights, as I ordain

Of coral stray, or sporting with quick glance Their office in the firmament of Heav'n

Shew to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold, To give light on the Earth ; and it was so.

Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend And God made two great lights, great for their use Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food To man, the greater to have rule by day,

In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal, The less by night altern; and made the stars, And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk And set them in the firmament of Heav'n,

Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait

Tempest the ocean: there Leviathan,

The river horse and scaly crocodile. Hugest of living creatures, on the deep

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, Stretch'd like a promontory, sleeps or swims, Insect or worm: those wav'd their limber fans And seems a moving land, and at his gills

For wings, and smallest lineaments exact Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea.

In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride, Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, With spots of gold and purple, azure and green: Their brood as numerous hatch, from th'egg that soon These in a line their long dimension drew Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all Their callow young, but feather'd soon and fledge Minims of Nature; some of serpent kind, They summ'd their pens, and soaring th' air sublime Wondrous in length and corpulence, involvid With clang despis’d the ground, under a cloud Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept In prospect; there the eagle and the stork

The parsimonious emmet, provident On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:

Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd, Part loosely wing the region, part more wise

Pattern of just equality, perhaps
In common, rang'd in figure, wedge their way, Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Of commonalty: swarming next appear'd
Their airy caravan high over seas

The female bee, that feeds her husband drone Flying, and over lands with mutual wing

Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane

With honey stor’d: the rest are numberless, Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air

And thou their natures know’st, and gav'st them Floats, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes:

Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown [names, From branch to branch the smaller birds with song

The serpent subtlest beast of all the field, Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings,

Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes Tilleven, nor then the solemn nightingale

And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun’d her soft lays :

Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd
Their downy breast; the swan, with arched neck,
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows

ADAM’S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit

As new wak'd from soundest sleep The dank, and rising on stiff pennons, tower

Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid The mid aereal sky: others on ground

In balmy sweat, which with his beams the sun Walk'd firm: the crested cock, whose clarion sounds

Soon dry’d, and on the reeking moisture fed. The silent hours, and th' other whose gay train

Strait toward Heav'n my wond'ring eyes I turn’d, Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue

And gaz'd a while the ample sky, till rais'd Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus

By quick instinctive motion up I sprung, With fish replenish’d, and the air with fowl,

As thitherward endeavouring, and upright Evîning and Morn, solemniz'd the fifth day.

Stood on my feet; about me round I saw The sixth, and of creation last, arose

Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains, With evening harps and matin, when God said

And liquid lapse of murm'ring streams; by these, Let th' Earth bring forth soul living in her kind,

Creatures that liv'd and mov’d, and walk’d, or flew, Catile and creeping things, and beast of th' earth,

Birds on the branches warbling; all things smil'd, Each in their kind. The earth obey'd, and strait

With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflow'd. Opening her fertile womb, teem’d at a birth

Myself I then perus’d, and limb by limb, kreumerable living creatures, perfect forms,

Survey'd, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran Limb’d and full grown; out of the ground up rose

With supple joints, as lively vigour led : As from his lair the wild beast, where he wons

But who I was, or where or from what cause, In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;

Knew not; to speak I try'd, and forthwith spake; Arcog the trees in pairs they rose,

, they walk'd : My tongue obey'd, and readily could name The cattle in the fields and meadows green:

Whate'er I saw. Thou Sun, said I, fair light, Those rare and solitary, these in flocks

And thou enlighten'd Earth, so fresh and gay, Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.

Ye hills, and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains, The grassy clods now calv'd; now half appear'd

And ye that live and move, fair creatures tell, The tawny lion, pawing to get free

Tell if ye saw, how came I thus, how here; His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds,

Not of myself, by some great Maker then, And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce,

In goodness and in power pre-eminent; The lizard and the tiger, as the mole

Tell me how I may know him, how adore R-ing, the crumbled earth above them threw

From whom I have that thus I move and live, la billoeks: the swift stag from under ground

And feel that I am happier than I know. Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mould While thus I call’d, and stray'd, I knew not whither, Ben-moth, biggest born of earth, upheav’d

From where I first drew air, and first beheld is vastress: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose,

This happy light, when answer none return'd, plants: ambiguous between sea and land On a green shady bank profuse of flowers

K

Pensive I sat me down; there gentle sleep

To end me? shall Truth fail to keep her word,
First found me, and with soft oppression seiz’d Justice divine not hasten to be just ?
My droused sense, untroubled, though I thought But Death comes not at call; Justice divine
I then was passing to my former state

Mends not her slowest pace for pray’rs or cries.
Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:

O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales and bowers, When suddenly stood at my head a dream,

With other echo late I taught your shades Whose inward apparition gently mov'd

To answer and resound far other song. My fancy to believe I yet had being,

Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld, And liv'd: One came, methought of shape divine, Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh, And said, thy mansion wants thee, Adam, rise, Soft words to his fierce passion she assay’d: First man, of men innumerable ordain'd

But her with stern regard he thus repellid. First father, call’d by thee I come thy guide

Out of my sight, thou serpent; that name best To the garden of bliss, thy seat prepar'd.

Befits thee with him leagu'd, thyself as false So saying, by the hand he took me rais'd,

And hateful ; nothing wants, but that thy shape, And over fields and waters, as in air

Like his, and colour serpentine may shew Smooth sliding without step, last led me up

Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thes A woody mountain, whose high top was plain, Henceforth; lest that too heav'nly form, pretended A circuit wide, inclos'd, with goodliest trees

To hellish falsehood, snare them. But for thee
Planted, with walks, and bowers, that what I saw I had persisted happy, had not thy pride
Of earth before scarce pleasant seem'd. Each tree And wand'ring vanity, when least was safe,
Loaden with fairest fruit that hung to th' eye Rejected my forewarning, and disdain'd
Tempting, stirr’d in me sudden appetite

Not to be trusted, longing to be seen
To pluck and eat ; whereat I wak'd and found Though by the Devil himself, him overweening
Before mine eyes all real, as the dream

To over-reach, but with the serpent meeting, Had lively shadow'd: here had new begun

Fool'd and beguil'd, by him thou, I by thee, My wand'ring, had not he who was my guide To trust thee from my side, imagin'd wise, Up hither, from among the trees appear'd

Constant, mature, proof against all assaults, Presence divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,

And understood not all was but a shew In adoration at his feet I fell

Rather than solid virtue, all but a rib Submiss: he rear’d me, and whom thou sought'st Crooked by Nature, bent, as now appears, Said mildly, author of all this thou seest [I am, More to the part sinister, from me drawn, Above, or round about thee, or beneath.

Well if thrown out, as supernumerary This paradise I give thee, count it thine

To my just number found. O why did God, To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat

Creator wise that peopled highest Heav'n Of every tree that in the garden grows,

With spirits masculine, create at last Eat freely with glad heart; for here no dearth: This novelty on earth, this fair defect But of the tree whose operation brings

Of Nature, and not fill the world at once Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set With men as angels without feminine, The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,

Or find some other way to generate Amid the garden by the tree of life,

Mankind? this mischief had not then befall’n, Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,

And more that shall befal, innumerable And shun the bitter consequence: for know

Disturbances on earth through female snares, The day thou eat'st thereof, my sole command And strait conjunction with this sex: for either Transgress’d, inevitably thou shalt die,

He never shall find out fit mate, but such From that day mortal, and this happy state

As some misfortune brings him, or mistake ; Shalt lose, expellid from hence into a world

Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain
Of woe and sorrow.

Through her perverseness, but shall see her gain'd
By a far worse, or if she love, withheld

By parents; or his happiest choice too late
RECONCILIATION BETWEEN ADAM

Shall meet already link'd and wedlock-bound
AND EVE.

To a fell adversary, his hate or shame:
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud

Which infinite calamity shall cause
Through the still night, not now, as ere man fell To human life, and household peace confound.
Wholesome and cool, and mild, but with black air He added not, and from her turn'd; but Eve
Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom, Not so repuls’d, with tears that ceas'd not flowing,
Which to his evil conscience represented

And tresses all disorder'd, at his feet
All things with double terror: on the ground Fell humble, and embracing them, besought
Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint:
Curs’d his creation, Death as oft accus'd

Forsake me not thus, Adam ; witness Heav'n Of tardy execution, since denounc'd

What love sincere, and reverence in my heart
The day of his offence. Why comes not Death, I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
Said he, with one thrice acceptable stroke

Unhappily deceiv'd; thy suppliant

a