The Complete Poems

by John Milton

  At iusta raptat impios

  Sub regna furvi luctuosa Tartari

  Sedesque subterraneas.

  45 Hanc ut vocantem laetus audivi, cito

  Foedum reliqui carcerem,

  Volatilesque faustus inter milites

  Ad astra sublimis feror:

  Vates ut olim raptus ad coelum senex

  50 Auriga currus ignei.

  Non me Bootis terruere lucidi

  Sarraca tarda frigore, aut

  Formidolosi Scorpionis brachia,

  Non ensis Orion tuus.

  55 Praetervolavi fulgidi solis globum,

  Longeque sub pedibus deam

  Vidi triformem, dum coercebat suos

  Frenis dracones aureis.

  Erraticorum siderum per ordines,

  60 Per lacteas vehor plagas,

  Velocitatem saepe miratus novam,

  Donec nitentes ad fores

  Ventum est Olympi, et regiam crystallinam, et

  Stratum smaragdis atrium.

  65 Sed hic tacebo, nam quis effari queat

  Oriundus humano patre

  Amoenitates illius loci? mihi

  Sat est in aeternum frui.

  On the death of the Bishop of Ely

  At the Age of 17

  My cheeks were still wet and drenched with tears, and my eyes, not yet dry, were still swollen with the shower of salt water that I had recently poured forth in dutiful and sorrowful tribute to the Bishop of Winchester,6 when hundred-tongued Rumour (always, alas, a true messenger of evil and disaster) spread through Britain’s prosperous cities and the nation sprung from Neptune10 the news that you had succumbed to death and the cruel sisters11 – you, the ornament of mankind, who were the prince of the saints in that island that bears the name ‘Eel’.14 Then my seething breast at once boiled with hot rage. I often cursed the goddess17 who holds sway over the grave. No fiercer curses did Ovid conceive against Ibis18 in the depths of his heart; more restrained than I was the Greek poet20 who poured execrations on the base trickery of Lycambes, and upon Neobule, his promised bride. But lo, while I was pouring out these grievous curses, and calling down death upon Death, it seemed, to my astonishment, that I could hear these words breathed gently on the breeze: ‘Put aside your blind rage, put aside your gleaming bile28 and empty threats. Why do you recklessly assail deities who cannot be harmed and are quickly roused to anger? Death is not, as you, poor wretch, imagine, the dark daughter of Night.32 She is not the daughter of Erebus, or of a Fury, nor was she born of vast Chaos. But, sent from starry heaven, she gathers from all places the harvest of God. She summons into the light and air souls that had been hidden under a mound of flesh, as when the flying Hours,39 daughters of Jove and Themis, rouse the day; and she leads them before the face of the eternal Father. But the wicked she justly carries down to the doleful realms of dark Tartarus, the infernal mansion. When I heard her calling, I was joyful; I quickly left my foul prison, and was carried up to the stars, favoured highly among the winged hosts, as once that old prophet49 was snatched up to heaven, driving a chariot of fire. I was not terrified by bright Boötes and his Wain, sluggish in the cold, or by the claws of the terrible Scorpion, or by your sword, Orion. I flew by the sun’s fiery globe, and far below my feet I saw the triform goddess,56 checking her dragon-team with golden reins. Through the series of planets, through the Milky Way, I was carried, often marvelling at my incredible speed, until I came to the glittering gates of Olympus, the crystalline court, and the entrance-hall paved with emeralds. But here I fall silent, for what son of a mortal father can describe the bliss of that place? For me it is enough to enjoy it for all eternity.’

  Naturam non pati senium

  Heu quam perpetuis erroribus acta fatiscit

  Avia mens hominum, tenebrisque immersa profundis

  Oedipodioniam volvit sub pectore noctem!

  Quae vesana suis metiri facta deorum

  5 Audet, et incisas leges adamante perenni

  Assimilare suis, nulloque solubile saeclo

  Consilium fati perituris alligat horis.

  Ergone marcescet sulcantibus obsita rugis

  Naturae facies, et rerum publica mater

  10 Omniparum contracta uterum sterilescet ab aevo?

  Et se fassa senem male certis passibus ibit

  Sidereum tremebunda caput? num tetra vetustas

  Annorumque aeterna fames, squalorque situsque

  Sidera vexabunt? An et insatiabile Tempus

  15 Esuriet Caelum, rapietque in viscera patrem?

  Heu, potuitne suas imprudens Iupiter arces

  Hoc contra munisse nefas, et Temporis isto

  Exemisse malo, gyrosque dedisse perennes?

  Ergo erit ut quandoque sono dilapsa tremendo

  20 Convexi tabulata ruant, atque obvius ictu

  Stridat uterque polus, superaque ut Olympius aula

  Decidat, horribilisque retecta Gorgone Pallas.

  Qualis in Aegaeam proles Iunonia Lemnon

  Deturbata sacro cecidit de limine caeli.

  25 Tu quoque Phoebe tui casus imitabere nati

  Praecipiti curru, subitaque ferere ruina

  Pronus, et extincta fumabit lampade Nereus,

  Et dabit attonito feralia sibila ponto.

  Tunc etiam aerei divulsis sedibus Haemi

  30 Dissultabit apex, imoque allisa barathro

  Terrebunt Stygium deiecta Ceraunia Ditem

  In superos quibus usus erat, fraternaque bella.

  At Pater omnipotens fundatis fortius astris

  Consuluit rerum summae, certoque peregit

  35 Pondere fatorum lances, atque ordine summo

  Singula perpetuum iussit servare tenorem.

  Volvitur hinc lapsu mundi rota prima diurno,

  Raptat, et ambitos socia vertigine caelos.

  Tardior haud solito Saturnus, et acer ut olim

  40 Fulmineum rutilat cristata casside Mavors.

  Floridus aeternum Phoebus iuvenile coruscat,

  Nec fovet effetas loca per declivia terras

  Devexo temone deus; sed semper amica

  Luce potens eadem currit per signa rotarum.

  45 Surgit odoratis pariter formosus ab Indis

  Aethereum pecus albenti qui cogit Olympo

  Mane vocans, et serus agens in pascua coeli;

  Temporis et gemino dispertit regna colore.

  Fulget, obitque vices alterno Delia cornu,

  50 Caeruleumque ignem paribus complectitur ulnis.

  Nec variant elementa fidem, solitoque fragore

  Lurida perculsas iaculantur fulmina rupes.

  Nec per inane furit leviori murmure Corus,

  Stringit et armiferos aequali horrore Gelonos

  55 Trux Aquilo, spiratque hiemem, nimbosque volutat.

  Utque solet, Siculi diverberat ima Pelori

  Rex maris, et rauca circumstrepit aequora concha

  Oceani tubicen, nec vasta mole minorem

  Aegaeona ferunt dorso Balearica cete.

  60 Sed neque Terra tibi saecli vigor ille vetusti

  Priscus abest; servatque suum Narcissus odorem,

  Et puer ille suum tenet et puer ille decorem

  Phoebe tuusque et Cypri tuus, nec ditior olim

  Terra datum sceleri celavit montibus aurum

  65 Conscia, vel sub aquis gemmas. Sic denique in aevum

  Ibit cunctarum series iustissima rerum,

  Donec flamma orbem populabitur ultima, late

  Circumplexa polos, et vasti culmina caeli,

  Ingentique rogo flagrabit machina mundi.

  That Nature does not suffer from old age

  Alas! How persistent are the errors which drive man’s straying mind to exhaustion. How profound the darkness that swallows him when he broods in his heart over Oedipean night.3 In his madness he dares to measure the gods’ deeds by his own, and to liken his own laws to those carved in everlasting adamant. He binds to his own perishing hours the decree of Fate that cannot be undone by passing ages.

  Will th
en the face of Nature wither and be furrowed with wrinkles? Will our common mother9 contract her all-producing womb and become barren with age? Will she confess herself old and move along with uncertain steps, her starry head doddering? Will the stars be vexed by loathsome old age, the eternal hunger of the years, squalor, and decay? Will insatiable Time devour Heaven, cramming his own father into his stomach?15 Alas, was Jupiter so improvident? Could he not fortify his citadels against such calamity, exempting them from Time’s evils? Could he not have given them perpetual revolutions? Some day, then, the floors of vaulted heaven will fall with a tremendous crash,19 and both poles will groan with the jarring shock; the Olympian will plummet from his heavenly hall, and Pallas with him, her ghastly Gorgon22 shield uncovered. So Juno’s son23 fell on Aegean Lemnos, thrown down from heaven’s sacred threshold. You too, Phoebus, will fall in your careering chariot like your son25 before you, suddenly pitched headlong in your ruin; Nereus27 will steam with the quenching of your lamp, and his astonished waters will send up a fearful hiss. The pinnacle of lofty Haemus,29 its foundations rent asunder, will then fly to pieces, and the Ceraunian mountains, once used against gods in fratricidal wars,32 will be thrown down into the lowest chasm of hell where they will terrify Stygian Dis.

  But the omnipotent Father has consulted on the sum of things,34 and founded the stars more strongly. He has poised the scales of Fate with a sure balance, and commanded each thing to keep its course for ever in the great order. Thus the prime wheel37 of the universe turns its daily rotation and, by imparting its whirling motion, carries with it the circling heavens. Saturn is no slower now than in the past, and Mars, as fierce as he ever was, darts red lightning from his crested helmet. Phoebus shines with the bloom of eternal youth; he does not steer his chariot down declining slopes to warm an exhausted earth, but forever strong with friendly light drives his wheels through the same signs of the zodiac.44 As beautiful as ever, from the spicy Indies arises the star that gathers the heavenly flock, calling them when the sky whitens at morning, and driving them back into the heavenly pastures at evening; thus it divides the realms of time with double beauty.48 Delia49 waxes and wanes with alternating horns, and clasps the fire of heaven with unchanged arms. The elements faithfully adhere to their kind, and in their usual way lurid lightning-bolts strike and shatter the rocks with a crash. Corus53rages through empty space with a roar no gentler than of old, and wild Aquilo55 afflicts the armed Scythians with as much shivering as ever, as he blows winter on them and rolls the clouds along. The king of the sea shakes the base of Sicilian Pelorus56 as he was wont to do, and the ocean’s trumpeter58 blows his hoarse conch over the level deep. The Balearic whales bear on their backs an Aegaeon59 of no less monstrous size. Nor, Earth, have you lost that primeval vigour which you had in ancient times. Narcissus61 still keeps his fragrance, and your beloved boy, Phoebus, and yours, Cypris, still retain their beauty.63 The earth was no richer in days of yore, when she guiltily concealed gold – the source of crime – beneath the mountains, and gems beneath the seas.

  So, in fact, the perfect sequence of the entire universe will continue for all time, until the final conflagration will destroy the world, enveloping everything from pole to pole, and the summits of vast heaven, and the frame of the world burns in a mighty funeral pyre.69

  De Idea Platonica quemadmodum Aristoteles intellexit

  Dicite sacrorum praesides nemorum deae,

  Tuque O noveni perbeata numinis

  Memoria mater, quaeque in immenso procul

  Antro recumbis otiosa Aeternitas,

  5 Monumenta servans, et ratas leges Iovis,

  Caelique fastos atque ephemeridas deum,

  Quis ille primus cuius ex imagine

  Natura sollers finxit humanum genus,

  Aeternus, incorruptus, aequaevus polo,

  10 Unusque et universus, exemplar Dei?

  Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubae

  Interna proles insidet menti Iovis;

  Sed quamlibet natura sit communior,

  Tamen seorsus extat ad morem unius,

  15 Et, mira, certo stringitur spatio loci;

  Seu sempiternus ille siderum comes

  Caeli pererrat ordines decemplicis,

  Citimumve terris incolit lunae globum:

  Sive inter animas corpus adituras sedens

  20 Obliviosas torpet ad Lethes aquas:

  Sive in remota forte terrarum plaga

  Incedit ingens hominis archetypus gigas,

  Et diis tremendus erigit celsum caput

  Atlante maior portitore siderum.

  25 Non cui profundum caecitas lumen dedit

  Dircaeus augur vidit hunc alto sinu;

  Non hunc silenti nocte Pleiones nepos

  Vatum sagaci praepes ostendit choro;

  Non hunc sacerdos novit Assyrius, licet

  30 Longos vetusti commemoret atavos Nini,

  Priscumque Belon, inclytumque Osiridem.

  Non ille trino gloriosus nomine

  Ter magnus Hermes (ut sit arcani sciens)

  Talem reliquit Isidis cultoribus.

  35 At tu perenne ruris Academi decus

  (Haec monstra si tu primus induxti scholis)

  lam iam poetas urbis exules tuae

  Revocabis, ipse fabulator maximus,

  Aut institutor ipse migrabis foras.

  On the Platonic form as Aristotle understood it

  Say, goddesses1 who preside over the sacred groves, and you, Memory,3 blessed mother of the ninefold deity,2 and you, Eternity, who recline at ease in some vast and distant cavern, preserving the records and unalterable laws of Jove, the calendars of heaven and the journals of the gods,6 say who was that first being – eternal, incorruptible, coeval with the heavens, single yet universal, the image of God – in whose likeness ingenious Nature formed the human race? He is not the twin brother of the virgin Athene, lurking unborn in the mind of Jove.12 Although all men participate in his nature, he has a separate existence like an ordinary individual and – strange to tell – is confined to definite spatial limits. Perhaps that eternal companion of the stars wanders at will through the ten celestial spheres, or perhaps he inhabits the moon’s globe, close to our earth. Perhaps he sits in a torpor beside Lethe, river of oblivion, among the souls waiting to enter a body20 – or perhaps this archetype of man is a huge giant who strides along in some remote region of the earth, terrifying the gods as he rears his lofty head higher than star-bearing Atlas.24 The Dircean seer,26 whose blindness brought profound vision, never saw this man in the depths of his innermost mind; nor did Pleione’s swift-winged grandson27 reveal him to the wise band of prophets in the silent night. The Assyrian priest29 did not know him, though he could recount the long lineage of ancient Ninus,30 primeval Belus,31 and renowned Osiris. Nor did thrice-great Hermes,33 glorious with his triple name, bequeath any such tradition to the worshippers of Isis34 – though he was versed in arcane knowledge. But you, the everlasting glory of the grove of the Academy,35 if you were the first to introduce such monstrosities into the philosophic schools, you must now recall the poets whom you exiled from your city, for you yourself are the greatest fabler of all – either that, or you, the founder, must yourself suffer exile.

  Ad Patrem

  Nunc mea Pierios cupiam per pectora fontes

  Irriguas torquere vias, totumque per ora

  Volvere laxatum gemino de vertice rivum;

  Ut tenues oblita sonos audacibus alis

  5 Surgat in officium venerandi Musa parentis.

  Hoc utcunque tibi gratum pater optime carmen

  Exiguum meditatur opus, nec novimus ipsi

  Aptius a nobis quae possint munera donis

  Respondere tuis, quamvis nec maxima possint

  10 Respondere tuis, nedum ut par gratia donis

  Esse queat, vacuis quae redditur arida verbis.

  Sed tamen haec nostros ostendit pagina census,

  Et quod habemus opum charta numeravimus ista,

  Quae mihi sunt nullae, nisi quas dedi
t aurea Clio

  15 Quas mihi semoto somni peperere sub antro,

  Et nemoris laureta sacri Parnassides umbrae.

  Nec tu vatis opus divinum despice carmen,

  Quo nihil aethereos ortus, et semina caeli,

  Nil magis humanam commendat origine mentem,

  20 Sancta Prometheae retinens vestigia flammae.

  Carmen amant superi, tremebundaque Tartara carmen

  Ima ciere valet, divosque ligare profundos,

  Et triplici duros Manes adamante coercet.

  Carmine sepositi retegunt arcana futuri

  25 Phoebades, et tremulae pallentes ora Sibyllae;

  Carmina sacrificus sollennes pangit ad aras,

  Aurea seu sternit motantem cornua taurum;

  Seu cum fata sagax fumantibus abdita fibris

  Consulit, et tepidis Parcam scrutatur in extis.

  30 Nos etiam patrium tune cum repetemus Olympum,

  Aeternaeque morae stabunt immobilis aevi,

  Ibimus auratis per caeli templa coronis,

  Dulcia suaviloquo sociantes carmina plectro,

  Astra quibus, geminique poli convexa sonabunt.

  35 Spiritus et rapidos qui circinat igneus orbes

  Nunc quoque sidereis intercinit ipse choreis

  Immortale melos, et inenarrabile carmen;

  Torrida dum rutilus compescit sibila Serpens,

  Demissoque ferox gladio mansuescit Orion;

  40 Stellarum nec sentit onus Maurusius Atlas.

  Carmina regales epulas ornare solebant,

  Cum nondum luxus, vastaeque immensa vorago

  Nota gulae, et modico spumabat coena Lyaeo.

  Turn de more sedens festa ad convivia vates,

  45 Aesculea intonsos redimitus ab arbore crines,

  Heroumque actus, imitandaque gesta canebat,

  Et Chaos, et positi late fundamina mundi,

  Reptantesque deos, et alentes numina glandes,

  Et nondum Aetnaeo quaesitum fulmen ab antro.

  50 Denique quid vocis modulamen inane iuvabit,

  Verborum sensusque vacans, numerique loquacis?

  Silvestres decet iste choros, non Orphea, cantus,

  Qui tenuit fluvios et quercubus addidit aures

  Carmine, non cithara, simulacraque functa canendo

  55 Compulit in lacrimas: habet has a carmine laudes.

  Nec tu perge precor sacras contemnere Musas,