Th' imperial ensign; which, full high advanced, Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed, Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds: At which the universal host up-sent A shout, that tore Hell's concave, and beyond Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. All in a moment through the gloom were seen Ten thousand banners rise into the air, With orient colours waving: with them rose A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms Appeared, and serried shields in thick array Of depth immeasureable. Anon they move In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood 38 Of flutes and soft recorders, 39-such as raised To height of noblest temper, heroes old Arming to battle, and instead of rage Deliberate valour breathed, firm and un- moved
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; 555 Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase
Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain
From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, Breathing united force, with fixèd thought, 560 Moved on in silence to soft pipes, that charmed
Hesperian-Western: here, the lands west of Greece. Italy, the Celtic lands of Gaul etc. as far as the British Isles.
38 In Dorian music the scale differed from that in use among the Lydians and others, this distinctive scale (or arrangement of tones and half tones in the octave) was called the Dorian mood, i. e. mode, or system. Doric music was invigorating and martial in character. 39 A musical instrument resembling a flageolet.
Of Phlegra11 with the heroic race were joined That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds In fable or romance of Uther's son,42 Begirt with British and Armoric knights; And all who since, baptized or infidel, Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebisond, Or whom Biserta43 sent from Afric shore When Charlemain with all his peerage, fell By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed Their dread Commander. He, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent, Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost All its original brightness, nor appeared Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone Above them all the Archangel: but his face Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast Signs of remorse and passion, to behold The fellows of his crime, the followers rather (Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned For ever now to have their lot in pain- Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced Of Heaven, and from eternal splendours flung For his revolt-yet faithful how they stood, 611 Their glory withered; as when Heaven's fire Hath scathed the forest oaks cr mountain pines, With singed top their stately growth, though bare,
Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared
40 Pygmies, a legendary nation of dwarfs, v. Iliad. iii., 3-6.
41 The early name of a peninsula in Thrace, the scene of a conflict between the gods and the Titans, or "giant brood."
42 A Saracen town on the Mediterranean coast of Africa.
How such united force of gods, how such As stood like these, could ever know repulse? For who can yet believe, though after loss, That all these puissant legions, whose exile Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend, Self-raised, and re-possess their native seat? For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, If counsels different, or dangers shunned By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns Monarch in Heaven, till then as one secure Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, Consent or custom, and his regal state
Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed:
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our
So as not either to provoke, or dread
New war provoked; our better part remains 645 To work in close design, by fraud or guile, What force effected not; that he no less At length from us may find, Who overcomes By force hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife There went a fame in Heaven that He ere long Intended to create, and therein plant A generation whom his choice regard Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven; Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps Our first eruption-thither or elsewhere: For this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired; For who can think submission? War, then,
Open or understood, must be resolved."
He spake: and, to confirm his words, out-flew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze
Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped
Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire Shone with a glossy scurf-undoubted sign 672 That in his womb was hid metallic ore, The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed,
A numerous brigade hastened: as when bands Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed, 676 Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on- Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific. By him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught, Ransacked the Centre, and with impious
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew Opened into the hill a spacious wound, And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire14 That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best 691 Deserve the precious bane. And here let those Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings, Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, And strength, and art, are easily outdone By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour What in an age they, with incessant toil And hands innumerable, scarce perform. Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, That underneath had veins of liquid fire Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude With wondrous art founded the massy ore, Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-
Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth And level pavement; from the arched roof Pendent by subtle magic, many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 44 Wonder.
As from a sky. The hasty multitude Admiring entered; and the work some praise, And some the architect. His hand was known In Heaven by many a towered structure high, Where sceptred Angels held their residence, And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King 735 Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, Each in his hierarchy, the Orders bright. Nor was his name unheard or unadored
In ancient Greece; and in the Ausonian land45 Men called him Mulciber, 46 and how he fell From Heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
With other notes than to the Orphean lyre I sung of Chaos and eternal Night, Taught by the Heavenly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to re-ascend, Though hard and rare. Thee I revisit safe, And feel thy sovereign vital lamp; but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs,
1 i. e. would you rather hear yourself called (do you hear rather when you are called).
A legendary poet of Greece. Homer, reputed son of Maion.
And Tiresias and Phineus' prophets old: Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid, Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud instead and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair, Presented with a universal blank
Descend from Heaven, Urania,' by that name If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing! The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'st; but heavenly-born, Before the hills appeared or fountain flowed, Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse, Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased With thy celestial song. Up led by thee, Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air, Thy tempering. With like safety guided down, Return me to my native element;
Lest, from this flying steed unreined (as once Bellerophon, though from a lower clime) Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall, Erroneous there to wander and forlorn. Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound Within the visible Diurnal Sphere.
Standing on Earth, not rapt above the pole, More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days,
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues, In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when Morn Purples the East. Still govern thou my song, 30 Urania, and fit audience find, though few, But drive far off the barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears 35 To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned
Blind prophets in Greek legends.
1 Literally ("the heavenly one") one of the Muses in Greek mythology but here the Divine inspiration, the heavenly Muse" invoked at the beginning of the poem. 2 Orpheus. Cf. Lycidas, lines. 57-63.
Those notes to tragic-foul distrust, and breach Disloyal, on the part of man, revolt And disobedience; on the part of Heaven, Now alienated, distance and distaste, Anger and just rebuke, and judgment given, 10 That brought into this World a world of woe, Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery, Death's harbinger. Sad task! yet argument Not less but more heroic than the wrath Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespoused; Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long Perplexed the Greek, and Cytherea's son: If answerable style I can obtain
Of my celestial Patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplored, And dictates to me slumbering, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse,
Since first this subject for heroic song
Pleased me, long choosing and beginning late, Not sedulous by nature to indite
Wars, hitherto the only argument
Heroic deemed, chief mastery to dissect
(Written c. 1650, published first in first collected edition of Marvell's Poems, 1681)
How vainly men themselves amaze, To win the palm, the oak, or bays, And their incessant labours see Crowned from some single herb, or tree, Whose short and narrow-verged shade, Does prudently their toils upbraid, While all the flowers and trees do close, To weave the garlands of repose!
Fair Quiet, have I found thee here, And Innocence, thy sister dear? Mistaken long, I sought you then In busy companies of men. Your sacred plants, if here below, Only among the plants will grow; Society is all but rude
Fed with nourishment divine,
To this delicious solitude.
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