Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked His thunder in mid volley; for he meant Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven: The overthrown he raised, and as a herd Of goats or timorous flock together thronged, Drove them before him thunderstruck, pursued With terrors and with furies, to the bounds And crystal wall of heaven; which, opening wide, Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous sight Struck them with horror backward, but far worse Urged them behind: headlong themselves they threw Down from the verge of heaven; eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
(From "Paradise Lost," Book XII.)
THE archangel stood; and from the other hill To their fixed station, all in bright array, The cherubim descended; on the ground Gliding meteorous, as evening mist
Risen from a river o'er the marish glides, And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel Homeward returning. High in front advanced, The brandished sword of God before them blazed, Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat, And vapour as the Libyan air adust, Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat In either hand the hastening angel caught Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast To the subjected plain; then disappeared. They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms. Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.
THE THUNDERSTORM.
(From "Paradise Regained," Book IV.)
THE tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven; the clouds From many a horrid rift, abortive poured Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire In ruin reconciled: nor slept the winds Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad From the four hinges of the world, and fell On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines, Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks, Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then, O patient Son of God, yet only stoodest Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there; Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round Environed thee, some howled, some yelled, some skrieked, Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou Satest unappalled in calm and sinless peace!
(From "Paradise Regained," Book III.)
FOR what is glory but the blaze of fame, The people's praise, if always praise unmixed? And what the people but a herd confused,
A miscellaneous rabble, who extol
Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the praise? They praise, and they admire, they know not what, And know not whom, but as one leads the other; And what delight to be by such extolled,
To live upon their tongues, and be their talk, Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise, His lot who dares be singularly good? The intelligent among them and the wise Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised. This is true glory and renown: when God, Looking on the earth, with approbation marks The just man, and divulges him through heaven To all his angels, who with true applause Recount his praises.
FROM "SAMSON AGONISTES."
Samson. Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct, And all her various objects of delight
Annulled, which might in part my grief have eased, Inferior to the vilest now become
Of man or worm; the vilest here excel me; They creep, yet see; I, dark in light, exposed To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and wrong, Within doors, or without, still as a fool, In power of others, never in my own;
Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half. O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!
O first-created beam, and thou great Word, "Let there be light, and light was over all;" Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree? The sun to me is dark
And silent as the moon,
When she deserts the night,
Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Since light so necessary is to life, And almost life itself, if it be true That light is in the soul,
She all in every part; why was this sight To such a tender ball as the eye confined, So obvious and so easy to be quenched? And not, as feeling, through all parts diffused, That she might look at will through every pore? Then had I not been thus exiled from light, As in the land of darkness, yet in light, To live a life half dead, a living death, And buried; but, O yet more miserable! Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave; Buried, yet not exempt,
By privilege of death and burial,
From worst of other evils, pains, and wrongs:
But made hereby obnoxious more
To all the miseries of life,
Life in captivity
Among inhuinan foes.
FROM "COMUS."
Lady. This way the noise was,
My best guide now: methought it was the sound Of riot and ill-managed merriment,
Such as the jocund flute, or gamesome pipe, Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, When for their teaming flocks, and granges full, In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth To meet the rudeness, and swilled insolence, Of such late wassailers; yet O! where else Shall I inform my unacquainted feet In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? My brothers, when they saw me wearied out With this long way, resolving here to lodge Under the spreading favour of these pines, Stept, as they said, to the next thicket-side, To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit As the kind hospitable woods provide. They left me then, when the gray-hooded even, Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,
Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. But where they are, and why they came not back, Is now the labour of my thoughts; 'tis likeliest They had engaged their wandering steps too far; And envious darkness, ere they could return, Had stole them from me: else, O thievish 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 traveller? This is the place, as well as I may guess, Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear; Yet nought but single darkness do I find. What might this be? A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory, Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, And aery tongues that syllable men's names On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.
These thoughts may startle well, but not astound, The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended By a strong siding champion, Conscience.
O welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings, And thou, unblemished form of Chastity! I see ye visibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, To keep my life and honour unassailed. Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night? I did not err, there does a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night, And casts a gleam over this tufted grove: I cannot halloo to my brothers, but
Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits Prompt me; and they perhaps are not far off.
FROM "L'ALLEGRO."
HENCE, loathed Melancholy,
Of Cerberus and blackest midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn,
'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! Find out some uncouth cell,
Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,
And the night-raven sings;
There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks,
As ragged as thy locks,
In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.
But come, thou goddess fair and free, In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne,
And in thy right hand lead with thee The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty; And, if I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
To live with her, and live with thee.
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