Paradise Regain'd

By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
Recover'd Paradise to all mankind,
By one man's firm obedience fully try'd
Through all temptation, and the tempter

foil'd
In all his wiles, defeated and repuls'd,
And Eden rais'd in the waste wilderness.

Thou Spi'rit who ledst this glorious eremite Into the desert, his victorious field, Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thencero By proof th’undoubted Son of God, inspire, As thou art wont, my prompted song else mute, And bearthrough highthor depth of nature's bounds With prosp'rous wing full summ’d, to tell of deeds Above heroic, though in secret done,

15 And unrecorded left through many an age, Worthy t' have not remain'd so long unsung. Now had the great Proclamer, with a voice

More 30

More awful than the sound of trumpet, cry'd
Repentance, and Heav'n's kingdom nigh at hand 20
To all baptiz’d: to his great baptism flock'd
With awe the regions round, and with them came
From Nazareth the son of Joseph deem'd
To the flood Jordan, came as then obscure,
Unmark'd, unknown; but him the Baptist soon 25
Descry'd, divinely warn’d, and witness bore
As to his worthier, and would have resign'd
To him his heav'nly office, nor was long
His witness unconfirm’d: on him baptiz'd
Heav'n open’d, and in likeness of a dove
The Spi'rit descended, while the Father's voice
From Heav'n pronounc'd him his beloved Son.
That heard the Adversary, who roving still
About the world, at that assembly fam’d
Would not be last, and with the voice divine

35
Nigh thunder-struck, th' exalted man, to whom
Such high attest was giv'n, a while survey'd
With wonder, then with envy fraught and rage
Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air
To council summons all his mighty peers, 40
Within thick clouds and dark ten-fold involv’d,
A gloomy consistory; and them amidst
With looks aghast and sad he thus bespake.

O ancient Pow’rs of air and this wide world, For much more willingly I mention air, 45 This our old conquest, than remember Hell,

Our 50

Our hated habitation; well

know
How many ages, as the years of men,
This universe we have possess’d, and rul'd
In manner at our will th' affairs of earth,
Since Adam and his facil consort Eve
Loft Paradise deceiv'd by me, though since
With dread attending when that fatal wound
Shall be inflicted by the seed of Eve
Upon my head: long the decrees of Heav'n

55
Delay, for longest time to him is short ;
And now too soon for us the circling hours
This dreaded time have compass’d, wherein we
Must bide the stroke of that long threaten'd wound,
At least if so we can, and by the head 60
Broken be not intended all our power
To be infring'd, our freedom and our being,
In this fair empire won of earth and air;
For this ill news I bring, the woman's seed
Destin'd to this, is late of woman born :
His birth to our just fear gave no small cause,
But his growth now to youth’s full flow'r, displaying
All virtue, grace, and wisdom to achieve
Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.
Before him a great prophet, to proclame 70
His coming, is sent harbinger, who all
Invites, and in the consecrated stream
Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so
Purified to receive him pure, or rather

• Το

« Zurück Weiter »

Books

Paradise Regain'd: A Poem, in Four Books. To which is Added, Samson ...