The Complete Poems
Page 47
Circling the throne and singing, while the hand
Sung with the voice, and this the argument.
Victory and triumph to the Son of God
Now ent’ring his great duel, not of arms,
175 But to vanquish by wisdom Hellish wiles.
The Father knows the Son; therefore secure
Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,
Against whate’er may tempt, whate’er seduce,
Allure, or terrify, or undermine.
180 Be frustrate all ye strategems of Hell,
And devilish machinations come to nought.
So they in Heav’n their odes and vigils tuned:
Meanwhile the Son of God, who yet some days
Lodged in Bethabara where John baptized,
185 Musing and much revolving in his breast,
How best the mighty work he might begin
Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first
Publish his Godlike office now mature,
One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading;
190 And his deep thoughts, the better to converse
With solitude, till far from track of men,
Thought following thought, and step by step led on,
He entered now the bordering desert wild,
And with dark shades and rocks environed round,
195 His holy meditations thus pursued.
O what a multitude of thoughts at once
Awakened in me swarm, while I consider
What from within I feel myself, and hear
What from without comes often to my ears,
200 Ill sorting with my present state compared.
When I was yet a child, no childish play
To me was pleasing, all my mind was set
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do
What might be public good; myself I thought
205 Born to that end, born to promote all truth,
All righteous things: therefore above my years,
The Law of God I read, and found it sweet,
Made it my whole delight, and in it grew
To such perfection, that ere yet my age
210 Had measured twice six years, at our great feast
I went into the Temple, there to hear
The teachers of our Law, and to propose
What might improve my knowledge or their own;
And was admired by all; yet this not all
215 To which my spirit aspired; victorious deeds
Flamed in my heart, heroic acts, one while
To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke,
Then to subdue and quell o’er all the earth
Brute violence and proud tyrannic pow’r,
220 Till truth were freed, and equity restored:
Yet held it more humane, more Heavenly, first
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,
And make persuasion do the work of fear;
At least to try, and teach the erring soul
225 Not wilfully misdoing, but unware
Misled; the stubborn only to subdue.
These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving
By words at times cast forth inly rejoiced,
And said to me apart, high are thy thoughts
230 O Son, but nourish them and let them soar
To what heighth sacred virtue and true worth
Can raise them, though above example high;
By matchless deeds express thy matchless Sire.
For know, thou art no son of mortal man,
235 Though men esteem thee low of parentage,
Thy Father is the Eternal King, who rules
All Heaven and earth, angels and sons of men.
A messenger from God foretold thy birth
Conceived in me a virgin; he foretold
240 Thou shouldst be great and sit on David’s throne,
And of thy kingdom there should be no end.
At thy nativity a glorious choir
Of angels in the fields of Bethlehem sung
To shepherds watching at their folds by night,
245 And told them the Messiah now was born,
Where they might see him, and to thee they came;
Directed to the manger where thou lay’st,
For in the inn was left no better room:
A star, not seen before in heaven appearing
250 Guided the wise men thither from the east,
To honour thee with incense, myrrh, and gold,
By whose bright course led on they found the place,
Affirming it thy star new-grav’n in heaven,
By which they knew thee King of Israel born.
255 Just Simeon and prophetic Anna, warned
By vision, found thee in the Temple, and spake
Before the altar and the vested priest,
Like things of thee to all that present stood.
This having heard, straight I again revolved
260 The Law and Prophets, searching what was writ
Concerning the Messiah, to our scribes
Known partly, and soon found of whom they spake
I am; this chiefly, that my way must lie
Through many a hard assay even to the death,
265 Ere I the promised Kingdom can attain,
Or work Redemption for mankind, whose sins’
Full weight must be transferred upon my head.
Yet neither thus disheartened or dismayed,
The time prefixed I waited, when behold
270 The Baptist (of whose birth I oft had heard,
Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come
Before Messiah and his way prepare.
I as all others to his baptism came,
Which I believed was from above; but he
275 Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed
Me him (for it was shown him so from Heaven)
Me him whose harbinger he was; and first
Refused on me his baptism to confer,
As much his greater, and was hardly won;
280 But as I rose out of the laving stream,
Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence
The Spirit descended on me like a dove,
And last the sum of all, my Father’s voice,
Audibly heard from Heav’n, pronounced me his,
285 Me his beloved Son, in whom alone
He was well-pleased; by which I knew the time
Now full, that I no more should live obscure,
But openly begin, as best becomes
The authority which I derived from Heaven.
290 And now by some strong motion I am led
Into this wilderness, to what intent
I learn not yet, perhaps I need not know;
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.
So spake our Morning Star then in his rise,
295 And looking round on every side beheld
A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades;
The way he came not having marked, return
Was difficult, by human steps untrod;
And he still on was led, but with such thoughts
300 Accompanied of things past and to come
Lodged in his breast, as well might recommend
Such solitude before choicest society.
Full forty days he passed, whether on hill
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night
305 Under the covert of some ancient oak,
Or cedar, to defend him from the dew,
Or harboured in one cave, is not revealed;
Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt
Till those days ended, hungered then at last
310 Among wild beasts: they at his sight grew mild,
Nor sleeping him nor waking harmed, his walk
The fiery serpent fled, and noxious worm,
The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.
But now an aged man in rural weeds,
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315 Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray ewe,
Or withered sticks to gather; which might serve
Against a winter’s day when winds blow keen,
To warm him wet returned from field at eve,
He saw approach, who first with curious eye
320 Perused him, then with words thus uttered spake.
Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place
So far from path or road of men, who pass
In troop or caravan? For single none
Durst ever, who returned, and dropped not here
325 His carcass, pined with hunger and with drouth.
I ask the rather, and the more admire,
For that to me thou seem’st the man, whom late
Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford
Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee Son
330 Of God; I saw and heard, for we sometimes
Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth
To town or village nigh (nighest is far)
Where aught we hear, and curious are to hear,
What happens new; fame also finds us out.
335 To whom the Son of God. Who brought me hither
Will bring me hence, no other guide I seek.
By miracle he may, replied the swain,
What other way I see not, for we here
Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inured
340 More than the camel, and to drink go far,
Men to much misery and hardship born;
But if thou be the Son of God, command
That out of these hard stones be made thee bread;
So shalt thou save thyself and us relieve
345 With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste.
He ended, and the Son of God replied.
Think’st thou such force in bread? Is it not written
(For I discern thee other than thou seem’st)
Man lives not by bread only, but each word
350 Proceeding from the mouth of God; who fed
Our fathers here with manna; in the mount
Moses was forty days, nor ate nor drank,
And forty days Elijah without food
Wandered this barren waste, the same I now:
355 Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?
Whom thus answered th’ Arch-Fiend now undisguised.
’Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,
Who leagued with millions more in rash revolt
360 Kept not my happy station, but was driv’n
With them from bliss to the bottomless deep,
Yet to that hideous place not so confined
By rigour unconniving, but that oft
Leaving my dolorous prison I enjoy
365 Large liberty to round this globe of earth,
Or range in th’ air, nor from the Heav’n of Heav’ns
Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.
I came among the sons of God, when he
Gave up into my hands Uzzéan Job
370 To prove him, and illústrate his high worth;
And when to all his angels he proposed
To draw the proud King Ahab into fraud
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
I undertook that office, and the tongues
375 Of all his flattering prophets glibbed with lies
To his destruction, as I had in charge.
For what he bids I do; though I have lost
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost
To be beloved of God, I have not lost
380 To love, at least contémplate and admire
What I see excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous; I should so have lost all sense.
What can be then less in me than desire
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
385 Declared the Son of God, to hear attent
Thy wisdom, and behold thy Godlike deeds?
Men generally think me much a foe
To all mankind: why should I? they to me
Never did wrong or violence, by them
390 I lost not what I lost, rather by them
I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell
Copartner in these regions of the world,
If not disposer; lend them oft my aid,
Oft my advice by presages and signs,
395 And answers, oracles, portents and dreams,
Whereby they may direct their future life.
Envy they say excites me, thus to gain
Companions of my misery and woe.
At first it may be; but long since with woe
400 Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof,
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens aught each man’s peculiar load.
Small consolation then, were man adjoined:
This wounds me most (what can it less) that man,
405 Man fall’n shall be restored, I never more.
To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied.
Deservedly thou griev’st, composed of lies
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end;
Who boast’st release from Hell, and leave to come
410 Into the Heav’n of Heavens; thou com’st indeed,
As a poor miserable captive thrall
Comes to the place where he before had sat
Among the prime in splendour, now deposed,
Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpitied, shunned,
415 A spectacle of ruin or of scorn
To all the host of Heaven; the happy place
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy,
Rather inflames thy torment, representing
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable,
420 So never more in Hell than when in Heaven.
But thou art serviceable to Heaven’s King.
Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?
What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem
425 Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
With all inflictions? But his patience won.
The other service was thy chosen task,
To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
430 Yet thou pretend’st to truth; all oracles
By thee are giv’n, and what confessed more true
Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers, what but dark
435 Ambiguous and with double sense deluding,
Which they who asked have seldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Whoever by consulting at thy shrine
Returned the wiser, or the more instruct
440 To fly or follow what concerned him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
For God hath justly giv’n the nations up
To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
Idolatrous; but when his purpose is
445 Among them to declare his Providence
To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,
But from him or his angels president
In every province, who themselves disdaining
To approach thy temples, give thee in command
450 What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say
To thy adorers; thou with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning parasite obey’st;
Then to thyself ascrib’st the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched;
455 No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceased,
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
Shalt be inquired at Delphos or elsewhere,<
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At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
460 God hath now sent his living Oracle
Into the world, to teach his final will,
And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle
To all truth requisite for men to know.
465 So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend,
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
Dissembled, and this answer smooth returned.
Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,
And urged me hard with doings, which not will
470 But misery hath wrested from me; where
Easily canst thou find one miserable,
And not enforced oft-times to part from truth,
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?
475 But thou art placed above me, thou art Lord;
From thee I can and must submiss endure
Check or reproof, and glad to ’scape so quit.
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,
Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to th’ ear,
480 And tuneable as sylvan pipe or song;
What wonder then if I delight to hear
Her dictates from thy mouth? Most men admire
Virtue, who follow not her lore: permit me
To hear thee when I come (since no man comes)
485 And talk at least, though I despair to attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wise and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
To tread his sacred courts, and minister
About his altar, handling holy things,
490 Praying or vowing, and vouchsafed his voice
To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet
Inspired; disdain not such accéss to me.
To whom our Saviour with unaltered brow.
Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,
495 I bid not or forbid; do as thou find’st
Permission from above; thou canst not more.
He added not; and Satan bowing low
His grey dissimulation, disappeared
Into thin air diffused: for now began
500 Night with her sullen wing to double-shade
The desert, fowls in their clay nests were couched;
And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.
THE SECOND BOOK
Meanwhile the new-baptized, who yet remained
At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen
Him whom they heard so late expressly called
Jesus Messiah, Son of God declared,
5 And on that high authority had believed,
And with him talked, and with him lodged, I mean
Andrew and Simon, famous after known
With others though in Holy Writ not named,
Now missing him their joy so lately found,