Let us descend now, therefore, from
this top |
Of speculation, for the hour precise |
Exacts our parting hence; and see, the
guards, |
By me encamped on yonder hill, expect |
Their motion, at whose front a flaming
sword, |
In signal of remove, waves fiercely
round ; |
We may no longer stay : go, waken Eve ; |
Her also I with gentle dreams have
calmed, |
Portending good, and all her spirits
composed |
To meek submission : thou at season fit |
Let her with thee partake what thou
hast heard, |
Chiefly what may concern her faith to
know, |
The great deliverance by her seed to
come, |
For by the Woman’s Seed, on all mankind
; |
That ye may live, which will be many
days, |
Both in one faith unanimous, though
sad, |
With cause, for evils past ; yet much
more cheered |
With meditation on the happy end." |
He ended, and they both descend
the hill : |
Descended, Adam to the bower, where Eve |
Lay sleeping, ran before, but found her
waked ; |
And thus with words not sad she him
received ; |
" Whence thou return’st, and whither
went’st, I know |
For GOD is also in sleep, and dreams
advise, |
Which He hath sent propitious, some
great good |
Presaging, since with sorrow and
heart’s distress |
Wearied I fell asleep : but now lead on
; |
In me is no delay ; with thee to go |
Is to stay here ; without thee here to
stay |
Is to go hence unwilling ; thou to me |
Art all things under heav’n, all places
thou, |
Who for my wilful crime art banished
hence. |
This further consolation yet secure |
I carry hence : though all by me is
lost, |
Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed, |
By me the Promised Seed shall all
restore.’ |
So spake our mother Eve, and
Adam heard |
Well pleased, but answered not ; for
now too nigh |
Th’ Archangel stood, and from the other
hill |
To their fixed station all in bright
array |
The Cherubim descended ; on the ground |
Gliding meteorous, as ev’ning mist |
Ris’n from a river o’er the marish
glides, |
And gathers ground fast at the
labourer’s heel |
Homeward returning. High in front
advanced, |
The brandished sword of GOD before them
blazed |
Fierce as a comet ; which with torrid
heat, |
And vapour as the Libyan air adust, |
Began to parch that temperate clime :
whereat |
In either hand th’ hast’ning angel
caught |
Our ling’ring parents, and to the
eastern gate |
Led them direct, and down the cliff as
fast |
To the subjected plain ; then
disappeared. |
They looking back all th’ eastern side
beheld |
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, |
Waved over by that flaming brand ; the
gate |
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery
arms : |
Some natural tears they dropped, but
wiped them soon ; |
The world was all before them, where to
choose |
Their place of rest, and Providence
their guide. |
They, hand in hand, with wand’ring
steps and slow, |
Through Eden took their solitary way.
|
John Milton
| Classic Poems |
|
[ On His Blindness ] [ Lycidas ] [ Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity ] [ Paradise Lost ] |