by John Milton
Be fruitful, multiply, and in the Seas
And Lakes and running Streams the waters fill;
And let the Fowl be multiply’d on th’ Earth.
Forthwith the Sounds and Seas, each Creek and Bay
400
With Frie innumerable swarm, and Shoals
Of Fish that with thir Finns and shining Scales
Glide under the green Wave, in Sculls45 that oft
Bank the mid Sea: part single or with mate
Graze the Sea weed thir pasture, and through Groves
405
Of Coral stray, or sporting with quick glance
Show to the Sun thir wav’d coats dropt46 with Gold,
Or in thir Pearlie shells at ease, attend
Moist nutriment, or under Rocks thir food
In jointed Armour watch: on smooth47 the Seal,
410
And bended Dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unweildie, enormous in thir Gate
Tempest the Ocean: there Leviathan
Hugest of living Creatures, on the Deep
Stretcht like a Promontorie sleeps or swims,
415
And seems a moving Land, and at his Gills
Draws in, and at his Trunck spouts out a Sea.
Mean while the tepid Caves, and Fens and shoares
Thir Brood as numerous hatch, from th’ Egg that soon
Bursting with kindly48 rupture forth disclos’d
420
Thir callow young, but featherd soon and fledge
They summ’d thir Penns,49 and soaring th’ air sublime
With clang despis’d the ground, under a cloud
In prospect;50 there the Eagle and the Stork
On Cliffs and Cedar tops thir Eyries build:
425
Part loosly51 wing the Region, part more wise
In common, rang’d in figure wedge thir way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
Thir Aerie Caravan high over Seas
Flying, and over Lands with mutual wing
430
Easing thir flight; so stears the prudent Crane
Her annual Voiage, born on Winds; the Air
Floats, as they pass, fann’d with unnumber’d plumes:
From Branch to Branch the smaller Birds with song
Solac’d the Woods, and spred thir painted wings
435
Till Ev’n, nor then the solemn Nightingale
Ceas’d warbling, but all night tun’d her soft layes:
Others on Silver Lakes and Rivers Bath’d
Thir downie Brest; the Swan with Arched neck
Between her white wings mantling52 proudly, Rows
440
Her state with Oarie feet: yet oft they quit
The Dank, and rising on stiff Pennons, towr
The mid Aereal Skie: Others on ground
Walk’d firm; the crested Cock whose clarion sounds
The silent hours, and th’ other whose gay Train
445
Adorns him, colour’d with the Florid hue
Of Rainbows and Starrie Eyes. The Waters thus
With Fish replenisht, and the Air with Fowl,
Ev’ning and Morn solemniz’d the Fift day.
The Sixt, and of Creation last arose
450
With Eevning Harps and Mattin, when God said,
Let th’ Earth bring forth Soul living in her kind,
Cattel and Creeping things, and Beast of th’ Earth,
Each in their kind. The Earth obey’d, and strait
Op’ning her fertil Woomb teem’d at a Birth
455
Innumerous living Creatures, perfet formes,
Limb’d and full grown: out of the ground up rose
As from his Lair the wild Beast where he wonns53
In Forrest wild, in Thicket, Brake, or Den;
Among the Trees in Pairs they rose, they walk’d:
460
The Cattel in the Fields and Meddows green:
Those rare and solitarie, these in flocks
Pasturing at once, and in broad Herds upsprung.
The grassie Clods now Calv’d, now half appeer’d
The Tawnie Lion, pawing to get free
465
His hinder parts, then springs as broke from Bonds,
And Rampant shakes his Brinded54 main; the Ounce,
The Libbard, and the Tyger, as the Moal
Rising, the crumbl’d Earth above them threw
In Hillocks; the swift Stag from under ground
470
Bore up his branching head: scarse from his mould
Behemoth55 biggest born of Earth upheav’d
His vastness: Fleec’t the Flocks and bleating rose,
As Plants: ambiguous between Sea and Land
The River Horse56 and scalie Crocodile.
475
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
Insect or Worm; those wav’d thir limber fans
For wings, and smallest Lineaments exact
In all the Liveries dect of Summers pride
With spots of Gold and Purple, azure and green:
480
These as a line thir long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
Minims of Nature; some of Serpent kind
Wondrous in length and corpulence57 involv’d
Thir Snakie foulds, and added wings. First crept
485
The Parsimonious Emmet, provident
Of future, in small room large heart enclos’d,
Pattern of just equalitie perhaps
Hereafter, join’d in her popular Tribes
Of Commonaltie: swarming next appeer’d
490
The Female Bee that feeds her Husband Drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen Cells
With Honey stor’d: the rest are numberless,
And thou thir Natures know’st, and gav’st them Names,
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
495
The Serpent suttl’st Beast of all the field,58
Of huge extent somtimes, with brazen Eyes
And hairie Main terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.
Now Heav’n in all her Glorie shon, and rowl’d
500
Her motions, as the great first-Movers hand
First wheeld thir course; Earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smil’d; Air, Water, Earth,
By Fowl, Fish, Beast, was flown, was swum, was walkt
Frequent; and of the Sixt day yet reman’d;
505
There wanted yet the Master work, the end59
Of all yet don; a Creature who not prone
And Brute as other Creatures, but endu’d
With Sanctitie of Reason, might erect
His Stature, and upright with Front serene
510
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heav’n,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyes
Directed in Devotion, to adore
515
And worship God Supream, who made him chief
Of all his works: therefore th’ Omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not hee
Present) thus to his Son audibly spake.
Let us make now Man in our image, Man
520
In our similitude, and let them rule
Over the Fish and Fowl of Sea and Air,
Beast of the Field, and over all the Earth,
And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.
This said, he formd thee, Adam, thee O Man
525
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath’d
The breath of Life; in his own Ima
ge hee
Created thee, in the Image of God
Express, and thou becam’st a living Soul.
Male he created thee, but thy consort
530
Female for Race; then bless’d Mankind, and said,
Be fruitful, multiplie, and fill the Earth,
Subdue it, and throughout Dominion hold
Over Fish of the Sea, and Fowl of the Air,
And every living thing that moves on th’ Earth.
535
Wherever thus created, for no place
Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know’st
He brought thee into this delicious Grove,
This Garden, planted with the Trees of God,
Delectable both to behold and taste;
540
And freely all thir pleasant fruit for food
Gave thee, all sorts are here that all th’ Earth yeelds,
Varietie without end; but of the Tree
Which tasted works knowledge of Good and Evil,
Thou mai’st not; in the day thou eat’st, thou di’st;
545
Death is the penaltie impos’d, beware,
And govern well thy appetite, least sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.
Here finish’d hee, and all that he had made
View’d, and behold all was entirely good;
550
So Ev’n and Morn accomplish’d the Sixt day:
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up returnd
Up to the Heav’n of Heav’ns his high abode,
Thence to behold this new created World
555
Th’ addition of his Empire, how it shew’d
In prospect from his Throne, how good, how fair,
Answering his great Idea. Up he rode
Followd with acclamation and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand Harps that tun’d
560
Angelic harmonies: the Earth, the Air
Resounded (thou remember’st, for thou heardst),
The Heav’ns and all the Constellations rung,
The Planets in thir stations list’ning stood,
While the bright Pomp ascended jubilant.
565
Open, ye everlasting Gates, they sung,
Open, ye Heav’ns, your living dores;60 let in
The great Creator from his work returnd
Magnificent, his Six days work, a World;
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deigne
570
To visit oft the dwellings of just Men
Delighted, and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his winged Messengers
On errands of supernal Grace. So sung
The glorious Train ascending: He through Heav’n,
575
That open’d wide her blazing Portals, led
To Gods Eternal house direct the way,
A broad and ample rode, whose dust is Gold
And pavement Starrs, as Starrs to thee appeer,
Seen in the Galaxie, that Milkie way
580
Which nightly as a circling Zone thou seest
Powderd with Starrs. And now on Earth the Seventh
Eev’ning arose in Eden, for the Sun
Was set, and twilight from the East came on,
Forerunning Night; when at the holy mount
585
Of Heav’ns high-seated top, th’ Impereal Throne
Of Godhead, fixt for ever firm and sure,
The Filial Power arriv’d, and sate him down
With his great Father, for he also went
Invisible, yet staid (such priviledge
590
Hath Omnipresence) and the work ordain’d,
Author and end of all things, and from work
Now resting, bless’d and hallowd the Seav’nth day,
As resting on that day from all his work,
But not in silence holy kept; the Harp
595
Had work and rested not, the solemn Pipe,
And Dulcimer, all Organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on Fret61 by String or Golden Wire
Temper’d soft Tunings, intermixt with Voice
Choral or Unison:62 of incense Clouds
600
Fuming from Golden Censers hid the Mount.
Creation and the Six dayes acts they sung,
Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite
Thy power; what thought can measure thee or tongue
Relate thee; greater now in thy return
605
Then from the Giant Angels; thee that day
Thy Thunders magnifi’d; but to create
Is greater then created to destroy.
Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound
Thy Empire? easily the proud attempt
610
Of Spirits apostat and thir Counsels vain
Thou hast repeld, while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
615
To manifest the more thy might: his evil
Thou usest, and from thence creat’st more good.
Witness this new-made World, another Heav’n
From Heaven Gate not farr, founded in view
On the cleer Hyaline, the Glassie Sea;63
620
Of amplitude almost immense,64 with Starrs
Numerous, and every Starr perhaps a World
Of destind habitation; but thou know’st
Thir seasons: among these the seat of men,
Earth with her nether Ocean circumfus’d,
625
Thir pleasant dwelling place. Thrice happie men,
And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanc’t,
Created in his Image, there to dwell
And worship him, and in reward to rule
Over his Works, on Earth, in Sea, or Air,
630
And multiply a Race of Worshippers
Holy and just: thrice happie if they know
Thir happiness, and persevere upright.
So sung they, and the Empyrean rung,
With Halleluiahs: Thus was Sabbath kept.
635
And thy request think now fulfill’d, that ask’d
How first this World and face of things began,
And what before thy memorie was don
From the beginning, that posteritie
Informd by thee might know; if else thou seekst
640
Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.
* * *
1 usually identified as the Muse of astronomy, the meaning of whose name (“heavenly”) emphasizes Milton’s invoking of divine inspiration. In Prov. viii Wisdom, from “the top of high places,” tells the sons of men of the Creation, the subject of this book. But here the reference seems to be to the Spirit of God as in the invocations in I, III, and IX.
2 For Pegasus and Bellerophon (l. 18), see Rouse, n. 8.
3 associate, live.
4 the field on which Bellerophon landed.
5 straying, wandering.
6 as opposed to the first half of the poem dealing with the invisible, eternal, formless worlds of Heaven and Hell.
7 not transported above the primum mobile.
8 a temporal reference to the period of the Restoration (1660 and ff.); the “darkness” (l. 27) is his blindness. Eccles. xii. 1: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh.…”
9 Orpheus; see Lycidas, n. 12.
10 marital partner (from “consortium”).
11 surged back.
12 called back.
13 both “red” with moving fires (hinting at its origin) and now “adorned with flourishing vege
tation.”
14 finished.
15 unseen (since it lies outside the primum mobile) and formless.
16 keep watch.
17 Venus, called Lucifer as the morning star.
18 Job vii. 10: “Neither shall his place know him any more.”
19 foolishly.
20 scattered; “fill all those relinquished areas left uninhabited by those who joined Satan.”
21 God is not limited even though he withdraws his influence from part of infinitude, thus leaving Chaos.
22 everlasting.
23 all-creating.
24 Prov. viii. 27: “When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.”
25 both hellish (from Tartarus) and sedimentary (from the incrustation of the residue from grapes in wine-making).
26 formed them into a rounded mass (the Earth). Since the Earth is spherical at creation and composed of all things like, it conforms to concepts of perfection. First light (Day) is united and then each of the four elements: air, earth, water, and fire.
27 Interwoven through l. 593 are quotations from Genesis (i. 3-31, ii. 1-9, 15-17).
28 ether, the fifth or highest essence (element) of life.
29 The Son (“That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable, / And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,” Nativity Ode, 8-9) came in a “Poor fleshly Tabernacle” (Passion, 17).
30 the heavens stretching from the seas of the universe (“Round,” l. 267) to the Crystalline (watery) Sphere (“Ocean,” l. 271); see Gen. i. 6-7.
31 rolled up, infolded.
32 both “expansive” and “essential.”
33 fertilizing.
34 both “speed” and “drops of rain.”
35 carried along with great haste.
36 erratic movement (like a serpent).
37 watery course.
38 entwined.
39 budded.
40 groups of trees or shrubbery.
41 Galileo had discovered the phases of Venus.
42 absorption of the sun’s light.
43 divided (amongst the “thousand lesser Lights”).
44 any creeping thing (but including fish).
45 schools of fish that make a shoal in the sea (l. 403).