Gedichtsammlung

{
  "data": [
    {
      "author": "John Milton",
      "line_count": "1073",
      "lines": [
        "Mean while the heinous and despiteful act",
        "Of Satan, done in Paradise; and how",
        "He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve,",
        "Her husband she, to taste the fatal fruit,",
        "Was known in Heaven; for what can 'scape the eye",
        "Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart",
        "Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just,",
        "Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind",
        "Of Man, with strength entire and free will armed,",
        "Complete to have discovered and repulsed",
        "Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend.",
        "For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered,",
        "The high injunction, not to taste that fruit,",
        "Whoever tempted; which they not obeying,",
        "(Incurred what could they less?) the penalty;",
        "And, manifold in sin, deserved to fall.",
        "Up into Heaven from Paradise in haste",
        "The angelick guards ascended, mute, and sad,",
        "For Man; for of his state by this they knew,",
        "Much wondering how the subtle Fiend had stolen",
        "Entrance unseen.  Soon as the unwelcome news",
        "From Earth arrived at Heaven-gate, displeased",
        "All were who heard; dim sadness did not spare",
        "That time celestial visages, yet, mixed",
        "With pity, violated not their bliss.",
        "About the new-arrived, in multitudes",
        "The ethereal people ran, to hear and know",
        "How all befel:  They towards the throne supreme,",
        "Accountable, made haste, to make appear,",
        "With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance",
        "And easily approved; when the Most High",
        "Eternal Father, from his secret cloud,",
        "Amidst in thunder uttered thus his voice.",
        "Assembled Angels, and ye Powers returned",
        "From unsuccessful charge; be not dismayed,",
        "Nor troubled at these tidings from the earth,",
        "Which your sincerest care could not prevent;",
        "Foretold so lately what would come to pass,",
        "When first this tempter crossed the gulf from Hell.",
        "I told ye then he should prevail, and speed",
        "On his bad errand; Man should be seduced,",
        "And flattered out of all, believing lies",
        "Against his Maker; no decree of mine",
        "Concurring to necessitate his fall,",
        "Or touch with lightest moment of impulse",
        "His free will, to her own inclining left",
        "In even scale.  But fallen he is; and now",
        "What rests, but that the mortal sentence pass",
        "On his transgression,--death denounced that day?",
        "Which he presumes already vain and void,",
        "Because not yet inflicted, as he feared,",
        "By some immediate stroke; but soon shall find",
        "Forbearance no acquittance, ere day end.",
        "Justice shall not return as bounty scorned.",
        "But whom send I to judge them? whom but thee,",
        "Vicegerent Son?  To thee I have transferred",
        "All judgement, whether in Heaven, or Earth, or Hell.",
        "Easy it may be seen that I intend",
        "Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee",
        "Man's friend, his Mediator, his designed",
        "Both ransom and Redeemer voluntary,",
        "And destined Man himself to judge Man fallen.",
        "So spake the Father; and, unfolding bright",
        "Toward the right hand his glory, on the Son",
        "Blazed forth unclouded Deity: He full",
        "Resplendent all his Father manifest",
        "Expressed, and thus divinely answered mild.",
        "Father Eternal, thine is to decree;",
        "Mine, both in Heaven and Earth, to do thy will",
        "Supreme; that thou in me, thy Son beloved,",
        "Mayest ever rest well pleased.  I go to judge",
        "On earth these thy transgressours; but thou knowest,",
        "Whoever judged, the worst on me must light,",
        "When time shall be; for so I undertook",
        "Before thee; and, not repenting, this obtain",
        "Of right, that I may mitigate their doom",
        "On me derived; yet I shall temper so",
        "Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most",
        "Them fully satisfied, and thee appease.",
        "Attendance none shall need, nor train, where none",
        "Are to behold the judgement, but the judged,",
        "Those two; the third best absent is condemned,",
        "Convict by flight, and rebel to all law:",
        "Conviction to the serpent none belongs.",
        "Thus saying, from his radiant seat he rose",
        "Of high collateral glory: Him Thrones, and Powers,",
        "Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant,",
        "Accompanied to Heaven-gate; from whence",
        "Eden, and all the coast, in prospect lay.",
        "Down he descended straight; the speed of Gods",
        "Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes winged.",
        "Now was the sun in western cadence low",
        "From noon, and gentle airs, due at their hour,",
        "To fan the earth now waked, and usher in",
        "The evening cool; when he, from wrath more cool,",
        "Came the mild Judge, and Intercessour both,",
        "To sentence Man:  The voice of God they heard",
        "Now walking in the garden, by soft winds",
        "Brought to their ears, while day declined; they heard,",
        "And from his presence hid themselves among",
        "The thickest trees, both man and wife; till God,",
        "Approaching, thus to Adam called aloud.",
        "Where art thou, Adam, wont with joy to meet",
        "My coming seen far off?  I miss thee here,",
        "Not pleased, thus entertained with solitude,",
        "Where obvious duty ere while appeared unsought:",
        "Or come I less conspicuous, or what change",
        "Absents thee, or what chance detains?--Come forth!",
        "He came; and with him Eve, more loth, though first",
        "To offend; discountenanced both, and discomposed;",
        "Love was not in their looks, either to God,",
        "Or to each other; but apparent guilt,",
        "And shame, and perturbation, and despair,",
        "Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile.",
        "Whence Adam, faltering long, thus answered brief.",
        "I heard thee in the garden, and of thy voice",
        "Afraid, being naked, hid myself.  To whom",
        "The gracious Judge without revile replied.",
        "My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not feared,",
        "But still rejoiced; how is it now become",
        "So dreadful to thee?  That thou art naked, who",
        "Hath told thee?  Hast thou eaten of the tree,",
        "Whereof I gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat?",
        "To whom thus Adam sore beset replied.",
        "O Heaven! in evil strait this day I stand",
        "Before my Judge; either to undergo",
        "Myself the total crime, or to accuse",
        "My other self, the partner of my life;",
        "Whose failing, while her faith to me remains,",
        "I should conceal, and not expose to blame",
        "By my complaint: but strict necessity",
        "Subdues me, and calamitous constraint;",
        "Lest on my head both sin and punishment,",
        "However insupportable, be all",
        "Devolved; though should I hold my peace, yet thou",
        "Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.--",
        "This Woman, whom thou madest to be my help,",
        "And gavest me as thy perfect gift, so good,",
        "So fit, so acceptable, so divine,",
        "That from her hand I could suspect no ill,",
        "And what she did, whatever in itself,",
        "Her doing seemed to justify the deed;",
        "She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.",
        "To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied.",
        "Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey",
        "Before his voice? or was she made thy guide,",
        "Superiour, or but equal, that to her",
        "Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place",
        "Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,",
        "And for thee, whose perfection far excelled",
        "Hers in all real dignity?  Adorned",
        "She was indeed, and lovely, to attract",
        "Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts",
        "Were such, as under government well seemed;",
        "Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part",
        "And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.",
        "So having said, he thus to Eve in few.",
        "Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?",
        "To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed,",
        "Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge",
        "Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied.",
        "The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.",
        "Which when the Lord God heard, without delay",
        "To judgement he proceeded on the accused",
        "Serpent, though brute; unable to transfer",
        "The guilt on him, who made him instrument",
        "Of mischief, and polluted from the end",
        "Of his creation; justly then accursed,",
        "As vitiated in nature:  More to know",
        "Concerned not Man, (since he no further knew)",
        "Nor altered his offence; yet God at last",
        "To Satan first in sin his doom applied,",
        "Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best:",
        "And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall.",
        "Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed",
        "Above all cattle, each beast of the field;",
        "Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go,",
        "And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.",
        "Between thee and the woman I will put",
        "Enmity, and between thine and her seed;",
        "Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.",
        "So spake this oracle, then verified",
        "When Jesus, Son of Mary, second Eve,",
        "Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from Heaven,",
        "Prince of the air; then, rising from his grave",
        "Spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphed",
        "In open show; and, with ascension bright,",
        "Captivity led captive through the air,",
        "The realm itself of Satan, long usurped;",
        "Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;",
        "Even he, who now foretold his fatal bruise;",
        "And to the Woman thus his sentence turned.",
        "Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply",
        "By thy conception; children thou shalt bring",
        "In sorrow forth; and to thy husband's will",
        "Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.",
        "On Adam last thus judgement he pronounced.",
        "Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife,",
        "And eaten of the tree, concerning which",
        "I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof:",
        "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thou in sorrow",
        "Shalt eat thereof, all the days of thy life;",
        "Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth",
        "Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;",
        "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,",
        "Till thou return unto the ground; for thou",
        "Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth,",
        "For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.",
        "So judged he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent;",
        "And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day,",
        "Removed far off; then, pitying how they stood",
        "Before him naked to the air, that now",
        "Must suffer change, disdained not to begin",
        "Thenceforth the form of servant to assume;",
        "As when he washed his servants feet; so now,",
        "As father of his family, he clad",
        "Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain,",
        "Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid;",
        "And thought not much to clothe his enemies;",
        "Nor he their outward only with the skins",
        "Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more.",
        "Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness,",
        "Arraying, covered from his Father's sight.",
        "To him with swift ascent he up returned,",
        "Into his blissful bosom reassumed",
        "In glory, as of old; to him appeased",
        "All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man",
        "Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.",
        "Mean while, ere thus was sinned and judged on Earth,",
        "Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death,",
        "In counterview within the gates, that now",
        "Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame",
        "Far into Chaos, since the Fiend passed through,",
        "Sin opening; who thus now to Death began.",
        "O Son, why sit we here each other viewing",
        "Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives",
        "In other worlds, and happier seat provides",
        "For us, his offspring dear?  It cannot be",
        "But that success attends him; if mishap,",
        "Ere this he had returned, with fury driven",
        "By his avengers; since no place like this",
        "Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.",
        "Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,",
        "Wings growing, and dominion given me large",
        "Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,",
        "Or sympathy, or some connatural force,",
        "Powerful at greatest distance to unite,",
        "With secret amity, things of like kind,",
        "By secretest conveyance.  Thou, my shade",
        "Inseparable, must with me along;",
        "For Death from Sin no power can separate.",
        "But, lest the difficulty of passing back",
        "Stay his return perhaps over this gulf",
        "Impassable, impervious; let us try",
        "Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine",
        "Not unagreeable, to found a path",
        "Over this main from Hell to that new world,",
        "Where Satan now prevails; a monument",
        "Of merit high to all the infernal host,",
        "Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,",
        "Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead.",
        "Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn",
        "By this new-felt attraction and instinct.",
        "Whom thus the meager Shadow answered soon.",
        "Go, whither Fate, and inclination strong,",
        "Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err",
        "The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw",
        "Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste",
        "The savour of death from all things there that live:",
        "Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest",
        "Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.",
        "So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell",
        "Of mortal change on earth.  As when a flock",
        "Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,",
        "Against the day of battle, to a field,",
        "Where armies lie encamped, come flying, lured",
        "With scent of living carcasses designed",
        "For death, the following day, in bloody fight:",
        "So scented the grim Feature, and upturned",
        "His nostril wide into the murky air;",
        "Sagacious of his quarry from so far.",
        "Then both from out Hell-gates, into the waste",
        "Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark,",
        "Flew diverse; and with power (their power was great)",
        "Hovering upon the waters, what they met",
        "Solid or slimy, as in raging sea",
        "Tost up and down, together crouded drove,",
        "From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell;",
        "As when two polar winds, blowing adverse",
        "Upon the Cronian sea, together drive",
        "Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way",
        "Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich",
        "Cathaian coast.  The aggregated soil",
        "Death with his mace petrifick, cold and dry,",
        "As with a trident, smote; and fixed as firm",
        "As Delos, floating once; the rest his look",
        "Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move;",
        "And with Asphaltick slime, broad as the gate,",
        "Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach",
        "They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on",
        "Over the foaming deep high-arched, a bridge",
        "Of length prodigious, joining to the wall",
        "Immoveable of this now fenceless world,",
        "Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,",
        "Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell.",
        "So, if great things to small may be compared,",
        "Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,",
        "From Susa, his Memnonian palace high,",
        "Came to the sea: and, over Hellespont",
        "Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined,",
        "And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves.",
        "Now had they brought the work by wonderous art",
        "Pontifical, a ridge of pendant rock,",
        "Over the vexed abyss, following the track",
        "Of Satan to the self-same place where he",
        "First lighted from his wing, and landed safe",
        "From out of Chaos, to the outside bare",
        "Of this round world:  With pins of adamant",
        "And chains they made all fast, too fast they made",
        "And durable!  And now in little space",
        "The confines met of empyrean Heaven,",
        "And of this World; and, on the left hand, Hell",
        "With long reach interposed; three several ways",
        "In sight, to each of these three places led.",
        "And now their way to Earth they had descried,",
        "To Paradise first tending; when, behold!",
        "Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright,",
        "Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering",
        "His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:",
        "Disguised he came; but those his children dear",
        "Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise.",
        "He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk",
        "Into the wood fast by; and, changing shape,",
        "To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act",
        "By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded",
        "Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought",
        "Vain covertures; but when he saw descend",
        "The Son of God to judge them, terrified",
        "He fled; not hoping to escape, but shun",
        "The present; fearing, guilty, what his wrath",
        "Might suddenly inflict; that past, returned",
        "By night, and listening where the hapless pair",
        "Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint,",
        "Thence gathered his own doom; which understood",
        "Not instant, but of future time, with joy",
        "And tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned;",
        "And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot",
        "Of this new wonderous pontifice, unhoped",
        "Met, who to meet him came, his offspring dear.",
        "Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight",
        "Of that stupendious bridge his joy encreased.",
        "Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his fair",
        "Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke.",
        "O Parent, these are thy magnifick deeds,",
        "Thy trophies! which thou viewest as not thine own;",
        "Thou art their author, and prime architect:",
        "For I no sooner in my heart divined,",
        "My heart, which by a secret harmony",
        "Still moves with thine, joined in connexion sweet,",
        "That thou on earth hadst prospered, which thy looks",
        "Now also evidence, but straight I felt,",
        "Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt,",
        "That I must after thee, with this thy son;",
        "Such fatal consequence unites us three!",
        "Hell could no longer hold us in our bounds,",
        "Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure",
        "Detain from following thy illustrious track.",
        "Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined",
        "Within Hell-gates till now; thou us impowered",
        "To fortify thus far, and overlay,",
        "With this portentous bridge, the dark abyss.",
        "Thine now is all this world; thy virtue hath won",
        "What thy hands builded not; thy wisdom gained",
        "With odds what war hath lost, and fully avenged",
        "Our foil in Heaven; here thou shalt monarch reign,",
        "There didst not; there let him still victor sway,",
        "As battle hath adjudged; from this new world",
        "Retiring, by his own doom alienated;",
        "And henceforth monarchy with thee divide",
        "Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds,",
        "His quadrature, from thy orbicular world;",
        "Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne.",
        "Whom thus the Prince of darkness answered glad.",
        "Fair Daughter, and thou Son and Grandchild both;",
        "High proof ye now have given to be the race",
        "Of Satan (for I glory in the name,",
        "Antagonist of Heaven's Almighty King,)",
        "Amply have merited of me, of all",
        "The infernal empire, that so near Heaven's door",
        "Triumphal with triumphal act have met,",
        "Mine, with this glorious work; and made one realm,",
        "Hell and this world, one realm, one continent",
        "Of easy thorough-fare.  Therefore, while I",
        "Descend through darkness, on your road with ease,",
        "To my associate Powers, them to acquaint",
        "With these successes, and with them rejoice;",
        "You two this way, among these numerous orbs,",
        "All yours, right down to Paradise descend;",
        "There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the earth",
        "Dominion exercise and in the air,",
        "Chiefly on Man, sole lord of all declared;",
        "Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill.",
        "My substitutes I send ye, and create",
        "Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might",
        "Issuing from me: on your joint vigour now",
        "My hold of this new kingdom all depends,",
        "Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit.",
        "If your joint power prevail, the affairs of Hell",
        "No detriment need fear; go, and be strong!",
        "So saying he dismissed them; they with speed",
        "Their course through thickest constellations held,",
        "Spreading their bane; the blasted stars looked wan,",
        "And planets, planet-struck, real eclipse",
        "Then suffered.  The other way Satan went down",
        "The causey to Hell-gate:  On either side",
        "Disparted Chaos overbuilt exclaimed,",
        "And with rebounding surge the bars assailed,",
        "That scorned his indignation:  Through the gate,",
        "Wide open and unguarded, Satan passed,",
        "And all about found desolate; for those,",
        "Appointed to sit there, had left their charge,",
        "Flown to the upper world; the rest were all",
        "Far to the inland retired, about the walls",
        "Of Pandemonium; city and proud seat",
        "Of Lucifer, so by allusion called",
        "Of that bright star to Satan paragoned;",
        "There kept their watch the legions, while the Grand",
        "In council sat, solicitous what chance",
        "Might intercept their emperour sent; so he",
        "Departing gave command, and they observed.",
        "As when the Tartar from his Russian foe,",
        "By Astracan, over the snowy plains,",
        "Retires; or Bactrin Sophi, from the horns",
        "Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond",
        "The realm of Aladule, in his retreat",
        "To Tauris or Casbeen:  So these, the late",
        "Heaven-banished host, left desart utmost Hell",
        "Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch",
        "Round their metropolis; and now expecting",
        "Each hour their great adventurer, from the search",
        "Of foreign worlds:  He through the midst unmarked,",
        "In show plebeian Angel militant",
        "Of lowest order, passed; and from the door",
        "Of that Plutonian hall, invisible",
        "Ascended his high throne; which, under state",
        "Of richest texture spread, at the upper end",
        "Was placed in regal lustre.  Down a while",
        "He sat, and round about him saw unseen:",
        "At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head",
        "And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter; clad",
        "With what permissive glory since his fall",
        "Was left him, or false glitter:  All amazed",
        "At that so sudden blaze the Stygian throng",
        "Bent their aspect, and whom they wished beheld,",
        "Their mighty Chief returned: loud was the acclaim:",
        "Forth rushed in haste the great consulting peers,",
        "Raised from their dark Divan, and with like joy",
        "Congratulant approached him; who with hand",
        "Silence, and with these words attention, won.",
        "Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers;",
        "For in possession such, not only of right,",
        "I call ye, and declare ye now; returned",
        "Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth",
        "Triumphant out of this infernal pit",
        "Abominable, accursed, the house of woe,",
        "And dungeon of our tyrant:  Now possess,",
        "As Lords, a spacious world, to our native Heaven",
        "Little inferiour, by my adventure hard",
        "With peril great achieved.  Long were to tell",
        "What I have done; what suffered;with what pain",
        "Voyaged th' unreal, vast, unbounded deep",
        "Of horrible confusion; over which",
        "By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved,",
        "To expedite your glorious march; but I",
        "Toiled out my uncouth passage, forced to ride",
        "The untractable abyss, plunged in the womb",
        "Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild;",
        "That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely opposed",
        "My journey strange, with clamorous uproar",
        "Protesting Fate supreme; thence how I found",
        "The new created world, which fame in Heaven",
        "Long had foretold, a fabrick wonderful",
        "Of absolute perfection! therein Man",
        "Placed in a Paradise, by our exile",
        "Made happy:  Him by fraud I have seduced",
        "From his Creator; and, the more to encrease",
        "Your wonder, with an apple; he, thereat",
        "Offended, worth your laughter! hath given up",
        "Both his beloved Man, and all his world,",
        "To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,",
        "Without our hazard, labour, or alarm;",
        "To range in, and to dwell, and over Man",
        "To rule, as over all he should have ruled.",
        "True is, me also he hath judged, or rather",
        "Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape",
        "Man I deceived: that which to me belongs,",
        "Is enmity which he will put between",
        "Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;",
        "His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:",
        "A world who would not purchase with a bruise,",
        "Or much more grievous pain?--Ye have the account",
        "Of my performance:  What remains, ye Gods,",
        "But up, and enter now into full bliss?",
        "So having said, a while he stood, expecting",
        "Their universal shout, and high applause,",
        "To fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears",
        "On all sides, from innumerable tongues,",
        "A dismal universal hiss, the sound",
        "Of publick scorn; he wondered, but not long",
        "Had leisure, wondering at himself now more,",
        "His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare;",
        "His arms clung to his ribs; his legs entwining",
        "Each other, till supplanted down he fell",
        "A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,",
        "Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power",
        "Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned,",
        "According to his doom: he would have spoke,",
        "But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue",
        "To forked tongue; for now were all transformed",
        "Alike, to serpents all, as accessories",
        "To his bold riot:  Dreadful was the din",
        "Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now",
        "With complicated monsters head and tail,",
        "Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbaena dire,",
        "Cerastes horned, Hydrus, and Elops drear,",
        "And Dipsas; (not so thick swarmed once the soil",
        "Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle",
        "Ophiusa,) but still greatest he the midst,",
        "Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the sun",
        "Ingendered in the Pythian vale or slime,",
        "Huge Python, and his power no less he seemed",
        "Above the rest still to retain; they all",
        "Him followed, issuing forth to the open field,",
        "Where all yet left of that revolted rout,",
        "Heaven-fallen, in station stood or just array;",
        "Sublime with expectation when to see",
        "In triumph issuing forth their glorious Chief;",
        "They saw, but other sight instead! a croud",
        "Of ugly serpents; horrour on them fell,",
        "And horrid sympathy; for, what they saw,",
        "They felt themselves, now changing; down their arms,",
        "Down fell both spear and shield; down they as fast;",
        "And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form",
        "Catched, by contagion; like in punishment,",
        "As in their crime.  Thus was the applause they meant,",
        "Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame",
        "Cast on themselves from their own mouths.  There stood",
        "A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,",
        "His will who reigns above, to aggravate",
        "Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that",
        "Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve",
        "Used by the Tempter: on that prospect strange",
        "Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining",
        "For one forbidden tree a multitude",
        "Now risen, to work them further woe or shame;",
        "Yet, parched with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,",
        "Though to delude them sent, could not abstain;",
        "But on they rolled in heaps, and, up the trees",
        "Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks",
        "That curled Megaera: greedily they plucked",
        "The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew",
        "Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed;",
        "This more delusive, not the touch, but taste",
        "Deceived; they, fondly thinking to allay",
        "Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit",
        "Chewed bitter ashes, which the offended taste",
        "With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed,",
        "Hunger and thirst constraining; drugged as oft,",
        "With hatefullest disrelish writhed their jaws,",
        "With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell",
        "Into the same illusion, not as Man",
        "Whom they triumphed once lapsed.  Thus were they plagued",
        "And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,",
        "Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed;",
        "Yearly enjoined, some say, to undergo,",
        "This annual humbling certain numbered days,",
        "To dash their pride, and joy, for Man seduced.",
        "However, some tradition they dispersed",
        "Among the Heathen, of their purchase got,",
        "And fabled how the Serpent, whom they called",
        "Ophion, with Eurynome, the wide--",
        "Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule",
        "Of high Olympus; thence by Saturn driven",
        "And Ops, ere yet Dictaean Jove was born.",
        "Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair",
        "Too soon arrived; Sin, there in power before,",
        "Once actual; now in body, and to dwell",
        "Habitual habitant; behind her Death,",
        "Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet",
        "On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began.",
        "Second of Satan sprung, all-conquering Death!",
        "What thinkest thou of our empire now, though earned",
        "With travel difficult, not better far",
        "Than still at Hell's dark threshold to have sat watch,",
        "Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half starved?",
        "Whom thus the Sin-born monster answered soon.",
        "To me, who with eternal famine pine,",
        "Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven;",
        "There best, where most with ravine I may meet;",
        "Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems",
        "To stuff this maw, this vast unhide-bound corps.",
        "To whom the incestuous mother thus replied.",
        "Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers,",
        "Feed first; on each beast next, and fish, and fowl;",
        "No homely morsels! and, whatever thing",
        "The sithe of Time mows down, devour unspared;",
        "Till I, in Man residing, through the race,",
        "His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect;",
        "And season him thy last and sweetest prey.",
        "This said, they both betook them several ways,",
        "Both to destroy, or unimmortal make",
        "All kinds, and for destruction to mature",
        "Sooner or later; which the Almighty seeing,",
        "From his transcendent seat the Saints among,",
        "To those bright Orders uttered thus his voice.",
        "See, with what heat these dogs of Hell advance",
        "To waste and havock yonder world, which I",
        "So fair and good created; and had still",
        "Kept in that state, had not the folly of Man",
        "Let in these wasteful furies, who impute",
        "Folly to me; so doth the Prince of Hell",
        "And his adherents, that with so much ease",
        "I suffer them to enter and possess",
        "A place so heavenly; and, conniving, seem",
        "To gratify my scornful enemies,",
        "That laugh, as if, transported with some fit",
        "Of passion, I to them had quitted all,",
        "At random yielded up to their misrule;",
        "And know not that I called, and drew them thither,",
        "My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth",
        "Which Man's polluting sin with taint hath shed",
        "On what was pure; til, crammed and gorged, nigh burst",
        "With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling",
        "Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son,",
        "Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave, at last,",
        "Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth of Hell",
        "For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.",
        "Then Heaven and Earth renewed shall be made pure",
        "To sanctity, that shall receive no stain:",
        "Till then, the curse pronounced on both precedes.",
        "He ended, and the heavenly audience loud",
        "Sung Halleluiah, as the sound of seas,",
        "Through multitude that sung:  Just are thy ways,",
        "Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;",
        "Who can extenuate thee?  Next, to the Son,",
        "Destined Restorer of mankind, by whom",
        "New Heaven and Earth shall to the ages rise,",
        "Or down from Heaven descend.--Such was their song;",
        "While the Creator, calling forth by name",
        "His mighty Angels, gave them several charge,",
        "As sorted best with present things.  The sun",
        "Had first his precept so to move, so shine,",
        "As might affect the earth with cold and heat",
        "Scarce tolerable; and from the north to call",
        "Decrepit winter; from the south to bring",
        "Solstitial summer's heat.  To the blanc moon",
        "Her office they prescribed; to the other five",
        "Their planetary motions, and aspects,",
        "In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite,",
        "Of noxious efficacy, and when to join",
        "In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed",
        "Their influence malignant when to shower,",
        "Which of them rising with the sun, or falling,",
        "Should prove tempestuous:  To the winds they set",
        "Their corners, when with bluster to confound",
        "Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to roll",
        "With terrour through the dark aereal hall.",
        "Some say, he bid his Angels turn ascanse",
        "The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and more,",
        "From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed",
        "Oblique the centrick globe:  Some say, the sun",
        "Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road",
        "Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven",
        "Atlantick Sisters, and the Spartan Twins,",
        "Up to the Tropick Crab: thence down amain",
        "By Leo, and the Virgin, and the Scales,",
        "As deep as Capricorn; to bring in change",
        "Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring",
        "Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers,",
        "Equal in days and nights, except to those",
        "Beyond the polar circles; to them day",
        "Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun,",
        "To recompense his distance, in their sight",
        "Had rounded still the horizon, and not known",
        "Or east or west; which had forbid the snow",
        "From cold Estotiland, and south as far",
        "Beneath Magellan.  At that tasted fruit",
        "The sun, as from Thyestean banquet, turned",
        "His course intended; else, how had the world",
        "Inhabited, though sinless, more than now,",
        "Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?",
        "These changes in the Heavens, though slow, produced",
        "Like change on sea and land; sideral blast,",
        "Vapour, and mist, and exhalation hot,",
        "Corrupt and pestilent:  Now from the north",
        "Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shore,",
        "Bursting their brazen dungeon, armed with ice,",
        "And snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw,",
        "Boreas, and Caecias, and Argestes loud,",
        "And Thrascias, rend the woods, and seas upturn;",
        "With adverse blast upturns them from the south",
        "Notus, and Afer black with thunderous clouds",
        "From Serraliona; thwart of these, as fierce,",
        "Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds,",
        "Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noise,",
        "Sirocco and Libecchio.  Thus began",
        "Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first,",
        "Daughter of Sin, among the irrational",
        "Death introduced, through fierce antipathy:",
        "Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,",
        "And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,",
        "Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe",
        "Of Man, but fled him; or, with countenance grim,",
        "Glared on him passing.  These were from without",
        "The growing miseries, which Adam saw",
        "Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,",
        "To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within;",
        "And, in a troubled sea of passion tost,",
        "Thus to disburden sought with sad complaint.",
        "O miserable of happy!  Is this the end",
        "Of this new glorious world, and me so late",
        "The glory of that glory, who now become",
        "Accursed, of blessed? hide me from the face",
        "Of God, whom to behold was then my highth",
        "Of happiness!--Yet well, if here would end",
        "The misery; I deserved it, and would bear",
        "My own deservings; but this will not serve:",
        "All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,",
        "Is propagated curse.  O voice, once heard",
        "Delightfully, Encrease and multiply;",
        "Now death to hear! for what can I encrease,",
        "Or multiply, but curses on my head?",
        "Who of all ages to succeed, but, feeling",
        "The evil on him brought by me, will curse",
        "My head?  Ill fare our ancestor impure,",
        "For this we may thank Adam! but his thanks",
        "Shall be the execration: so, besides",
        "Mine own that bide upon me, all from me",
        "Shall with a fierce reflux on me rebound;",
        "On me, as on their natural center, light",
        "Heavy, though in their place.  O fleeting joys",
        "Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!",
        "Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay",
        "To mould me Man? did I solicit thee",
        "From darkness to promote me, or here place",
        "In this delicious garden?  As my will",
        "Concurred not to my being, it were but right",
        "And equal to reduce me to my dust;",
        "Desirous to resign and render back",
        "All I received; unable to perform",
        "Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold",
        "The good I sought not.  To the loss of that,",
        "Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added",
        "The sense of endless woes?  Inexplicable",
        "Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out",
        "To deathless pain?  How gladly would I meet",
        "Mortality my sentence, and be earth",
        "Insensible!  How glad would lay me down",
        "As in my mother's lap!  There I should rest,",
        "And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more",
        "Would thunder in my ears; no fear of worse",
        "To me, and to my offspring, would torment me",
        "With cruel expectation.  Yet one doubt",
        "Pursues me still, lest all I cannot die;",
        "Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of Man",
        "Which God inspired, cannot together perish",
        "With this corporeal clod; then, in the grave,",
        "Or in some other dismal place, who knows",
        "But I shall die a living death?  O thought",
        "Horrid, if true!  Yet why? It was but breath",
        "Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life",
        "And sin?  The body properly had neither,",
        "All of me then shall die: let this appease",
        "The doubt, since human reach no further knows.",
        "For though the Lord of all be infinite,",
        "Is his wrath also?  Be it, Man is not so,",
        "But mortal doomed.  How can he exercise",
        "Wrath without end on Man, whom death must end?",
        "Can he make deathless death?  That were to make",
        "Strange contradiction, which to God himself",
        "Impossible is held; as argument",
        "Of weakness, not of power.  Will he draw out,",
        "For anger's sake, finite to infinite,",
        "In punished Man, to satisfy his rigour,",
        "Satisfied never?  That were to extend",
        "His sentence beyond dust and Nature's law;",
        "By which all causes else, according still",
        "To the reception of their matter, act;",
        "Not to the extent of their own sphere.  But say",
        "That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,",
        "Bereaving sense, but endless misery",
        "From this day onward; which I feel begun",
        "Both in me, and without me; and so last",
        "To perpetuity;--Ay me!that fear",
        "Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution",
        "On my defenceless head; both Death and I",
        "Am found eternal, and incorporate both;",
        "Nor I on my part single; in me all",
        "Posterity stands cursed:  Fair patrimony",
        "That I must leave ye, Sons!  O, were I able",
        "To waste it all myself, and leave ye none!",
        "So disinherited, how would you bless",
        "Me, now your curse!  Ah, why should all mankind,",
        "For one man's fault, thus guiltless be condemned,",
        "It guiltless?  But from me what can proceed,",
        "But all corrupt; both mind and will depraved",
        "Not to do only, but to will the same",
        "With me?  How can they then acquitted stand",
        "In sight of God?  Him, after all disputes,",
        "Forced I absolve: all my evasions vain,",
        "And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still",
        "But to my own conviction: first and last",
        "On me, me only, as the source and spring",
        "Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;",
        "So might the wrath!  Fond wish!couldst thou support",
        "That burden, heavier than the earth to bear;",
        "Than all the world much heavier, though divided",
        "With that bad Woman?  Thus, what thou desirest,",
        "And what thou fearest, alike destroys all hope",
        "Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable",
        "Beyond all past example and future;",
        "To Satan only like both crime and doom.",
        "O Conscience! into what abyss of fears",
        "And horrours hast thou driven me; out of which",
        "I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!",
        "Thus Adam to himself lamented loud,",
        "Through the still night; not now, as ere Man fell,",
        "Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air",
        "Accompanied; with damps, and dreadful gloom;",
        "Which to his evil conscience represented",
        "All things with double terrour:  On the ground",
        "Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground; and oft",
        "Cursed his creation;  Death as oft accused",
        "Of tardy execution, since denounced",
        "The day of his offence.  Why comes not Death,",
        "Said he, with one thrice-acceptable stroke",
        "To end me?  Shall Truth fail to keep her word,",
        "Justice Divine not hasten to be just?",
        "But Death comes not at call; Justice Divine",
        "Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries,",
        "O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bowers!",
        "With other echo late I taught your shades",
        "To answer, and resound far other song.--",
        "Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld,",
        "Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh,",
        "Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed:",
        "But her with stern regard he thus repelled.",
        "Out of my sight, thou Serpent!  That name best",
        "Befits thee with him leagued, thyself as false",
        "And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,",
        "Like his, and colour serpentine, may show",
        "Thy inward fraud; to warn all creatures from thee",
        "Henceforth; lest that too heavenly form, pretended",
        "To hellish falshood, snare them!  But for thee",
        "I had persisted happy; had not thy pride",
        "And wandering vanity, when least was safe,",
        "Rejected my forewarning, and disdained",
        "Not to be trusted; longing to be seen,",
        "Though by the Devil himself; him overweening",
        "To over-reach; but, with the serpent meeting,",
        "Fooled and beguiled; by him thou, I by thee",
        "To trust thee from my side; imagined wise,",
        "Constant, mature, proof against all assaults;",
        "And understood not all was but a show,",
        "Rather than solid virtue; all but a rib",
        "Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears,",
        "More to the part sinister, from me drawn;",
        "Well if thrown out, as supernumerary",
        "To my just number found.  O! why did God,",
        "Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven",
        "With Spirits masculine, create at last",
        "This novelty on earth, this fair defect",
        "Of nature, and not fill the world at once",
        "With Men, as Angels, without feminine;",
        "Or find some other way to generate",
        "Mankind?  This mischief had not been befallen,",
        "And more that shall befall; innumerable",
        "Disturbances on earth through female snares,",
        "And strait conjunction with this sex: for either",
        "He never shall find out fit mate, but such",
        "As some misfortune brings him, or mistake;",
        "Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain",
        "Through her perverseness, but shall see her gained",
        "By a far worse; or, if she love, withheld",
        "By parents; or his happiest choice too late",
        "Shall meet, already linked and wedlock-bound",
        "To a fell adversary, his hate or shame:",
        "Which infinite calamity shall cause",
        "To human life, and houshold peace confound.",
        "He added not, and from her turned; but Eve,",
        "Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing",
        "And tresses all disordered, at his feet",
        "Fell humble; and, embracing them, besought",
        "His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.",
        "Forsake me not thus, Adam! witness Heaven",
        "What love sincere, and reverence in my heart",
        "I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,",
        "Unhappily deceived!  Thy suppliant",
        "I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not,",
        "Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,",
        "Thy counsel, in this uttermost distress,",
        "My only strength and stay:  Forlorn of thee,",
        "Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?",
        "While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,",
        "Between us two let there be peace; both joining,",
        "As joined in injuries, one enmity",
        "Against a foe by doom express assigned us,",
        "That cruel Serpent:  On me exercise not",
        "Thy hatred for this misery befallen;",
        "On me already lost, me than thyself",
        "More miserable!  Both have sinned;but thou",
        "Against God only; I against God and thee;",
        "And to the place of judgement will return,",
        "There with my cries importune Heaven; that all",
        "The sentence, from thy head removed, may light",
        "On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe;",
        "Me, me only, just object of his ire!",
        "She ended weeping; and her lowly plight,",
        "Immoveable, till peace obtained from fault",
        "Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought",
        "Commiseration:  Soon his heart relented",
        "Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight,",
        "Now at his feet submissive in distress;",
        "Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,",
        "His counsel, whom she had displeased, his aid:",
        "As one disarmed, his anger all he lost,",
        "And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon.",
        "Unwary, and too desirous, as before,",
        "So now of what thou knowest not, who desirest",
        "The punishment all on thyself; alas!",
        "Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain",
        "His full wrath, whose thou feelest as yet least part,",
        "And my displeasure bearest so ill.  If prayers",
        "Could alter high decrees, I to that place",
        "Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,",
        "That on my head all might be visited;",
        "Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven,",
        "To me committed, and by me exposed.",
        "But rise;--let us no more contend, nor blame",
        "Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; but strive",
        "In offices of love, how we may lighten",
        "Each other's burden, in our share of woe;",
        "Since this day's death denounced, if aught I see,",
        "Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced evil;",
        "A long day's dying, to augment our pain;",
        "And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived.",
        "To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied.",
        "Adam, by sad experiment I know",
        "How little weight my words with thee can find,",
        "Found so erroneous; thence by just event",
        "Found so unfortunate:  Nevertheless,",
        "Restored by thee, vile as I am, to place",
        "Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain",
        "Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart",
        "Living or dying, from thee I will not hide",
        "What thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen,",
        "Tending to some relief of our extremes,",
        "Or end; though sharp and sad, yet tolerable,",
        "As in our evils, and of easier choice.",
        "If care of our descent perplex us most,",
        "Which must be born to certain woe, devoured",
        "By Death at last; and miserable it is",
        "To be to others cause of misery,",
        "Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring",
        "Into this cursed world a woeful race,",
        "That after wretched life must be at last",
        "Food for so foul a monster; in thy power",
        "It lies, yet ere conception to prevent",
        "The race unblest, to being yet unbegot.",
        "Childless thou art, childless remain: so Death",
        "Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two",
        "Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw.",
        "But if thou judge it hard and difficult,",
        "Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain",
        "From love's due rights, nuptial embraces sweet;",
        "And with desire to languish without hope,",
        "Before the present object languishing",
        "With like desire; which would be misery",
        "And torment less than none of what we dread;",
        "Then, both ourselves and seed at once to free",
        "From what we fear for both, let us make short, --",
        "Let us seek Death; -- or, he not found, supply",
        "With our own hands his office on ourselves:",
        "Why stand we longer shivering under fears,",
        "That show no end but death, and have the power,",
        "Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,",
        "Destruction with destruction to destroy? --",
        "She ended here, or vehement despair",
        "Broke off the rest: so much of death her thoughts",
        "Had entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale.",
        "But Adam, with such counsel nothing swayed,",
        "To better hopes his more attentive mind",
        "Labouring had raised; and thus to Eve replied.",
        "Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems",
        "To argue in thee something more sublime",
        "And excellent, than what thy mind contemns;",
        "But self-destruction therefore sought, refutes",
        "That excellence thought in thee; and implies,",
        "Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret",
        "For loss of life and pleasure overloved.",
        "Or if thou covet death, as utmost end",
        "Of misery, so thinking to evade",
        "The penalty pronounced; doubt not but God",
        "Hath wiselier armed his vengeful ire, than so",
        "To be forestalled; much more I fear lest death,",
        "So snatched, will not exempt us from the pain",
        "We are by doom to pay; rather, such acts",
        "Of contumacy will provoke the Highest",
        "To make death in us live:  Then let us seek",
        "Some safer resolution, which methinks",
        "I have in view, calling to mind with heed",
        "Part of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise",
        "The Serpent's head; piteous amends! unless",
        "Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe,",
        "Satan; who, in the serpent, hath contrived",
        "Against us this deceit:  To crush his head",
        "Would be revenge indeed! which will be lost",
        "By death brought on ourselves, or childless days",
        "Resolved, as thou proposest; so our foe",
        "Shal 'scape his punishment ordained, and we",
        "Instead shall double ours upon our heads.",
        "No more be mentioned then of violence",
        "Against ourselves; and wilful barrenness,",
        "That cuts us off from hope; and savours only",
        "Rancour and pride, impatience and despite,",
        "Reluctance against God and his just yoke",
        "Laid on our necks.  Remember with what mild",
        "And gracious temper he both heard, and judged,",
        "Without wrath or reviling; we expected",
        "Immediate dissolution, which we thought",
        "Was meant by death that day; when lo!to thee",
        "Pains only in child-bearing were foretold,",
        "And bringing forth; soon recompensed with joy,",
        "Fruit of thy womb:  On me the curse aslope",
        "Glanced on the ground; with labour I must earn",
        "My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse;",
        "My labour will sustain me; and, lest cold",
        "Or heat should injure us, his timely care",
        "Hath, unbesought, provided; and his hands",
        "Clothed us unworthy, pitying while he judged;",
        "How much more, if we pray him, will his ear",
        "Be open, and his heart to pity incline,",
        "And teach us further by what means to shun",
        "The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow!",
        "Which now the sky, with various face, begins",
        "To show us in this mountain; while the winds",
        "Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks",
        "Of these fair spreading trees; which bids us seek",
        "Some better shroud, some better warmth to cherish",
        "Our limbs benummed, ere this diurnal star",
        "Leave cold the night, how we his gathered beams",
        "Reflected may with matter sere foment;",
        "Or, by collision of two bodies, grind",
        "The air attrite to fire; as late the clouds",
        "Justling, or pushed with winds, rude in their shock,",
        "Tine the slant lightning; whose thwart flame, driven down",
        "Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine;",
        "And sends a comfortable heat from far,",
        "Which might supply the sun:  Such fire to use,",
        "And what may else be remedy or cure",
        "To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,",
        "He will instruct us praying, and of grace",
        "Beseeching him; so as we need not fear",
        "To pass commodiously this life, sustained",
        "By him with many comforts, till we end",
        "In dust, our final rest and native home.",
        "What better can we do, than, to the place",
        "Repairing where he judged us, prostrate fall",
        "Before him reverent; and there confess",
        "Humbly our faults, and pardon beg; with tears",
        "Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air",
        "Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign",
        "Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek."
      ],
      "title": "Paradise Lost: Book 10"
    },
    {
      "author": "Lord Alfred Tennyson",
      "line_count": "194",
      "lines": [
        "Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 't is early morn:",
        "Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the bugle-horn.",
        "",
        "'T is the place, and all around it, as of old, the curlews call,",
        "Dreary gleams about the moorland flying over Locksley Hall;",
        "",
        "Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts,",
        "And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.",
        "",
        "Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest,",
        "Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the West.",
        "",
        "Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade,",
        "Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.",
        "",
        "Here about the beach I wander'd, nourishing a youth sublime",
        "With the fairy tales of science, and the long result of Time;",
        "",
        "When the centuries behind me like a fruitful land reposed;",
        "When I clung to all the present for the promise that it closed:",
        "",
        "When I dipt into the future far as human eye could see;",
        "Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would be.--",
        "",
        "In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast;",
        "In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;",
        "",
        "In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;",
        "In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.",
        "",
        "Then her cheek was pale and thinner than should be for one so young,",
        "And her eyes on all my motions with a mute observance hung.",
        "",
        "And I said, \"My cousin Amy, speak, and speak the truth to me,",
        "Trust me, cousin, all the current of my being sets to thee.\"",
        "",
        "On her pallid cheek and forehead came a colour and a light,",
        "As I have seen the rosy red flushing in the northern night.",
        "",
        "And she turn'd--her bosom shaken with a sudden storm of sighs--",
        "All the spirit deeply dawning in the dark of hazel eyes--",
        "",
        "Saying, \"I have hid my feelings, fearing they should do me wrong\";",
        "Saying, \"Dost thou love me, cousin?\" weeping, \"I have loved thee long.\"",
        "",
        "Love took up the glass of Time, and turn'd it in his glowing hands;",
        "Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.",
        "",
        "Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;",
        "Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in music out of sight.",
        "",
        "Many a morning on the moorland did we hear the copses ring,",
        "And her whisper throng'd my pulses with the fulness of the Spring.",
        "",
        "Many an evening by the waters did we watch the stately ships,",
        "And our spirits rush'd together at the touching of the lips.",
        "",
        "O my cousin, shallow-hearted! O my Amy, mine no more!",
        "O the dreary, dreary moorland! O the barren, barren shore!",
        "",
        "Falser than all fancy fathoms, falser than all songs have sung,",
        "Puppet to a father's threat, and servile to a shrewish tongue!",
        "",
        "Is it well to wish thee happy?--having known me--to decline",
        "On a range of lower feelings and a narrower heart than mine!",
        "",
        "Yet it shall be; thou shalt lower to his level day by day,",
        "What is fine within thee growing coarse to sympathize with clay.",
        "",
        "As the husband is, the wife is: thou art mated with a clown,",
        "And the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.",
        "",
        "He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force,",
        "Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.",
        "",
        "What is this? his eyes are heavy; think not they are glazed with wine.",
        "Go to him, it is thy duty, kiss him, take his hand in thine.",
        "",
        "It may be my lord is weary, that his brain is overwrought:",
        "Soothe him with thy finer fancies, touch him with thy lighter thought.",
        "",
        "He will answer to the purpose, easy things to understand--",
        "Better thou wert dead before me, tho' I slew thee with my hand!",
        "",
        "Better thou and I were lying, hidden from the heart's disgrace,",
        "Roll'd in one another's arms, and silent in a last embrace.",
        "",
        "Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength of youth!",
        "Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the living truth!",
        "",
        "Cursed be the sickly forms that err from honest Nature's rule!",
        "Cursed be the gold that gilds the straiten'd forehead of the fool!",
        "",
        "Well--'t is well that I should bluster!--Hadst thou less unworthy proved--",
        "Would to God--for I had loved thee more than ever wife was loved.",
        "",
        "Am I mad, that I should cherish that which bears but bitter fruit?",
        "I will pluck it from my bosom, tho' my heart be at the root.",
        "",
        "Never, tho' my mortal summers to such length of years should come",
        "As the many-winter'd crow that leads the clanging rookery home.",
        "",
        "Where is comfort? in division of the records of the mind?",
        "Can I part her from herself, and love her, as I knew her, kind?",
        "",
        "I remember one that perish'd; sweetly did she speak and move;",
        "Such a one do I remember, whom to look at was to love.",
        "",
        "Can I think of her as dead, and love her for the love she bore?",
        "No--she never loved me truly; love is love for evermore.",
        "",
        "Comfort? comfort scorn'd of devils! this is truth the poet sings,",
        "That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.",
        "",
        "Drug thy memories, lest thou learn it, lest thy heart be put to proof,",
        "In the dead unhappy night, and when the rain is on the roof.",
        "",
        "Like a dog, he hunts in dreams, and thou art staring at the wall,",
        "Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the shadows rise and fall.",
        "",
        "Then a hand shall pass before thee, pointing to his drunken sleep,",
        "To thy widow'd marriage-pillows, to the tears that thou wilt weep.",
        "",
        "Thou shalt hear the \"Never, never,\" whisper'd by the phantom years,",
        "And a song from out the distance in the ringing of thine ears;",
        "",
        "And an eye shall vex thee, looking ancient kindness on thy pain.",
        "Turn thee, turn thee on thy pillow; get thee to thy rest again.",
        "",
        "Nay, but Nature brings thee solace; for a tender voice will cry.",
        "'T is a purer life than thine, a lip to drain thy trouble dry.",
        "",
        "Baby lips will laugh me down; my latest rival brings thee rest.",
        "Baby fingers, waxen touches, press me from the mother's breast.",
        "",
        "O, the child too clothes the father with a dearness not his due.",
        "Half is thine and half is his: it will be worthy of the two.",
        "",
        "O, I see thee old and formal, fitted to thy petty part,",
        "With a little hoard of maxims preaching down a daughter's heart.",
        "",
        "\"They were dangerous guides the feelings--she herself was not exempt--",
        "Truly, she herself had suffer'd\"--Perish in thy self-contempt!",
        "",
        "Overlive it--lower yet--be happy! wherefore should I care?",
        "I myself must mix with action, lest I wither by despair.",
        "",
        "What is that which I should turn to, lighting upon days like these?",
        "Every door is barr'd with gold, and opens but to golden keys.",
        "",
        "Every gate is throng'd with suitors, all the markets overflow.",
        "I have but an angry fancy; what is that which I should do?",
        "",
        "I had been content to perish, falling on the foeman's ground,",
        "When the ranks are roll'd in vapour, and the winds are laid with sound.",
        "",
        "But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honour feels,",
        "And the nations do but murmur, snarling at each other's heels.",
        "",
        "Can I but relive in sadness? I will turn that earlier page.",
        "Hide me from my deep emotion, O thou wondrous Mother-Age!",
        "",
        "Make me feel the wild pulsation that I felt before the strife,",
        "When I heard my days before me, and the tumult of my life;",
        "",
        "Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield,",
        "Eager-hearted as a boy when first he leaves his father's field,",
        "",
        "And at night along the dusky highway near and nearer drawn,",
        "Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a dreary dawn;",
        "",
        "And his spirit leaps within him to be gone before him then,",
        "Underneath the light he looks at, in among the throngs of men:",
        "",
        "Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new:",
        "That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do:",
        "",
        "For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,",
        "Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;",
        "",
        "Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,",
        "Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;",
        "",
        "Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew",
        "From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;",
        "",
        "Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,",
        "With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunder-storm;",
        "",
        "Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd",
        "In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.",
        "",
        "There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,",
        "And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.",
        "",
        "So I triumph'd ere my passion sweeping thro' me left me dry,",
        "Left me with the palsied heart, and left me with the jaundiced eye;",
        "",
        "Eye, to which all order festers, all things here are out of joint:",
        "Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point:",
        "",
        "Slowly comes a hungry people, as a lion, creeping nigher,",
        "Glares at one that nods and winks behind a slowly-dying fire.",
        "",
        "Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing purpose runs,",
        "And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns.",
        "",
        "What is that to him that reaps not harvest of his youthful joys,",
        "Tho' the deep heart of existence beat for ever like a boy's?",
        "",
        "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore,",
        "And the individual withers, and the world is more and more.",
        "",
        "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and he bears a laden breast,",
        "Full of sad experience, moving toward the stillness of his rest.",
        "",
        "Hark, my merry comrades call me, sounding on the bugle-horn,",
        "They to whom my foolish passion were a target for their scorn:",
        "",
        "Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a moulder'd string?",
        "I am shamed thro' all my nature to have loved so slight a thing.",
        "",
        "Weakness to be wroth with weakness! woman's pleasure, woman's pain--",
        "Nature made them blinder motions bounded in a shallower brain:",
        "",
        "Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, match'd with mine,",
        "Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine--",
        "",
        "Here at least, where nature sickens, nothing. Ah, for some retreat",
        "Deep in yonder shining Orient, where my life began to beat;",
        "",
        "Where in wild Mahratta-battle fell my father evil-starr'd,--",
        "I was left a trampled orphan, and a selfish uncle's ward.",
        "",
        "Or to burst all links of habit--there to wander far away,",
        "On from island unto island at the gateways of the day.",
        "",
        "Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies,",
        "Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise.",
        "",
        "Never comes the trader, never floats an European flag,",
        "Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the crag;",
        "",
        "Droops the heavy-blossom'd bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree--",
        "Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea.",
        "",
        "There methinks would be enjoyment more than in this march of mind,",
        "In the steamship, in the railway, in the thoughts that shake mankind.",
        "",
        "There the passions cramp'd no longer shall have scope and breathing space;",
        "I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.",
        "",
        "Iron-jointed, supple-sinew'd, they shall dive, and they shall run,",
        "Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl their lances in the sun;",
        "",
        "Whistle back the parrot's call, and leap the rainbows of the brooks,",
        "Not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books--",
        "",
        "Fool, again the dream, the fancy! but I know my words are wild,",
        "But I count the gray barbarian lower than the Christian child.",
        "",
        "I, to herd with narrow foreheads, vacant of our glorious gains,",
        "Like a beast with lower pleasures, like a beast with lower pains!",
        "",
        "Mated with a squalid savage--what to me were sun or clime?",
        "I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time--",
        "",
        "I that rather held it better men should perish one by one,",
        "Than that earth should stand at gaze like Joshua's moon in Ajalon!",
        "",
        "Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range,",
        "Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.",
        "",
        "Thro' the shadow of the globe we sweep into the younger day;",
        "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.",
        "",
        "Mother-Age (for mine I knew not) help me as when life begun:",
        "Rift the hills, and roll the waters, flash the lightnings, weigh the Sun.",
        "",
        "O, I see the crescent promise of my spirit hath not set.",
        "Ancient founts of inspiration well thro' all my fancy yet.",
        "",
        "Howsoever these things be, a long farewell to Locksley Hall!",
        "Now for me the woods may wither, now for me the roof-tree fall.",
        "",
        "Comes a vapour from the margin, blackening over heath and holt,",
        "Cramming all the blast before it, in its breast a thunderbolt.",
        "",
        "Let it fall on Locksley Hall, with rain or hail, or fire or snow;",
        "For the mighty wind arises, roaring seaward, and I go."
      ],
      "title": "Locksley Hall"
    },
    {
      "author": "Edward Thomas",
      "line_count": "60",
      "lines": [
        "\"Is this the road that climbs above and bends",
        "Round what was once a chalk-pit: now it is",
        "By accident an amphitheatre.",
        "Some ash-trees standing ankle-deep in brier",
        "And bramble act the parts, and neither speak",
        "Nor stir.\" \"But see: they have fallen, every one,",
        "And brier and bramble have grown over them.\"",
        "\"That is the place. As usual no one is here.",
        "Hardly can I imagine the drop of the axe,",
        "And the smack that is like an echo, sounding here.\"",
        "\"I do not understand.\" \"Why, what I mean is",
        "That I have seen the place two or three times",
        "At most, and that its emptiness and silence",
        "And stillness haunt me, as if just before",
        "It was not empty, silent, still, but full",
        "Of life of some kind, perhaps tragical.",
        "Has anything unusual happened here?\"",
        "\"Not that I know of. It is called the Dell.",
        "They have not dug chalk here for a century.",
        "That was the ash-trees' age. But I will ask.\"",
        "\"No. Do not. I prefer to make a tale,",
        "Or better leave it like the end of a play,",
        "Actors and audience and lights all gone;",
        "For so it looks now. In my memory",
        "Again and again I see it, strangely dark,",
        "And vacant of a life but just withdrawn.",
        "We have not seen the woodman with the axe.",
        "Some ghost has left it now as we two came.\"",
        "\"And yet you doubted if this were the road?\"",
        "\"Well, sometimes I have thought of it and failed",
        "To place it. No. And I am not quite sure,",
        "Even now, this is it. For another place,",
        "Real or painted, may have combined with it.",
        "Or I myself a long way back in time . . .\"",
        "\"Why, as to that, I used to meet a man--",
        "I had forgotten,--searching for birds' nests",
        "Along the road and in the chalk-pit too.",
        "The wren's hole was an eye that looked at him",
        "For recognition. Every nest he knew.",
        "He got a stiff neck, by looking this side or that,",
        "Spring after spring, he told me, with his laugh,--",
        "A sort of laugh. He was a visitor,",
        "A man of forty,--smoked and strolled about.",
        "At orts and crosses Pleasure and Pain had played",
        "On his brown features;--I think both had lost;--",
        "Mild and yet wild too. You may know the kind.",
        "And once or twice a woman shared his walks,",
        "A girl of twenty with a brown boy's face,",
        "And hair brown as a thrush or as a nut,",
        "Thick eyebrows, glinting eyes--\" \"You have",
        "    said enough.",
        "A pair,--free thought, free love,--I know the",
        "    breed:",
        "I shall not mix my fancies up with them.\"",
        "\"You please yourself. I should prefer the truth",
        "Or nothing. Here, in fact, is nothing at all",
        "Except a silent place that once rang loud,",
        "And trees and us--imperfect friends, we men",
        "And trees since time began; and nevertheless",
        "Between us still we breed a mystery.\""
      ],
      "title": "The Chalk-Pit"
    }
  ],
  "success": true
}