The Complete Poems

by John Milton

  Right onward. What supports me dost thou ask?

  10 The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied

  In liberty’s defence, my noble task,

  Of which all Europe talks from side to side.

  This thought might lead me through the world’s vain masque

  Content though blind, had I no better guide.

  ‘Fix Here’

  Fix here ye overdated spheres

  That wing the restless foot of time.

  TRANSLATIONS FROM THE PROSE WORKS

  From Of Reformation Touching Church Discipline in England (1641)

  (i)

  Ah Constantine, of how much ill was cause

  Not thy conversion, but those rich domains

  That the first wealthy Pope received of thee.

  Dante, Inferno xix 115–17

  (ii)

  Founded in chaste and humble poverty,

  ’Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn?

  Impudent whore, where hast thou placed thy hope?

  In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth?

  5 Another Constantine comes not in haste.

  Petrarch, Rime cxxxviii 9–13

  (iii)

  Then passed he to a flow’ry mountain green,

  Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously;

  This was that gift (if you the truth will have)

  That Constantine to good Sylvestro gave.

  Ariosto, Orlando Furioso xxxiv 80

  From The Reason of Church Government (1641)

  (iv) When I die,let the earth be rolled in flames.

  From An Apology for Smectymnuus (1642)

  (v) Laughing to teach the truth

  What hinders? As some teachers give to boys

  Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace.

  Horace, Satires I i 24–6.

  (vi)

  Jesting decides great things

  Stronglier, and better oft than earnest can.

  Horace, Satires I x 14–15.

  (vii) ’

  Tis you that say it, not I; you do the deeds,

  And your ungodly deeds find me the words.

  Sophocles, Electro, 624–5.

  From the title-page of Areopagitica (1644)

  (viii)

  This is true liberty, when freeborn men

  Having to advise the public may speak free,

  Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise;

  Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace;

  5 What can be juster in a state than this?

  Euripides, Supplices 438–41

  From Tetrachordon (1645)

  (ix)

  Whom do we count a good man, whom but he

  Who keeps the laws and statutes of the Senate,

  Who judges in great suits and controversies,

  Whose witness and opinion wins the cause;

  5 But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood

  Sees his foul inside through his whited skin.

  Horace, Epistles I xvi 40–45.

  From The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

  (x)

  There can be slain

  No sacrifice to God more ácceptáble

  Than an unjust and wicked king.

  Seneca, Hercules Furens 922–4

  From The History of Britain (1670)

  (xi)

  Goddess of shades, and huntress, who at will

  Walk’st on the rolling sphere, and through the deep,

  On thy third reign the earth look now, and tell

  What land, what seat of rest thou bidd’st me seek,

  5 What certain seat, where I may worship thee

  For ay, with temples vowed, and virgin choirs.

  (xii)

  Brutus far to the west, in th’ ocean wide

  Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,

  Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old;

  Now void, it fits thy people; thither bend

  5 Thy course, there shalt thou find a lasting seat,

  There to thy sons another Troy shall rise,

  And kings be born of thee, whose dreaded might

  Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold.

  (xiii)

  Low in a mead of kine under a thorn,

  Of head bereft li’th poor Kenelm king-born.

  PARADISE LOST

  The Verse

  The measure is English heroic verse without rhyme, as that

  of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rhyme being no

  necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse,

  in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous

  5 age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre; graced indeed

  since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away

  by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and

  constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most

  part worse than else they would have expressed them. Not

  10 without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish poets

  of prime note have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter

  works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as

  a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true

  musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity

  15 of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one

  verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings,

  a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all

  good oratory. This neglect then of rhyme so little is to be

  taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar

  20 readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the

  first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem

  from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming.

  BOOK I

  The Argument

  This first book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, man’s

  disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he

  was placed: then touches the prime cause of his fall, the

  serpent, or rather Satan in the serpent; who revolting from

  5 God, and drawing to his side many legions of angels, was by

  the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his crew

  into the great deep. Which action passed over, the poem hastes

  into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his angels now

  fallen into Hell, described here, not in the centre (for heaven

  10 and earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet

  accursed) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos:

  here Satan with his angels lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck

  and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as from

  confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by

  15 him; they confer of their miserable fall, Satan awakens all his

  legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded;

  they rise, their numbers, array of battle, their chief leaders

  named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan

  and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech,

  20 comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells

  them lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be

  created, according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven;

  for that angels were long before this visible Creation, was the

  opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of

  25 this prophecy, and what to determine thereon he refers to a full

  council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandaemonium

  the palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the deep:

  the infernal Peers t
here sit in council.

  Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit

  Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

  Brought death into the world, and all our woe,

  With loss of Eden, till one greater man

  5 Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,

  Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top

  Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

  That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,

  In the beginning how the heav’ns and earth

  10 Rose out of Chaos: or if Sion hill

  Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed

  Fast by the oracle of God; I thence

  Invoke thy aid to my advent’rous song,

  That with no middle flight intends to soar

  15 Above th’ Aonian mount, while it pursues

  Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

  And chiefly thou O Spirit, that dost prefer

  Before all temples th’ upright heart and pure,

  Instruct me, for thou know’st; thou from the first

  20 Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread

  Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast abyss

  And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark

  Illumine, what is low raise and support;

  That to the heighth of this great argument

  25 I may assert Eternal Providence,

  And justify the ways of God to men.

  Say first, for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view

  Nor the deep tract of Hell, say first what cause

  Moved our grand parents in that happy state,

  30 Favoured of Heav’n 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

  35 Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived

  The mother of mankind, what time his pride

  Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his host

  Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring

  To set himself in glory above his peers,

  40 He trusted to have equalled the Most High,

  If he opposed; and with ambitious aim

  Against the throne and monarchy of God

  Raised impious war in Heav’n and battle proud

  With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power

  45 Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky

  With hideous ruin and combustion down

  To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

  In adamantine chains and penal fire,

  Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms.

  50 Nine times the space that measures day and night

  To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

  Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf

  Confounded though immortal: but his doom

  Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought

  55 Both of lost happiness and lasting pain

  Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes

  That witnessed huge affliction and dismay

  Mixed with obdúrate pride and steadfast hate:

  At once as far as angels’ ken he views

  60 The dismal situation waste and wild,

  A dungeon horrible, on all sides round

  As one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames

  No light, but rather darkness visible

  Served only to discover sights of woe,

  65 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

  And rest can never dwell, hope never comes

  That comes to all; but torture without end

  Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed

  With eve–burning sulphur unconsumed:

  70 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 Heav’n

  As from the centre thrice to th’ utmost pole.

  75 O how unlike the place from whence they fell!

  There the companions of his fall, o’erwhelmed

  With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,

  He soon discerns, and welt’ring by his side

  One next himself in power, and next in crime,

  80 Long after known in Palestine, and named

  Beëlzebub. To whom th’ Arch-Enemy,

  And thence in Heav’n called Satan, with bold words

  Breaking the horrid silence thus began.

  If thou beest he; but O how fall’n! how changed

  85 From him, who in the happy realms of light

  Clothed with transcendent brightness didst outshine

  Myriads though bright: if he whom mutual league,

  United thoughts and counsels, equal hope

  And hazard in the glorious enterprise,

  90 Joined with me once, now misery hath joined

  In equal ruin: into what pit thou seest

  From what heighth fall’n, so much the stronger proved

  He with his thunder: and till then who knew

  The force of those dire arms? yet not for those,

  95 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 die mightiest raised me to contend,

  100 And to the fierce contention brought along

  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 Heav’n,

  105 And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?

  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?

  110 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 this arm so late

  Doubted his empire, that were low indeed,

  115 That were an ignominy and shame beneath

  This downfall; since by Fate the strength of gods

  And this empyreal substance cannot fail,

  Since through experience of this great event

  In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,

  120 We may with more successful hope resolve

  To wage by force or guile eternal war

  Irreconcilable, to our grand Foe,

  Who now triúmphs, and in th’ excess of joy

  Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heav’n.

  125 So spake th’ apostate angel, though in pain,

  Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair:

  And him thus answered soon his bold compeer.

  O Prince, O chief of many thronèd Powers

  That led th’ embattled Seraphim to war

  130 Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds

  Fearless, endangered Heav’n’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,

  135 That with sad overthrow and foul defeat

  Hath lost us Heav’n, and all this mighty host

  In horrible destruction laid thus low,

  As far as gods and Heav’nly essences

  Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains

  140 Invincible, and vigour soon returns,

  Though all our glory extinct, and happy state

  Here swallowed up in endless misery.

  But what if he our C
onqueror, (whom I now

  Of force believe Almighty, since no less

  145 Than such could have o’erpow’red such force as ours)

  Have left us this our spirit and strength entire

  Strongly to suffer and support our pains,

  That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,

  Or do him mightier service as his thrallsc

  150 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

  155 To undergo eternal punishment?

  Whereto with speedy words th’ Arch-Fiend replied.

  Fall’n Cherub, to be weak is miserable

  Doing or suffering: but of this be sure,

  To do aught good never will be our task,

  160 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,

  165 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

  170 His ministers of vengeance and pursuit

  Back to the gates of Heav’n: the sulphurous hail

  Shot after us in storm, o’erblown hath laid

  The fiery surge, that from the precipice

  Of Heav’n received us falling, and the thunder

  175 Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage,

  Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now

  To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.

  Let us not slip th’ occasion, whether scorn,

  Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.

  180 Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,

  The seat of desolation, void of light,

  Save what the glimmering of these livid flames