The Complete Poetry of John Milton (132 page)

   190     
And his deep thoughts, the better to converse

               
With solitude, till far from track of men,

               
Thought following thought, and step by step led on,

               
He enter’d now the bordering Desert wild,

               
And with dark shades and rocks environ’d round,

   195     
His holy Meditations thus persu’d.

           
      
       O what a multitude of thoughts at once

               
Awak’n’d in me swarm, while I consider

               
What from within I feel my self, and hear

               
What from without comes often to my ears,

   200     
Ill sorting with my present state compar’d.

               
When I was yet a child, no childish play

               
To me was pleasing, all my mind was set

               
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do

               
What might be publick good; my self I thought

   205     
Born to that end, born to promote all truth,

               
All righteous things: therefore above my years,

               
The Law of God I read, and found it sweet,

               
Made it my whole delight, and in it grew

               
To such perfection, that e’re yet my age

   210     
Had measur’d twice six years, at our great Feast

               
I went into the Temple, there to hear

               
The Teachers of our Law, and to propose

               
What might improve my knowledge or their own;

               
And was admir’d
¹²
by all, yet this not all

   215     
To which my Spirit aspir’d, victorious deeds

               
Flam’d in my heart, heroic acts, one while

               
To rescue
Israel
from the
Roman
yoke,

               
Then to subdue and quell o’re all the earth

               
Brute violence and proud Tyrannick pow’r,

   220     
Till truth were freed, and equity restor’d:

               
Yet held it more humane, more heav’nly first

               
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,

               
And make perswasion do the work of fear;

               
At least to try, and teach the erring Soul

   225     
Not wilfully mis-doing, but unware

               
Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.

               
These growing thoughts my Mother soon perceiving

               
By words at times cast forth inly rejoyc’d,

               
And said to me apart, high are thy thoughts

   230     
O Son, but nourish them and let them soar

               
To what highth sacred vertue and true worth

               
Can raise them, though above example high;

               
By matchless Deeds express thy matchless Sire.

               
For know, thou art no Son of mortal man,

   235     
Though men esteem thee low of Parentage,

               
Thy Father is th’ Eternal King, who rules

               
All Heav’n and Earth, Angels and Sons of men.

               
A messenger from God fore-told thy birth

               
Conceiv’d in me a Virgin, he fore-told

   240     
Thou shouldst be great and sit on
David
’s Throne,

               
And of thy Kingdom there should be no end.

               
At thy Nativity a glorious Quire

               
Of Angels in the fields of
Bethlehem
sung

               
To Shepherds watching at their folds by night,

   245     
And told them the Messiah now was born,

               
Where they might see him, and to thee they came;

               
Directed to the Manger where thou lais’t,

               
For in the Inn was left no better room:

               
A Star, not seen before in Heav’n appearing

   250     
Guided the Wise Men thither from the East,

               
To honour thee with Incense, Myrrh, and Gold,

               
By whose bright course led on they found the place,

               
Affirming it thy Star new grav’n in Heav’n,

               
By which they knew thee King of
Israel
born.

   255     
Just
Simeon
and Prophetic
Anna
, warn’d

               
By Vision,
¹³
found thee in the Temple, and spake

               
Before the Altar and the vested Priest,

               
Like things of thee to all that present stood.

               
This having heard, strait I again revolv’d
¹⁴

   260     
The Law and Prophets, searching what was writ

               
Concerning the Messiah, to our Scribes

               
Known partly, and soon found of whom they spake

               
I am; this chiefly, that my way must lie

               
Through many a hard assay ev’n to the death,

   265     
E’re I the promis’d Kingdom can attain,

               
Or work Redemption for mankind, whose sins

               
Full weight must be transferr’d upon my head.

               
Yet neither thus disheart’n’d or dismay’d,

               
The time prefixt I waited, when behold

   270     
The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard,

               
Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come

               
Before Messiah and his way prepare.

               
I as all others to his Baptism came,

               
Which I believ’d was from above; but he

   275     
Strait knew me, and with loudest voice proclaim’d

               
Me him (for it was shew’n him so from Heav’n)

               
Me him whose Harbinger he was; and first

               
Refus’d on me his Baptism to confer,

               
As much his greater, and was hardly won;

   280     
But as I rose out of the laving stream,

               
Heav’n open’d her eternal doors, from whence

               
The Spirit descended on me like a Dove,

               
And last the sum of all, my Father’s voice,

               
Audibly heard from Heav’n, pronounc’d me his,

   285     
Me his beloved Son, in whom alone

               
He was well pleas’d; by which I knew the time

               
Now full, that I no more should live obscure,

               
But openly begin, as best becomes

               
Th’ Authority which I deriv’d from Heav’n.

   290     
And now by some strong motion I am led

               
Into this Wilderness, to what intent

               
I learn not yet, perhaps I need not know;

               
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.

           
      
       So spake our Morning Star
¹⁵
then in his rise,

   295     
And looking round on every side beheld

               
A pathless Desert, dusk with horrid shades;

               
The way he came not having mark’d, return

               
Was difficult, by human steps untrod;

               
And he still on was led, but with such thoughts

   300     
Accompanied of things past and to come

               
Lodg’d in his brest, as well might recommend

               
Such Solitude before choicest Society.

               
Full forty days he pass’d, whether on hill

               
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night

   305     
Under the covert of some ancient Oak,

               
Or Cedar, to defend him from the dew,

               
Or harbour’d in one Cave, is not reveal’d;

               
Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt

               
Till those days ended, hunger’d then at last

   310     
Among wild Beasts: they at his sight grew mild,

               
Nor sleeping him nor waking harm’d, his walk

               
The fiery Serpent fled, and noxious Worm,
¹⁶

               
The Lion and fierce Tiger glar’d aloof.

               
But now an aged man in Rural weeds,

   315     
Following, as seem’d, the quest of some stray Ewe,

               
Or wither’d sticks to gather; which might serve

               
Against a Winters day when winds blow keen,

               
To warm him wet return’d from field at Eve,

               
He saw approach, who first with curious eye

   320     
Perus’d him, then with words thus utter’d spake.

           
      
       Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place

               
So far from path or road of men, who pass

               
In Troop or Caravan, for single none

               
Durst ever, who return’d, and dropt not here

   325     
His Carcass, pin’d with hunger and with droughth?

               
I ask the rather, and the more admire,

               
For that to me thou seem’st the man, whom late

               
Our new baptizing Prophet at the Ford

               
Of
Jordan
honour’d so, and call’d thee Son

   330     
Of God; I saw and heard, for we sometimes

               
Who dwell this wild, constrain’d by want, come forth

               
To Town or Village nigh (nighest is far)

               
Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear,

               
What happ’ns new; Fame also finds us out.

   335  
      
       To whom the Son of God. Who brought me hither

               
Will bring me hence, no other Guide I seek.

           
      
       By Miracle he may, reply’d the Swain,

               
What other way I see not, for we here

               
Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inur’d

   340     
More then the Camel, and to drink go far,

               
Men to much misery and hardship born;

               
But if thou be the Son of God, command

               
That out of these hard stones be made thee bread;

               
So shalt thou save thy self and us relieve

   345     
With Food, whereof we wretched seldom taste.

           
      
       He ended, and the Son of God reply’d.

               
Think’st thou such force in Bread? is it not written

               
(For I discern thee other then thou seem’st)

               
Man lives not by Bread only, but each Word