Thus they their doubtful consultations dark Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief: As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread Heav'n's cheerful face, the louring element Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip snow, or shower; If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet Extend his ev'ning beam, the fields revive, The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. O shame to men, devil with devil damn'd Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational, tho' under hope Of heavenly grace: and God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each other to destroy: As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enow besides, That day and night for his destruction wait.
The Stygian council thus dissolv'd; and forth In order came the grand infernal peers: Midst came their mighty paramount, and scem'd Alone the antagonist of Heav'n, nor less Than Hell's dread emperor with pomp supreme, And godlike imitated state; him round A globe of fiery seraphim inclos'd With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms. Then of their session ended they bid cry With trumpets' regal sound the great result: Tow'rds the four winds four speedy cherubim Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy By herald's voice explain'd; the hollow abyss Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell With deaf'ning shout return'd them loud acclaim. Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat rais'd By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers Disband, and wand'ring, each his several way Pursues, as inclination or sad choice
Leads him, perplex'd where he may likeliest find Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain The irksome hours, till his great chief return. Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, Upon the wing, or in swift race contend, As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields. Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form, As when to warn proud cities war appears Wag'd in the troubled sky, and armies rush To battle in the clouds, before each van Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms From either end of Heav'n the welkin burns. Others, with vast Typhoan rage more fell, Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar. As when Alcides, from Oechalia crown'd With conquest, felt th' envenom'd robe, and tore, Through pain, up by the roots Thessalian pines, And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw Into th' Euboic sea. Others more mild, Retreated in a silent valley, sing With notes angelical to many a harp, Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall By doom of battle; and complain that fate Free virtue should inthrall to force or chance.
Their song was partial, but the harmony (What could it less when spirits immortal sing?) Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense) Others apart sat on a hill retired,
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute, And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost. Of good and evil much they argu'd then, Of happiness and final misery, Passion and apathy, and glory and shame, Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy: Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast With stubborn patience as with triple steel. Another part, in squadrons and gross bands On bold adventure to discover wide That dismal world, if any clime perhaps Might yield them easier habitation, bend Four ways their flying march along the banks Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful streams; Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron, of sorrow, black and deep; Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud, Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon, Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Far off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls Her wat'ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks Forthwith his former state and being forgets, Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems Of ancient pile; or else deep snow and ice, A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire Thither, by harpy-footed furies haled,
At certain revolutions, all the damn'd Are brought, and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, by change more fierce, From beds of raging fire to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. They ferry over this Lethean sound
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, And wish and struggle as they pass, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woc, All in one moment, and so near the brink; But fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards The ford, and of itself the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
In confus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands, With shudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghast, View'd first their lamentable lot, and found
No rest through many a dark and dreary vale They pass'd, and many a region dolorous, O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of A universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good,
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, unutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
Meanwhile the adversary of God and man, Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of high'st design, Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight; sometimes
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left, Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars Up to the fiery concave towering high. As when far off at sea a fleet descry'd Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs: they on the trading flood Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape Ply stemming nightly tow'rd the pole. Far off the flying fiend: at last appear Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice three-fold the gates; three folds were brass, Three iron, three of adamantine rock, Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire, Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat On either side a formidable shape;
The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair, But ended foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd With mortal sting: about her middle round A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing bark'd With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep, If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb, And kennel there, yet there still bark'd and howl'd Within, unseen. Far less abhorr'd than these Vex'd Scylla bathing in the sea that parts Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore: Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when call'd In secret, riding through the air she comes, Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring moon Eclipses at their charms. The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb, Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, For each seem'd either; black it stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as Hell,
And shook a dreadful dart: what seem'd his head, The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The monster moving, onward came as fast With horrid strides: Hell trembled as he strode. Th' undaunted fiend what this might be admir'd; Admir'd, not fear'd; God and his Son except Created thing naught valued he or shunn'd: And with disdainful look thus first began:
Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, That be assur'd, without leave ask'd of thee: Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of Heav'n. To whom the goblin full of wrath reply'd: Art thou that traitor angel, art thou he Who first broke peace in Heav'n and faith, till then Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons Conjur'd against the High'st, for which both thou And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd To waste eternal days in woe and pain?
And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of Heav'n, Hell-doom'd, and breath'st defiance here, and scorn, Where I reign king, and to enrage thee more, Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment, False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue Thy ling'ring, or with one stroke of this dart Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before. So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape, So speaking and so threat'ning, grew ten-fold More dreadful and deform: on th' other side, Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In the Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head Level'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands No second stroke intend, and such a frown Each cast at th' other, as when two black clouds, With Heav'n's artillery fraught, come rattling on Over the Caspian, then stand front to front Hov'ring a space, till winds the signal blow To join their dark encounter in mid air: So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell Grew darker at their frown, so match'd they stood; For never but once more was either like To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds Had been achiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung, Had not the snaky sorceress that sat Fast by Hell-gate, and kept the fatal key, Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between. O father, what intends thy hand, she cry'd, Against thy only son? What fury, O son! Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart Against thy father's head? and know'st for whom; For him who sits above and laughs the while At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids; His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both. She spake, and at her words the hellish pest Forbore. Then these to her Satan return'd. So strange the outcry, and thy words so strange Thou interposest, that my sudden hand Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds What it intends; till first I know of thee, What thing thou art, thus double-form'd, and why In this infernal vale, first met, thou call'st Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son; I know thee not, nor ever saw till now Sight more detestable than him and thee.
T' whom thus the portress of Hell-gate replied: Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem Now in thine eye so foul? once deem'd so fair In Heav'n, when at th' assembly, and in sight
Of all the seraphim with thee combin'd
In bold conspiracy against Heav'n's King, All on a sudden miserable pain
MILTON." These yelling monsters
Surpris'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, Likest to thee in shape and count'nance bright, Then shining heav'nly fair, a goddess arm'd Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seiz'd All th' host of Heav'n; back they recoil'd afraid At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a sign Portentous held me; but familiar grown,
I pleas'd, and with attractive graces won
The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
Becam'st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st
With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd A growing burden. Meanwhile 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 empyrean, down they fell, Driv'n headlong from the pitch of Heav'n down Into this deep, and in the general fall I also; at which time this powerful key Into my hand was given, with charge to keep These gates for ever shut, which none can pass Without my op'ning. Pensive here I sat Alone, but long I sat 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 through my entrails, that with fear and pain Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew Transform'd: but he my inbred enemy Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart Made to destroy: I fled, and cry'd out Death; Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd From all her caves, and back resounded Death. I fled, but he pursued (though more, it seems, Inflam'd with lust than rage) and swifter far, Me overtook, his mother, all dismay'd, And in embraces forcible and foul Ingendering with me, of that rape begot These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceiv'd And hourly born, with sorrow infinite To me; for when they list, into the womb That bred them, they return and howl, and gnaw My bowels, their repast; then bursting forth Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round, That rest or intermission none I find. Before mine eyes in opposition sits Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on, And me his parent would full soon 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, Though temper'd heav'nly, for that mortal dint, Save he who reigns above, none can resist. She finish'd; and the subtle fiend his lore
Soon learn'd, now milder; and thus answer'd smooth: Dear daughter, since thou claim'st me for thy sire, And my fair son here shew'st me, the dear pledge Of dalliance had with thee in Heav'n, and joys Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change Befall'n us unforeseen, unthought of; know I come no enemy, but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain, Both him and thee, and all the heav'nly host Of spirits that in our just pretences arm'd, Fell with us from on high: from them I go This uncouth errand sole, and one for all Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread Th' unfounded deep, and through the void immense To search with wand'ring quest a place foretold Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now Created vast and round, a place of bliss In the purlieus of Heav'n, and therein plac'd A race of upstart creatures, to supply Perhaps our vacant room, though more remov'd, Lest Heav'n, surcharg'd with potent multitude, Might hap to move new broils: be this or aught Than this more secret now design'd, I haste To know, and this once known, shall soon return, And bring ye to the place where thou and Death Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen Wing silently the buxom air, embalm'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 Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear [Death His famine should be fill'd, and blest his maw, Destin'd to that good hour: no less rejoic'd His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire:
The key of this infernal pit by due, And by command of Heav'n's all-powerful King, I keep, by him forbidden to unlock These adamantine gates: against all force Death ready stands to interpose his dart, Fearless to be o'ermatch'd by living might. But what owe I to his commands above, Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, To sit 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 compass'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 soon To that new world of light and bliss, 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 saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad instrument 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 powers Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and bar Of massy iron or solid rock, with ease Unfastens on a sudden open fly, With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 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 host, Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through, With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array; So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. Before their eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound,
Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestor 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,
O'er bog, or steep, through straft, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies: At length an universal-hubbub wild
Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd, Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear With loudest vehemence: thither he plies, Undaunted, to meet there whatever power Or spirit of the nethermost abyss
Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies Bord'ring on light; when strait behold the throne Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthron'd Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, The consort of his reign; and by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon: Rumour next, and Chance, And Tumult and Confusion, all embroil'd, And Discord, with a thousand various mouths.
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, T' whom Satan turning boldly, thus: Ye powers
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,
Levied to side with warring winds, and poise
Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, He rules a moment; Chaos umpire sits, And by decision more embroils the fray By which he reigns: next him high arbiter Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, 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 new 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 car less peal'd With noises loud and ruinous (to compare Great things with small) than when Bellona storms With all her battering engines, bent to raze Some capital city; or less than if this frame Of heaven were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from her axle torn
The stedfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league, As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides Audacious; but that seat soon failing, meets A vast vacuity: all unawares,
Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour Down had been falling, had not by ill chance The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd, Quench'd in a boggy syrtis, neither sea Nor good dry land, nigh founder'd, on he fares, Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail. As when a gryphon through the wilderness With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale, Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd The guarded gold: so eagerly the Fiend
And Spirits of this nethermost abyss, Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, With purpose to explore or to disturb The secrets of your realm, but by constraint Wand'ring this darksome desart, as my way Lies through your spacious empire up to light, Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds Confine with Heav'n; or if some other place, From your dominion won, th' ethereal King Possesses lately, thither to arrive
I travel this profound; direct my course; Directed, no mean recompense it brings To your behoof, if I that region lost, All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce To her original darkness and your sway, (Which is my present journey) and once more Erect the standard there of ancient Night; Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge.
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, With falt'ring speech, and visage incompos'd, Answer'd. I know thee, stranger, who thou art, That mighty leading Angel, who of late Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. I saw and heard, for such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frighted deep With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded; and Heav'n gates Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here Keep residence; if all I can will serve That little which is left so to defend, Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils Weak'ning the sceptre of old Night; first Hell Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath; Now lately Heav'n and Earth, another world, Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain To that side Heav'n from whence your legions fell: If that way be your walk, you have not far: So much the nearer danger; go and speed; Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain.
He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply; But glad that now his sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity and force renew'd, Springs upward like a pyramid of fire
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock Of fighting elements, on all sides round Environ'd wins his way; harder beset And more endanger'd than when Argo pass'd Through Bosphorus betwixt the justling rocks: Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool steer'd. So he with difficulty and labour hard Mov'd on; with difficulty and labour he; But he once past, soon after when man fell, Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain Following his track, such was the will of Heav'n, Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endur'd a bridge of wondrous length, From Hell continued reaching th' utmost orb Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse With easy intercourse pass to and fro To tempt or punish mortals, except whom God and good angels guard by special grace. But now, at last, the sacred influence Of light appears, and from the walls of Heav'n Shoots far into the bosom of dim night A glimmering dawn; here Nature first begins Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire As from her utmost works a broken foe With tumult less and with less hostile din, That Satan with less toil, and now with ease Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, And like a weather-beaten vessel holds Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn; Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold Far off th' empyreal Heav'n extended wide In circuit, undetermin'd square or round, With opal tow'rs and battlements adorn'd Of living sapphire, once his native seat; And fast by hanging in a golden chain This pendent world, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, Accurs'd, and in a cursed hour he hies.
HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heav'n first born, Or of th' eternal coeternal beam,
May I express thee, unblam'd? Since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or hear'st thou rather, pure ethereal stream, Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun, Before the Heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a mantle didst invest The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Thee I revisit now with bolder wing, Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight Through utter and through middle darkness borne With other notes than to th' Orphean lyre I sung of Chaos and eternal Night, Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to re-ascend, Though hard and rare; thee I revisit safe, And feel thy sov'reign vital lamp; but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs, Or dim suffusion veil'd. Yet not the more Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt, Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief Thee, Sion, and the flow'ry brooks beneath, That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget Those other two equall'd with me in fate, So were I equall'd with them in renown, Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides, And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old: Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move Harmonious numbers, as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of Knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank
Of Nature's works to me expung'd and rais'd, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. So much the rather thou, celestial Light, Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight.
SATAN'S JOURNEY TO EARTH.
THUS they in Heav'n, above the starry sphere, Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent. Mean while, upon the firm, opacous globe
Of this round world, whose first convex divides The luminous inferior orbs inclos'd From Chaos, and th' inroad of darkness old, Satan alighted walks: a globe far off It seem'd, now seems a boundless continent Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night Starless expos'd, and ever threat'ning storms Of Chaos blust'ring round, inclement sky; Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven, Though distant far, some small reflection gains Of glimmering air, less vex'd with tempest loud: Here walk'd the Fiend at large in spacious field. As when a vulture, on Imaus bred, Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids On hills where flocks are fed, flies tow'rds the springs Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams; But in his way lights on the barren plains Of Sericana, where Chineses drive
With sails and wind their cany waggons light: So on this windy sea of land the Fiend
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