The Complete Poetry of John Milton (67 page)

   505     
That day and night for his destruction wait.

           
      
       The
Stygian
Councel thus dissolv’d; and forth

               
In order came the grand infernal Peers,

               
Midst came thir mighty Paramount, and seemd

               
Alone th’ Antagonist of Heav’n, nor less

   510     
Then Hells dread Emperour with pomp Supream,

               
And God-like imitated State; him round

               
A Globe of fierie Seraphim inclos’d

               
With bright imblazonrie, and horrent Arms.

               
Then of thir Session ended they bid cry

   515     
With Trumpets regal sound the great result:

               
Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim
¹⁹

               
Put to thir mouths the sounding Alchymie
²⁰

               
By Haralds voice explain’d:
²¹
the hollow Abyss

               
Heard farr and wide, and all the host of Hell

   520     
With deafning shout, return’d them loud acclaim.

               
Thence more at ease thir minds and somwhat rais’d

               
By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers

               
Disband, and wandring, each his several way

               
Pursues, as inclination or sad choice

   525     
Leads him perplext, where he may likeliest find

               
Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain

               
The irksom hours, till his great Chief return.

               
Part on the Plain, or in the Air sublime

               
Upon the wing, or in swift race contend,

   530     
As at th’ Olympian Games or
Pythian
fields;

               
Part curb thir fierie Steeds, or shun the Goal

               
With rapid wheels, or fronted Brigads form.

               
As when to warn proud Cities warr appears

               
Wag’d in the troubl’d Skie, and Armies rush

   535     
To Battel in the Clouds, before each Van

               
Prick forth the Aerie Knights, and couch thir spears

               
Till thickest Legions close; with feats of Arms

               
From either end of Heav’n the welkin burns.

               
Others with vast
Typhœan
²²
rage more fell

   540     
Rend up both Rocks and Hills, and ride the Air

               
In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar.

               
As when
Alcides
²³
from
Oechalia
Crown’d

               
With conquest, felt th’ envenom’d robe, and tore

               
Through pain up by the roots
Thessalian
Pines,

   545     
And
Lichas
from the top of
Oeta
threw

               
Into th’
Euboic
Sea. Others more mild,

               
Retreated in a silent valley, sing

               
With notes Angelical to many a Harp

               
Thir own Heroic deeds and hapless fall

   550     
By doom of Battel; and complain that Fate

               
Free Vertue should enthrall to Force or Chance.

               
Thir song was partial, but the harmony

               
(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?)

               
Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment

   555     
The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet

               
(For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the Sense,)

               
Others apart sat on a Hill retir’d,

               
In thoughts more elevate, and reason’d high

               
Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate,

   560     
Fixt Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,

               
And found no end, in wandring mazes lost.

               
Of good and evil much they argu’d then,

               
Of happiness and final misery,

               
Passion and Apathie, and glory and shame,

   565     
Vain wisdom all, and false Philosophic:

               
Yet with a pleasing sorcerie could charm

               
Pain for a while or anguish, and excite

               
Fallacious hope, or arm th’ obdured brest

               
With stubborn patience as with triple steel.

   570     
Another part in Squadrons and gross
²⁴
Bands,

               
On bold adventure to discover wide

               
That dismal world, if any Clime perhaps

               
Might yeild them easier habitation, bend

               
Four ways thir flying March, along the Banks

   575     
Of four infernal Rivers that disgorge

               
Into the burning Lake thir baleful streams;

               
Abhorred
Styx
the flood of deadly hate,

               
Sad
Acheron
of sorrow, black and deep;

               
Cocytus
, nam’d of lamentation loud

   580     
Heard on the ruful stream; fierce
Phlegeton

               
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.

               
Farr off from these a slow and silent stream,

               
Lethe
the River of Oblivion rouls

               
Her watrie Labyrinth, whereof who drinks,

   585     
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,

               
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.

               
Beyond this flood a frozen Continent

               
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms

               
Of Whirlwind and dire Hail, which on firm land

   590     
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems

               
Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice,

               
A gulf profound as that
Serbonian
Bog
²⁵

               
Betwixt
Damiata
and mount
Casius
old,

               
Where Armies whole have sunk: the parching Air

   595     
Burns frore, and cold performs th’ effect of Fire.

               
Thither by harpy-footed Furies hail’d,

               
At certain revolutions all the damn’d

               
Are brought: and feel by turns the bitter change

               
Of fierce extreams, extreams by change more fierce,

   600     
From Beds of raging Fire to starve
²⁶
in Ice

               
Thir soft Ethereal warmth, and there to pine

               
Immovable, infixt, and frozen round,

               
Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.

               
They ferry over this
Lethean
Sound

   605     
Both to and fro, thir sorrow to augment,

               
And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach

               
The tempting stream, with one small drop to loose

               
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,

               
All in one moment, and so neer the brink;

   610     
But Fate withstands, and to oppose th’ attempt

               
Medusa
with
Gorgonian
terror guards

               
The Ford, and of it self the water flies

               
All taste of living wight, as once it fled

               
The lip of
Tantalus.
²⁷
Thus roving on

   615     
In confus’d march forlorn, th’ adventrous Bands

               
With shuddring horror pale, and eyes agast

               
View’d first thir lamentable lot, and found

               
No rest: through many a dark and drearie Vale

               
They pass’d, and many a Region dolorous,

   620     
O’re many a frozen, many a fierie Alp,

               
Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and shades of death,

               
A Universe of death, which God by curse

               
Created evil, for evil only good,

               
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,

   625     
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,

               
Abominable, inutterable, and worse

               
Then Fables yet have feign’d, or fear conceiv’d,

               
Gorgons
and
Hydra’s
, and
Chimeras
dire.

           
      
       Mean while the Adversary of God and Man,

   630     
Satan
with thoughts inflam’d of highest design,

               
Puts on swift wings, and towards the Gates of Hell

               
Explores his solitary flight; som times

               
He scours the right hand coast, som times the left,

               
Now shaves with level wing the Deep, then soars

   635     
Up to the fiery Concave touring high.

               
As when farr off at Sea a Fleet descri’d

               
Hangs in the Clouds, by
Æquinoctial
Winds

               
Close sailing from
Bengala
, or the Iles

               
Of
Ternate
and
Tidore
,
²⁸
whence Merchants bring

   640     
Thir spicie Drugs: they on the Trading Flood

               
Through the wide
Ethiopian
to the Cape
²⁹

               
Ply stemming
³⁰
nightly toward the Pole. So seem’d

               
Farr off the flying Fiend: at last appeer

               
Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid Roof,

   645     
And thrice threefold the Gates; three folds were Brass,

               
Three Iron, three of Adamantine Rock,

               
Impenetrable, impal’d with circling fire,

               
Yet unconsum’d. Before the Gates there sat

               
On either side a formidable shape;
³¹

   650     
The one seem’d Woman to the waste, and fair,

               
But ended foul in many a scaly fould

               
Voluminous and vast, a Serpent arm’d

               
With mortal sting: about her middle round

               
A cry of Hell Hounds never ceasing bark’d

   655     
With wide
Cerberean
mouths full loud, and rung

               
A hideous Peal: yet, when they list, would creep,

               
If aught disturb’d thir noyse, into her woomb,

               
And kennel there, yet there still bark’d and howl’d,

               
Within unseen. Farr less abhorr’d then these