The Complete Poetry of John Milton (98 page)

   400     
With Frie innumerable swarm, and Shoals

               
Of Fish that with thir Finns and shining Scales

               
Glide under the green Wave, in Sculls
⁴⁵
that oft

               
Bank the mid Sea: part single or with mate

               
Graze the Sea weed thir pasture, and through Groves

   405     
Of Coral stray, or sporting with quick glance

               
Show to the Sun thir wav’d coats dropt
⁴⁶
with Gold,

               
Or in thir Pearlie shells at ease, attend

               
Moist nutriment, or under Rocks thir food

               
In jointed Armour watch: on smooth
⁴⁷
the Seal,

   410     
And bended Dolphins play: part huge of bulk

               
Wallowing unweildie, enormous in thir Gate

               
Tempest the Ocean: there Leviathan

               
Hugest of living Creatures, on the Deep

               
Stretcht like a Promontorie sleeps or swims,

   415     
And seems a moving Land, and at his Gills

               
Draws in, and at his Trunck spouts out a Sea.

               
Mean while the tepid Caves, and Fens and shoares

               
Thir Brood as numerous hatch, from th’ Egg that soon

               
Bursting with kindly
⁴⁸
rupture forth disclos’d

   420     
Thir callow young, but featherd soon and fledge

               
They summ’d thir Penns,
⁴⁹
and soaring th’ air sublime

               
With clang despis’d the ground, under a cloud

               
In prospect;
⁵⁰
there the Eagle and the Stork

               
On Cliffs and Cedar tops thir Eyries build:

   425     
Part loosly
⁵¹
wing the Region, part more wise

               
In common, rang’d in figure wedge thir way,

               
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

               
Thir Aerie Caravan high over Seas

               
Flying, and over Lands with mutual wing

   430     
Easing thir flight; so stears the prudent Crane

               
Her annual Voiage, born on Winds; the Air

               
Floats, as they pass, fann’d with unnumber’d plumes:

               
From Branch to Branch the smaller Birds with song

               
Solac’d the Woods, and spred thir painted wings

   435     
Till Ev’n, nor then the solemn Nightingale

               
Ceas’d warbling, but all night tun’d her soft layes:

               
Others on Silver Lakes and Rivers Bath’d

               
Thir downie Brest; the Swan with Arched neck

               
Between her white wings mantling
⁵²
proudly, Rows

   440     
Her state with Oarie feet: yet oft they quit

               
The Dank, and rising on stiff Pennons, towr

               
The mid Aereal Skie: Others on ground

               
Walk’d firm; the crested Cock whose clarion sounds

               
The silent hours, and th’ other whose gay Train

   445     
Adorns him, colour’d with the Florid hue

               
Of Rainbows and Starrie Eyes. The Waters thus

               
With Fish replenisht, and the Air with Fowl,

               
Ev’ning and Morn solemniz’d the Fift day.

           
      
       The Sixt, and of Creation last arose

   450     
With Eevning Harps and Mattin, when God said,

               
Let th’ Earth bring forth Soul living in her kind,

               
Cattel and Creeping things, and Beast of th’ Earth,

               
Each in their kind. The Earth obey’d, and strait

               
Op’ning her fertil Woomb teem’d at a Birth

   455     
Innumerous living Creatures, perfet formes,

               
Limb’d and full grown: out of the ground up rose

               
As from his Lair the wild Beast where he wonns
⁵³

               
In Forrest wild, in Thicket, Brake, or Den;

               
Among the Trees in Pairs they rose, they walk’d:

   460     
The Cattel in the Fields and Meddows green:

               
Those rare and solitarie, these in flocks

               
Pasturing at once, and in broad Herds upsprung.

               
The grassie Clods now Calv’d, now half appeer’d

               
The Tawnie Lion, pawing to get free

   465     
His hinder parts, then springs as broke from Bonds,

               
And Rampant shakes his Brinded
⁵⁴
main; the Ounce,

               
The Libbard, and the Tyger, as the Moal

               
Rising, the crumbl’d Earth above them threw

               
In Hillocks; the swift Stag from under ground

   470     
Bore up his branching head: scarse from his mould

               
Behemoth
⁵⁵
biggest born of Earth upheav’d

               
His vastness: Fleec’t the Flocks and bleating rose,

               
As Plants: ambiguous between Sea and Land

               
The River Horse
⁵⁶
and scalie Crocodile.

   475     
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,

               
Insect or Worm; those wav’d thir limber fans

               
For wings, and smallest Lineaments exact

               
In all the Liveries dect of Summers pride

               
With spots of Gold and Purple, azure and green:

   480     
These as a line thir long dimension drew,

               
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all

               
Minims of Nature; some of Serpent kind

               
Wondrous in length and corpulence
⁵⁷
involv’d

               
Thir Snakie foulds, and added wings. First crept

   485     
The Parsimonious Emmet, provident

               
Of future, in small room large heart enclos’d,

               
Pattern of just equalitie perhaps

               
Hereafter, join’d in her popular Tribes

               
Of Commonaltie: swarming next appeer’d

   490     
The Female Bee that feeds her Husband Drone

               
Deliciously, and builds her waxen Cells

               
With Honey stor’d: the rest are numberless,

               
And thou thir Natures know’st, and gav’st them Names,

               
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown

   495     
The Serpent suttl’st Beast of all the field,
⁵⁸

               
Of huge extent somtimes, with brazen Eyes

               
And hairie Main terrific, though to thee

               
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

               
Now Heav’n in all her Glorie shon, and rowl’d

   500     
Her motions, as the great first-Movers hand

               
First wheeld thir course; Earth in her rich attire

               
Consummate lovely smil’d; Air, Water, Earth,

               
By Fowl, Fish, Beast, was flown, was swum, was walkt

               
Frequent; and of the Sixt day yet reman’d;

   505     
There wanted yet the Master work, the end
⁵⁹

               
Of all yet don; a Creature who not prone

               
And Brute as other Creatures, but endu’d

               
With Sanctitie of Reason, might erect

               
His Stature, and upright with Front serene

   510     
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence

               
Magnanimous to correspond with Heav’n,

               
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good

               
Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyes

               
Directed in Devotion, to adore

   515     
And worship God Supream, who made him chief

               
Of all his works: therefore th’ Omnipotent

               
Eternal Father (for where is not hee

               
Present) thus to his Son audibly spake.

           
      
       Let us make now Man in our image, Man

   520     
In our similitude, and let them rule

               
Over the Fish and Fowl of Sea and Air,

               
Beast of the Field, and over all the Earth,

               
And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.

               
This said, he formd thee,
Adam
, thee O Man

   525     
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath’d

               
The breath of Life; in his own Image hee

               
Created thee, in the Image of God

               
Express, and thou becam’st a living Soul.

               
Male he created thee, but thy consort

   530     
Female for Race; then bless’d Mankind, and said,

               
Be fruitful, multiplie, and fill the Earth,

               
Subdue it, and throughout Dominion hold

               
Over Fish of the Sea, and Fowl of the Air,

               
And every living thing that moves on th’ Earth.

   535     
Wherever thus created, for no place

               
Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know’st

               
He brought thee into this delicious Grove,

               
This Garden, planted with the Trees of God,

               
Delectable both to behold and taste;

   540     
And freely all thir pleasant fruit for food

               
Gave thee, all sorts are here that all th’ Earth yeelds,

               
Varietie without end; but of the Tree

               
Which tasted works knowledge of Good and Evil,

               
Thou mai’st not; in the day thou eat’st, thou di’st;

   545     
Death is the penaltie impos’d, beware,

               
And govern well thy appetite, least sin

               
Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

               
Here finish’d hee, and all that he had made

               
View’d, and behold all was entirely good;

   550     
So Ev’n and Morn accomplish’d the Sixt day:

               
Yet not till the Creator from his work

               
Desisting, though unwearied, up returnd

               
Up to the Heav’n of Heav’ns his high abode,

               
Thence to behold this new created World

   555     
Th’ addition of his Empire, how it shew’d

               
In prospect from his Throne, how good, how fair,

               
Answering his great Idea. Up he rode

               
Followd with acclamation and the sound

               
Symphonious of ten thousand Harps that tun’d