John Milton

Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n.

Heard so oft

In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge

Of battle.

Thrice he assay'd, and thrice in spite of scorn

Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth.

Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top

Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,

In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth

Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill

Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd

Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence

Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,

That with no middle flight intends to soar

Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues

Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.

From morn

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,

A summer's day; and with the setting sun

Dropped from the zenith like a falling star.

The strongest and the fiercest spirit

That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair.

Their rising all at once was as the sound

Of thunder heard remote.

Rather than be less

Cared not to be at all.

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate

With head uplift above the wave, and eyes

That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides

Prone on the flood, extended long and large

Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge

As whom the fables name of monstrous size,

Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove,

Briareos or Typhon, whom the den

By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast

Leviathan, which God created of all his works

Created hugest that swim th' Ocean stream.

And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer

Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure,

Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first

Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread

Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss

And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark

Illumine, what is low raise and support;

That to the highth of this great Argument

I may assert th' Eternal Providence,

And justifie the wayes of God to men.

In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds

On half the nations, and with fear of change

Perplexes monarchs.

Our torments also may in length of time

Become our elements.