He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake:"How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,

Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake,

Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! 115
Of other care they little reckoning make
Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast,
And shove away the worthy bidden guest.
Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how
to hold

A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least

120

That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;20

And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel21 pipes of wretched straw;

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 125 But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,

Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw,
Daily devours apace, and nothing said.
But that two-handed engine22 at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."
Return, Alpheus, 23 the dread voice is past

130

15 Eclipses were considered by the ancients as out of the order of nature, and were supposed to exert a mysterious and disastrous influence.

16 The god or genius of the Cam, the stream on which Cambridge is situated. "He comes attired in a mantle of the hairy river weed that floats on the Cam; his bonnet is of the sedge of that river, which exhibits peculiar markings, something like the di dt (alas! alas!) which the Greek detected on the leaves of the hyacinth, in token of the sad death of the Spartan youth from whose blood the flower had sprung" (Masson).

17 Bloody flower, i. e. the hyacinth, which Apollo caused to spring up from the blood of the beautiful youth Hyacinthus.

18 St. Peter.

19 Forcibly, with power.

20 They are sped, i. e. they are advanced in worldly prosperity.

21 Lean, thin, or harsh sounding.

22 An obscure expression. Masson supposes that it referred to the two Houses of Parliament; Newton, to the "axe that is laid unto the root of the tree.' "St. Matt. iii, 10. The essential meaning is, that the end is at hand, and the avenger, with his weapon of destruction, is at the door.

23 A youthful hunter, who, changed into a river, pursued the nymph Arethusa by a channel under the sea. He overtook her, and the pursuer and pursued were united in a fountain on an island off the coast of Sicily. Alpheus being thus related to Sicily, to invoke him is to invoke the "Sicilian Muse," the muse of pastoral poetry.

26 Streaked, spotted.

27 Sad embroidery, i. e., the garb of mourning.

28 An untrue fancy; the body of the drowned Lycidas never having been recovered.

29 The world of monsters at the bottom of the sea. 30 Lands End in Cornwall was called Bellerium by the Romans. Bellerus here does not appear to be a real personage; the name was apparently coined by Milton from that of the promontory, with the idea of raising the implication that the region was named after some one socalled.

31 St. Michael's Mount, a rocky islet near the coast of Cornwall, supposed to be guarded by the Archangel Michael. "The great vision" is St. Michael, seated on the ledge of rock called St. Michael's chair, and gazing far across the sea towards Namancos and Bayona's hold (the former being a town, the second a stronghold on the Spanish coast), i. e., looking in the direction of Spain.

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:
So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
Through the dear might of Him that walked

the waves,

175

Where, other groves and other streams along,
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the saints above,
In solemn troops, and sweet societies,
That sing, and singing in their glory move,
And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.
Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more;
Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore,
In thy large recompense, and shalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.

180

185

ON HIS HAVING ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF
TWENTY-THREE
(1631)

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, A Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

My hasting days fly on with full career,

But my late spring no bud nor blossom shew th.

Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth A 5

That I to manhood am arrived so near; 13 And inward ripeness doth much less appear, That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th.

Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow,

It shall be still in strictest measure even 10 To that same lot, however mean or high,E Towards which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven, D

All is, if I have grace to use it so, c

As ever in my great Task-Master's eye. É

ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT
(1655)

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones,

Forget not: in thy book record their groans

5

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold

32 So called because Lycidas follows the elegiac manner of Theocritus and Moschus, who wrote in Doric Greek.

B

(From Poems, etc., 1673. Written c. 1655?) When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present 5 My true account, lest He returning chide; "Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"

I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best

10

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait."

TO CYRIACK SKINNER

(First printed in Phillips' Life of Milton, 1694. Written c. 1655)

Cyriack, this three years' day these eyes, though clear,

To outward view, of blemish or of spot,
Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear

Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, 5
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not

Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask?

The conscience, friend, to have lost them over-plied

10

In Liberty's defence, my noble task, Of which all Europe rings from side to side. This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask,

Content, though blind, had I no better guide.

XXI

TO CYRIACK SKINNER

Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench Of British Themis, with no mean applause, Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws,

Which others at their bar so often wrench,

30

Nor the deep tract of Hell-say first what cause
Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state,
Favour'd of Heaven so highly, to fall off
From their Creator, and transgress his will
For one restraint, lords of the World besides.
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
Th' infernal serpent; he it was whose guile,
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring

35

1 Oreb: Sinai. At Oreb (Horeb) God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush; from Mt. Sinai Moses received the Law. Exod. iii. 1, and xxiv., 12-18.

* Moses.

The pool or brook of Siloah near the temple at Jerusalem.

70

And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.
Such place Eternal Justice had prepared
For those rebellious; here their prison ordained
In utter darkness, and their portion set,
As far removed from God and light of Heaven,
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole."
O how unlike the place from whence they fell! 75
There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous
fire,

5 According to the old astronomy, the earth was the center of the physical universe. Milton declares that the distance from hell to heaven is thrice the distance from the earth to the outer limit of the physical universe, or the "utmost pole."

The name Satan means in Hebrew an enemy, or I adversary.

Myriads, though bright-If he whom mutual league,

United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the glorious enterprise,
Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90
In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest
From what height fallen; so much the stronger
proved

95

He with his thunder: and till then who knew
The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those,
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,
Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed
mind,

And high disdain from sense of injured merit,
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along 100
Innumerable force of Spirits armed,

That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power opposed
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,
And shook his throne. What though the field
be lost?

105

110

All is not lost- the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and deify his power
Who, from the terror of his arm, so late
Doubted his empire-that were low indeed;
That were an ignominy and shame beneath 115
This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of
Gods,

And this empyreal substance, cannot fail;

120

Since, through experience of this great event,
In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,
We may with more successful hope resolve
To wage by force or guile eternal war,
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,
Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy
Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven."
So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain,125
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair;
And him thus answered soon his bold com-
peer:-

130

"O Prince, O chief of many-throned Powers, That led the embattled Seraphim to war Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, And put to proof his high supremacy, Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate! Too well I see and rue the dire event That, with sad overthrow, and foul defeat, Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host In horrible destruction laid thus low, As far as Gods and Heavenly Essences Can perish: for the mind and spirit remain Invincible, and vigour soon returns,

135

140

Have left us in this our spirit and strength entire,

150

Strongly to suffer and support our pains,
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Or do him mightier service as his thralls
By right of war, whate'er his business be,
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,
Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep?
What can it then avail, though yet we feel
Strength undiminished, or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment?"
Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend
replied:-

155

160

"Fallen Cherub! to be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering: but of this be sure-
To do aught good, never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight,
As being the contrary to His high will
Whom we resist. If then his providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil;
Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destined aim.
But see! the angry Victor hath recalled
His ministers of vengeance and pursuit
Back to the gates of Heaven; the sulphurous
hail,

Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid
The fiery surge that from the precipice

165

170

Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder, Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.

177

181

Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn.
Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
The seat of desolation, void of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves;
There rest, if any rest can harbour there; 185
And, re-assembling our afflicted powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our enemy, our own loss how repair,
How overcome this dire calamity,

What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 190
If not, what resolution from despair."

Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, With head uplift the wave, and eyes That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 195 Lay floating many a rood; in bulk as huge As whom the fables name, of monstrous size, Titanian or Earth-born, that warred on Jove, Briareus, or Typhon," whom the den

By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast

200

7 The Titans, in Greek mythology, were the children of heaven and Earth. Of gigantic size, the Titans typify strength and lawlessness.

8 A giant, with a hundred arms and fifty heads.

A giant brought forth by the Earth to contend with the Gods. Overcome by Jupiter, he was placed beneath Etna, or according to others under the serbonian bog."

205

Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream.
Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam,
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,
Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind,
Moors by his side under the lee, while night
Invests the sea, and wishèd morn delays.
So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend
lay,

209

Chained on the burning lake; nor ever thence
Had risen, or heaved his head, but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs,
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 215
Evil to others, and enraged might see
How all his malice served but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown
On Man by him seduced, but on himself
Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured.
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty stature; on each hand the flames,
Driv'n backward, slope their pointing spires,
and rolled

219

226

229

In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale.
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air,
That felt unusual weight; till on dry land
He lights-if it were land that ever burned
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire,
And such appeared in hue: as when the force
Of subterranean wind transports a hill
Torn from Pelorus, 10 or the shattered side
Of thundering Etna, whose combustible
And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire, 234
Sublimed" with mineral fury, aid the winds,
And leave a singèd bottom all involved

With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole

Of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate; Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood As gods, and by their own recovered strength, Not by the sufferance of supernal power.

66

241

Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat That we must change for Heaven?-this mournful gloom

Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least

260

265

We shall be free: the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice,
To reign is worth _ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
The associates and co-partners of our loss,
Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool,'
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?"
So Satan spake; and him Beëlzebub
Thus answered:-"Leader of those armies
bright

271

Which, but the Omnipotent, none could have foiled!

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers-heard so oft 275
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults
Their surest signal-they will soon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lie
Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280
As we erewhile, astounded and amazed
No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height!"

He scarce had ceased, when the superior Fiend Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield,

285

290

295

Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast. The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist12 views
At evening, from the top of Fesolè, 13
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
His spear to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great ammiral14 were but a wand-
He walked with, to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heaven's azure; and the torrid clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire.
Nathless he so endured, till on the beach
Of that inflamèd sea he stood, and called
His legions-Angel Forms, who lay entranced,
Thick as autumnal leaves, that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa, 15 where the Etrurian shades,
High over-arched embower; or scattered sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 305
Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves
o'er threw

Busiris 16 and his Memphian chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursued
The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore their floating carcasses

12 Galileo. Artist, one versed in the liberal arts.

300

310

13 Fesole is a hill near Florence, and Valdarno the valley of the Arno, in which Florence is situated.

14 Ammiral admiral, hence the admiral's ship, the flag-ship.

is Vallombrosa (i. e. "shady valley"), a valley about 18 miles from Florence.

16 An Egyptian King, here wrongly identified with the Pharoah who oppressed the Israelites. Memphian, here used in the general sense of Egyptian.