At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a fign
Portentous held me; but familiar grown,
I pleas'd, and with attractive graces won
The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft
Thyfelf in me thy perfect image viewing,
Becam'st enamour'd, and fuch joy thou took'ft 165-
With me in fecret, that my womb conceiv'd
A growing burden. Mean while war arose,
And fields were fought in heav'n; wherein remain'd
(For what could else?) to our almighty foe
Clear victory, to our part loss and rout,
Through all the empyréan: down they fell
Driv'n headlong from the pitch of heav'n, down
Into this deep; and in the gen'ral fall
1 also; at which time this pow'rful key
Into my hand was giv'n, with charge to keep7755 These gates for ever shut, which none can pass
Without my op'ning. Penfive here I fat
Alone; but long I fat not, till my womb
Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
Prodigious motion felt, and rueful throes.
At last this odious offspring whom thou seest,
Thine own begotten; breaking violent way
Tore thro my intrails, that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transform'd: but he my inbred enemy:
Forth ifsfu'd, brandishing his fatal dart,
Made to destroy: I fled, and cry'd out, Death;
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and figh'd
From all her caves, and back refounded, Death.
I fled, but he purfu'd, (tho' more, it feems,
Inflam'd with luft than rage,) and, fwifter far,
Me overtook, his mother, all dismay'd,
And in embraces forcible and foul
Ingend'ring with me, of that rape begot
These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry 795
Surround me, as thou faw'st, hourly conceiv'd
And hourly born, with forrow infinite
To me; for when they lift, into the womb
That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw
My bowels, their repaft; then bursting forth
Afresh, with confcious terrors vex me round,
That reft or intermiffion none I find.
Before mine eyes in oppofition fits
Grim Death, my fon and foe, who fets them on,
And me his parent would full foon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows
His end with mine involv'd; and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,
Whenever that shall be; so fate pronounc'd.
But thou, O father, I forewarn thee, shun
His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
Tho' temper'd heav'nly; for that mortal dint,
Save he who reigns above, none can refift.
She finish'd; and the subile fiend his lore Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus answer'd smooth. Dear daughter, since thou claim'st me for thy fire, And my fair fon here show'st me, the dear pledge Of dalliance had with thee in heav'n, and joys Then sweet, now sad to mention, thro' dire change Befall'n us, unforeseen, unthought of; know
I come no enemy, but to set free
From out this dark and difmal house of pain
Both him and thee, and all the heav'nly host
Of fpi'rits, that, in our just pretences arm'd,
Fell with us from on high: from them I go
This uncouth errand fole; and one for all
Myself expofe, with lonely steps to tread
Th' unfounded deep, and thro' the void immenfe
To search with wand'ring quest a place foretold 830
Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now
Created vast and round, a place of blifs
In the purlieus of heav'n, and therein plac'd
A race of upstart creatures, to fupply
Perhaps our vacant room, tho' more remov'd, 835:
Lest heav'n furcharg'd with potent multitude
Might hap to move new broits. Be this, or ought
Than this more secret, now design'd, I haste
To know; and this once known, shall foon return
And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unfeen
Wing filently the buxom air, imbalm'd
With odours; there ye shall be fed and fill'd,
Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey.
He ceas'd, for both seem'd highly pleas'd, and Death
Grinn'd horrible a ghastty'smile; to hear
His famine should be fill'd, and bless'd his maw
Destin'd to that good hour: no lefs rejoic'd
His mother bad, and thus befpake her fire.
The key of this infernal pit by due,
And by command of heav'n's all-pow'rful King,
Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down.
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,
To fit in hateful office here confin'd,
Inhabitant of heav'n, and heav'nly born,
Here in perpetual agony and pain,
With terrors and with clamours compars'd round
Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou
My being gav'st me; whom should I obey
But thee? whom follow? thou wilt bring me foon
To that new world of light and blifs, among
The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems
Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.
Thus faying, from her fide the fatal key,
Sad inftrument of all our woe, she took;
And tow'rds the gate rolling her bestial train,
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew,
Which, but herself, not all the Stygian pow'rs 875
Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns
Th' intricate wards, and ev'ry bolt and bar
Of massy ir'on or folid rock with ease
Unfastens on a sudden open fly,
With impetuous recoil and jarring found,
Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut
Excell'd her pow'r; the gates wide open stood,
That with extended wings a banner'd hoft,
Under spread ensigns marching, might pass thro'
With horfe and chariots rank'd in loofe array;
So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth
Caft forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.
Before their eyes in fudden view appear
The fecrets of the hoary deep; a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound,
Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place, are loft; where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mast'ry, and to battle bring
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in their several clans,
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, fmooth, fwift, or flow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the fands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid foil,
Levy'd to fide with warring winds, and poife 905 Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,
He rules a moment: Chaos umpire fits,
And by decifion more embroils the fray
next him high arbiter
Into this wild abyss,
By which he reigns:
Chance governs all.
The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave,
Of neither fea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain.
His dark materials to create more worlds.
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell, and look'd a while,
Pond'ring his voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd
With noises loud and ruinous, (to compare
Great things with small), than when Bellona storms,
With all her batt'ring engines bent to raze
Some capital city'; or less than if this frame.
Of heav'n were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn
The stedfaft earth. At last his fail-broad vans
He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke
Uplifted fpurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
Audacious; but that feat foon failing, meets
A vast vacuity: all unawares
Flutt'ring his pennons vain, plumb down he drops Ten thousand fathoms deep, and to this hour
|