The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems
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My glory, my perfection! Glad I see
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Thy face, and morn returned, for I this night
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(Such night till this I never passed) have dreamed
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(If dreamed) not, as I oft am wont,3299 of thee,
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Works of day past, or morrow’s next design,3300
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But of offence and trouble, which my mind
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Knew never till this irksome3301 night. Methought
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Close at mine ear one called me forth to walk,
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With gentle voice; I thought it thine. It said,
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‘Why sleep’st thou, Eve? Now is the pleasant time,
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The cool, the silent, save 3302 where silence yields
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To the night-warbling bird, that now awake
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Tunes sweetest his love-labored song. Now reigns
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Full-orbed the moon, and with more pleasing light
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Shadowy sets off the face of things. In vain,
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If none regard.3303 Heav’n wakes with all his eyes,
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Whom to behold but thee, Nature’s desire?
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In whose sight all things joy, 3304 with ravishment 3305
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Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.
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I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;
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To find thee I directed then my walk,
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And on, methought, alone I passed through ways
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That brought me on a sudden to the tree
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Of interdicted3306 knowledge. Fair it seemed,
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Much fairer to my fancy than by day,
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And as I wond’ring looked, beside it stood
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One shaped and winged like one of those from Heav’n
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By us oft seen. His dewy locks distilled3307
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Ambrosia. On that tree he also gazed,
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And ‘O fair plant,’ said he, ‘with fruit surcharged,3308
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Deigns none to ease thy load, and taste thy sweet,
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Nor god, nor man? Is knowledge so despised?
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Or envy, or what reserve3309 forbids to taste?
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Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold
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Longer thy offered good: why else set 3310 here?
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This said, he paused not, but with venturous3311 arm
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He plucked, he tasted; me damp3312 horror chilled
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At such bold words vouched 3313 with a deed so bold,
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But he thus, overjoyed: ‘O fruit divine,
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Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropped,3314
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Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit
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For gods, yet able to make gods of men.
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And why not gods of men? Since good, the more
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Communicated, more abundant grows,
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The author3315 not impaired, but honored more?
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Here, happy creature, fair angelic Eve!
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Partake thou also. Happy though thou art,
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Happier thou may’st be, worthier canst not be.
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Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods
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Thyself a goddess, not to earth confined,
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But sometimes in the air, as we, sometimes
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Ascend to Heav’n, by merit thine, and see
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What life the gods live there, and such live thou!
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“So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held,
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Ev’n to my mouth of that same fruit held part3316
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Which he had plucked. The pleasant savory smell
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So quickened appetite that I, methought,
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Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds
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With him I flew, and underneath beheld
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The earth outstretched immense, a prospect wide
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And various, wond’ring at my flight and change
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To this high exaltation. Suddenly
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My guide was gone, and I, methought, sunk down,
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And fell asleep. But O, how glad I waked
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To find this but a dream!” Thus Eve her night
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Related, and thus Adam answered, sad:3317
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“Best image of myself, and dearer half,
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The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep
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Affects me equally, nor can I like
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This uncouth3318 dream, of evil sprung, I fear.
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Yet evil whence? In thee can harbor none,
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Created pure. But know that in the soul
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Are many lesser faculties, that serve
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Reason as chief; among these Fancy 3319 next 3320
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Her office 3321 holds. Of all external things
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Which the five watchful3322 senses represent,3323
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She forms imaginations, airy shapes,
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Which reason, joining or disjoining, frames
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All what we affirm or what deny, and call 3324
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Our knowledge or opinion, then retires
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Into her private cell, when Nature rests.
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Oft, in her absence, mimic Fancy wakes
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To imitate her but, misjoining shapes,
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Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams,
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Ill matching words and deeds long past or late. 3325
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Some such resemblances, methinks, I find
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Of our last evening’s talk, in this thy dream,
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But with addition strange. Yet be not sad.3326
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Evil into the mind of god or man
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May come and go, so unapproved, and leave
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No spot or blame behind. Which gives me hope
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That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream,
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Waking thou never will consent to do.
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Be not disheartened, then, nor cloud those looks
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That wont to be more cheerful and serene
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Than when fair morning first smiles on the world.
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And let us to our fresh employments rise
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Among the groves, the fountains, and the flowers
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That open now their choicest bosomed3327 smells,
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Reserved from night, and kept for thee in store.
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So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheered.
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But silently a gentle tear let fall
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From either eye, and wiped them with her hair.
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Two other precious drops that ready stood,
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Each in their crystal sluice, 3328 he ere they fell
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Kissed, as the gracious signs of sweet remorse
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And pious awe, that feared to have offended.
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So all was cleared, and to the field they haste.
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But first, from under shady arborous roof
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Soon as they forth were come to open sight
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Of day-spring, and the sun, who scarce up-risen,
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With wheels yet hov’ring o’er the ocean-brim,
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Shot parallel to the earth his dewy ray,
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Discovering 3329 in wide landscape all the east
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Of Paradise and Eden’s happy plains,
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Lowly they bowed adoring, and began
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Their orisons,3330 each morning duly paid
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In various3331 style, for neither various style
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Nor holy rapture wanted 3332 they to praise
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Their Maker, in fit 3333 strains3334 pronounced, or sung
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Unmeditated, such prompt3335 eloquence
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Flowed from their lips, in prose or numerous3336 verse,
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More tuneable 3337 than needed lute or harp
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To add more sweetness. And they thus began:
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“These are Thy glorious works, Parent of good,
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Almighty! Thine this universal frame, 3338
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Thus wondrous fair. Thyself how wondrous then!
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Unspeakable, who sit’st above these. Heav’ns
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To us invisible, or dimly seen
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In these Thy lowest works. Yet these declare
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Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.
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Speak ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,
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Angels, for ye behold Him, and with songs
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And choral symphonies,3339 day without night,
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Circle His throne rejoicing, ye in Heav’n!
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On earth join all ye creatures to extol
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Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end!
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Fairest of stars,3340 last in the train of night
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(If better thou belong not to the dawn)
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Sure pledge3341 of day that crown’st the smiling morn
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With thy bright circlet,3342 praise Him in thy sphere,
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While day arises, that sweet hour of prime. 3343
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Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul,
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Acknowledge Him thy greater, sound His praise
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In thse, both when thou climb’st
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And when high noon hast gained,3344 and when thou fall’st.
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Moon, that now meet’st the orient3345 sun, now fly’st 3346
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With the fixed stars, fixed in their orb that flies,3347
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And ye five other wand’ring3348 fires3349 that move
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In mystic dance not without song, resound
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His praise, who out of darkness called up light.
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Air, and ye Elements, the eldest birth
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Of Nature’s womb, that in quaternion3350 run
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Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix
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And nourish all things: let your ceaseless change
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Vary, 3351 to our great Maker still new praise.
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Ye mists and exhalations that now rise
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From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray,
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Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
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In honor to the world’s great Author rise,
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Whether to deck with clouds the uncolored 3352 sky,
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Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,
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Rising or falling still advance His praise.
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His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
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Breathe soft or loud. And wave your tops, ye pines,
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With every plant, in sign of worship wave!
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Fountains,3353 and ye that warble as ye flow,
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Melodious murmurs, warbling tune3354 His praise.
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Join voices, all ye living souls! Ye birds,
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That singing up to Heaven-gate ascend,
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Bear on your wings, and in your notes, His praise.
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Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
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The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep,
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Witness3355 if I be silent, morn or ev’n,
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To hill, or valley, fountain, or fresh shade,
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Made vocal3356 by my song, and taught His praise.
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Hail, universal Lord, be bounteous still3357
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To give us only good. And if the night
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Have gathered aught of evil, or concealed,
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Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark!
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So prayed they innocent, and to their thoughts
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Firm peace recovered soon, and wonted3358 calm.
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On to their morning’s rural 3359 work they haste,
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Among sweet dews and flow’rs, where any row
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Of fruit-trees over-woody reached too far
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Their pampered boughs,3360 and needed hands to check
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Fruitless 3361 embraces.3362 Or they led the vine
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To wed her elm; she, spoused, about him twines
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Her marriageable arms, and with him brings
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Her dow’r, th’ adopted 3363 clusters,3364 to adorn
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His barren3365 leaves. Them thus employed beheld
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With pity Heav’n’s high King, 3366 and to him called
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Raphael, the sociable Spirit that deigned
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To travel with Tobias, and secured
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His marriage with the seven-times-wedded maid.3367
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“Raphael,” said He, “thou hear’st what stir on earth
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Satan, from Hell ’scaped through the darksome gulf,
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Hath raised in Paradise, and how disturbed
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This night the human pair, how he designs3368
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In them at once to ruin all mankind.
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Go, therefore: half this day as friend with friend
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Converse with Adam, in what bow’r or shade
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Thou find’st him from the heat of noon retired,
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To respite3369 his day-labor with repast3370
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Or with repose, and such discourse bring on
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As may advise him of his happy state,
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Happiness in his power left free to will,
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Left to his own free will, his will though free,
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Yet mutable. 3371 Whence warn him to beware
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He swerve not, too secure. 3372 Tell him withal 3373