Or in the Elysian fields (if such there were),
Oh say me true if thou were mortal wight 69
And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.
VII
Were thou some star which from the ruined roof
Of shaked Olympus by mischance didst fall?
Which careful Jove in Nature’s true behoof 70
Took up, and in fit71place did reinstall?
Or did, of late, earth’s sons besiege the wall
Of shiny Heav’n, and thou some goddess fled
Amongst us here below to hide thy nectared head?
VIII
Or were thou that just maid who once before
Forsook the hated earth,72O tell me sooth,
And cam’st again to visit us once more?
Or wert thou Mercy, that sweet smiling youth?
Or that crowned matron, sage white-robèd Truth?
Or any other of that heav’nly brood
Let down in cloudy throne to do the world some good?
IX
Or wert thou of the golden-wingèd host,
Who having clad thyself in human weed 73
To earth from thy prefixèd seat didst post,74
And after short abode fly back with speed,
As if to show what creatures Heav’n doth breed,
Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire
To scorn the sordid 75world, and unto Heav’n aspire?
X
But oh, why didst thou not stay here below
To bless us with thy Heav’n-loved innocence?
To slake his wrath, whom sin hath made our foe?
To turn swift-rushing black perdition hence,
Or drive away the slaughtering pestilence?
To stand ’twixt us and our deservèd smart? 76
But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.
XI
Then thou, the mother of so sweet a child,
Her false-imagin’d loss cease to lament,
And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild.
Think what a present thou to God has sent,
And render Him with patience what he lent.
This if thou do, He will an offspring give
That till the world’s last end shall make thy name to live.
AT A VACATION EXERCISE IN THE COLLEGE, PART LATIN, PART ENGLISH
1628
The Latin speeches ended, the English thus began:
Hail, native language, that by sinews weak
Didst move my first endeavoring tongue to speak
And mad’st imperfect words with childish trips,
Half unpronounced, slide through my infant lips,
Driving dumb silence from the portal door,
Where he had mutely sat two years before!
Here I salute thee, and thy pardon ask,
That now I use thee in my later task.
Small loss it is that hence can come unto thee:
I know my tongue but little grace can do thee.
Thou needst not be ambitious to be first:
Believe me, I have thither 77packed the worst—
And, if it happen, as I did forecast,
The daintiest dishes shall be served up last.
I pray thee, then, deny me not thy aid
For this same small neglect that I have made,
But haste thee straight to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefest treasure,
Not those new-fangled toys and trimming slight
Which takes our late fantastics with delight,
But cull those richest robes and gay’st attire
Which deepest spirits and choicest wits desire.
I have some naked 78thoughts that rove about
And loudly knock to have their passage out,
And, weary of their place, do only stay
Till thou has decked them in thy best array,
That so they may without suspect 79or fears
Fly swiftly to this fair assembly’s ears.
Yet I had rather, if I were to choose,
Thy service in some graver subject use,
Such as may make thee search thy coffers80round 81
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound—
Such where the deep transported mind may soar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav’n’s door
Look in, and see each blissful deity
How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
Listening to what unshorn Apollo sings
To the touch of golden wires, while Hebe 82brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly sire.
Then passing through the spheres of watchful fire,
And misty regions of wide air next under,
And hills of snow and lofts 83of pilèd thunder,
May tell at length how green-eyed Neptune raves,
In Heav’n’s defiance mustering all his waves.
Then sing of secret things that came to pass
When beldam 84Nature in her cradle was.
And last, of kings and queens and heroes old,
Such as the wise Demodocus85once told,
In solemn songs at king Alcinous’ feast,
While sad Ulysses’ soul and all the rest
Are held with his melodious harmony
In willing chains and sweet captivity.
But fie, my wand’ring muse! How thou dost stray!
Expectance calls thee now another way:
Thou know’st it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compass 86of thy predicament.87
Then quick, about thy purposed business come,
That to the next I may resign my room.88
Then Ens is represented as father of the [ten Aristotelian] predicaments, his ten sons, whereof the eldest stood for substance, with his canons, which Ens, thus speaking, explains:
Good luck befriend thee, son, for at thy birth
The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth.
Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them spy
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,
And sweetly singing round about thy bed
Strew all their blessings on thy sleeping head.
She heard them give thee this: that thou should’st still
From eyes of mortals walk invisible.
Yet there is something that doth force my fear,
For once it was my dismal 89hap 90to hear
A sibyl91old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wisely could presage,
And in time’s long and dark prospective glass
Foresaw what future days should bring to pass:
“Your son,” said she, “(nor can you it prevent)
Shall be subject to many an accident.
O’er all his brethren he shall reign as king,
Yet every one shall make him underling,
And those that cannot live from him asunder92
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under.
In worth and excellence he shall out-go93them,
Yet being above them, he shall be below them.
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers shall depend for clothing.
To find a foe it shall not be his hap,
And peace shall lull him in her flow’ry lap.
Yet shall he live in strife, and at his door
Devouring war shall never cease to roar.
Yea, it shall be his natural property94
To harbor those that are at enmity.”
What power, what force, what mighty spell, if not
Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot?
The next, Quantity and Quality, spoke in prose. Then Relation was called by his name:
Rivers 95arise, whether thou be the son
Of utmost 96Tweed,97or Ouse, or gulfy Dun,98
Or Trent, who like some earth-born giant spreads
His thirty99arms along the indented meads,
Or sullen Mole, that runneth underneath,
Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden’s death,100
Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lea,
Or coaly Tyne,101or ancient hallowed Dee,
Or Humber loud, that keeps 102the Scythian’s name,
Or Medway smooth, or royal-towered Thame.103
ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S NATIVITY
1629
I
This is the month, and this the happy morn
Wherein the son of Heav’n’s eternal king,
Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring.
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit104should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
II
That glorious form, that light unsufferable,105
And that far-beaming blaze of majesty
Wherewith he wont,106 at Heav’n’s high council-table
To sit, the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside, and here with us to be
Forsook the courts107of everlasting day,
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.
III
Say Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein108
Afford 109a present to the infant God?
Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,110
To welcome him to this his new abode,
Now while the Heav’n by the sun’s team111untrod,
Hath took no print112of the approaching light
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?
IV
See how, from far, upon the eastern road
The star-led wizards 113haste, with odors sweet!
O run, prevent 114them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessèd feet!
Have thou the honor, first thy Lord to greet,
And join thy voice unto the Angel choir
From out his secret altar, touched with hallowed fire.
THE HYMN
I
It was the winter wild,
While the Heav’n-born child
All meanly115wrapped in the rude 116manger117lies.
Nature in awe118to him
Had doffed 119her gaudy 120trim,121
With her great master so to sympathize.
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the sun, her lusty 122paramour.
II
Only with speeches fair
She woos the gentle air
To hide her guilty front123with innocent snow,
And on her naked shame,
Pollute 124with sinful blame,
The saintly veil of maiden white to throw,
Confounded125that her Maker’s eyes
Should look so near upon her foul deformities.
III
But he, her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-eyed Peace.
She, crowned with olive green, came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphere,
His ready harbinger,126
With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing,
And waving wide her myrtle wand
She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.
IV
No war or battle’s sound
Was heard the world around.
The idle spear and shield were high up hung,
The hookèd 127chariot stood
Unstained with hostile blood,
The trumpet spoke not to the armèd throng,
And kings sat still, with awful128eye,
As if they surely knew their sov’reign Lord was by.
V
But peaceful was the night
Wherein the Prince of Light
His reign of peace upon the earth began.
The winds, with wonder whist,129
Smoothly the waters kissed,
Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,130
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmèd wave.
VI
The stars with deep amaze
Stand fixed in steadfast gaze,
Bending one way their precious influence,
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,
Or Lucifer 131that often warned them thence,
But in their glimmering orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespoke, and bid them go.
VII
And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,132
The sun himself withheld his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame,
As 133his inferior flame
The new-enlightened world no more should need;
He saw a greater sun appear
Than his bright throne or burning axletree could bear.
VIII
The shepherds on the lawn,
Or ere the point 134of dawn,
Sat simply chatting in a rustic row.
Full little thought they then
That the mighty Pan
Was kindly come to live with them below.
Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,
Was all that did their silly 135thoughts so busy keep.
IX
When such music sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,
As never was by mortal finger struck,
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringèd noise
As all their souls in blissful rapture took.136
The air such pleasure loath to lose
With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close.137
X
Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow round
Of Cynthia’s 138seat, the airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
To think her part was done,
And that her reign had here its last fulfilling.
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all Heav’n and earth in happier union.
XI
At last surrounds their sight
A globe of circular light,
That with long beams the shame-faced night arrayed.139
The helmèd Cherubim
And swordèd Seraphim
Are seen in glittering ranks, with wings displayed,
Harping in loud and solemn choir,
With unexpressive 140notes to Heav’n’s new-born heir.
XII
Such music (as ’tis said)
Before was never made
But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator great
His constellations set,
And the well-balanced world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltering141waves their oozy channel keep.
XIII
Ring out, ye crystal spheres,
Once bless our human ears
(If ye have power to touch our senses so),
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time,
And let the bass of Heav’n’s deep organ blow,
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.
XIV
For if such holy song
Enwrap our fancy long,
Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold,
And speckled 142vanity
Will sicken soon, and die,
And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould,
And Hell itself will pass away,
And leave her dolorous143mansions144to the peering day.
XV
Yea, Truth and Justice then
Will down return to men,
Orbed in a rainbow; and like1
45glories wearing
Mercy will sit between,
Throned in celestial sheen,
With radiant feet the tissued 146clouds down steering,
And Heav’n, as at some festival,
Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.
XVI
But wisest Fate says no,
This must not yet be so,
The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss,
So both himself and us to glorify.
Yet first to those ychained in sleep
The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep
XVII
With such a horrid clang
As on Mount Sinai rang
While the red fire and smoldering clouds out-break.
The aged earth aghast
With terror of that blast
Shall from the surface to the center shake;
When at the world’s last session147
The dreadful 148Judge in middle air shall spread His throne,
XVIII
And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is—
But now begins, for from this happy day
Th’ old dragon under ground
In straiter149limits bound
Not half so far casts his usurpèd sway,
And wroth 150to see his kingdom fail
Swinges151the scaly horror of his folded tail.
XIX
The oracles are dumb;
No voice or hideous hum
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Page 3