2

Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move

Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird

Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid

Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year [ 40 ]

Seasons return, but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of Evn or Morn,

Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose,

Or flocks, or heards, or human face divine;

But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark [ 45 ]

Surrounds me, from the chearful wayes of men

Cut off, and for the Book of knowledg fair

Presented with a Universal blanc

Of Natures works to mee expungd and rasd,

And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out. [ 50 ]

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. [ 55 ]

Now had the Almighty Father from above,

From the pure Empyrean where he sits

High Thrond above all highth, bent down his eye,

His own works and their works at once to view:

About him all the Sanctities of Heaven [ 60 ]

Stood thick as Starrs, and from his sight receivd

Beatitude past utterance; on his right

The radiant image of his Glory sat,

His onely Son; On Earth he first beheld

Our two first Parents, yet the onely two [ 65 ]

Of mankind, in the happie Garden plact,

Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,

Uninterrupted joy, unrivald love

In blissful solitude; he then surveyd

Hell and the Gulf between, and Satan there [ 70 ]

Coasting the wall of Heavn on this side Night

In the dun Air sublime, and ready now

To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet

On the bare outside of this World, that seemd

Firm land imbosomd without Firmament, [ 75 ]

Uncertain which, in Ocean or in Air.