Paradise Lost - Milton John - Страница 33

From all Heav'ns bounds into the utter Deep:

There let them learn, as likes them, to despise

God and MESSIAH his anointed King.

He said, and on his Son with Rayes direct

Shon full, he all his Father full exprest

Ineffably into his face receiv'd,

And thus the filial Godhead answering spake.

O Father, O Supream of heav'nly Thrones,

First, Highest, Holiest, Best, thou alwayes seekst

To glorifie thy Son, I alwayes thee,

As is most just; this I my Glorie account,

My exaltation, and my whole delight,

That thou in me well pleas'd, declarst thy will

Fulfill'd, which to fulfil is all my bliss.

Scepter and Power, thy giving, I assume,

And gladlier shall resign, when in the end

Thou shalt be All in All, and I in thee

For ever, and in mee all whom thou lov'st:

But whom thou hat'st, I hate, and can put on

Thy terrors, as I put thy mildness on,

Image of thee in all things; and shall soon,

Armd with thy might, rid heav'n of these rebell'd,

To thir prepar'd ill Mansion driven down

To chains of Darkness, and th' undying Worm,

That from thy just obedience could revolt,

Whom to obey is happiness entire.

Then shall thy Saints unmixt, and from th' impure

Farr separate, circling thy holy Mount

Unfained HALLELUIAHS to thee sing,

Hymns of high praise, and I among them chief.

So said, he o're his Scepter bowing, rose

From the right hand of Glorie where he sate,

And the third sacred Morn began to shine

Dawning through Heav'n: forth rush'd with whirlwind sound

The Chariot of Paternal Deitie,

Flashing thick flames, Wheele within Wheele undrawn,

It self instinct with Spirit, but convoyd

By four Cherubic shapes, four Faces each

Had wondrous, as with Starrs thir bodies all

And Wings were set with Eyes, with Eyes the Wheels

Of Beril, and careering Fires between;

Over thir heads a chrystal Firmament,

Whereon a Saphir Throne, inlaid with pure

Amber, and colours of the showrie Arch.

Hee in Celestial Panoplie all armd

Of radiant URIM, work divinely wrought,

Ascended, at his right hand Victorie

Sate Eagle-wing'd, beside him hung his Bow

And Quiver with three-bolted Thunder stor'd,

And from about him fierce Effusion rowld

Of smoak and bickering flame, and sparkles dire;

Attended with ten thousand thousand Saints,

He onward came, farr off his coming shon,

And twentie thousand (I thir number heard)

Chariots of God, half on each hand were seen:

Hee on the wings of Cherub rode sublime

On the Crystallin Skie, in Saphir Thron'd.

Illustrious farr and wide, but by his own

First seen, them unexpected joy surpriz'd,

When the great Ensign of MESSIAH blaz'd

Aloft by Angels born, his Sign in Heav'n:

Under whose Conduct MICHAEL soon reduc'd

His Armie, circumfus'd on either Wing,

Under thir Head imbodied all in one.

Before him Power Divine his way prepar'd;

At his command the uprooted Hills retir'd

Each to his place, they heard his voice and went

Obsequious, Heav'n his wonted face renewd,

And with fresh Flourets Hill and Valley smil'd.

This saw his hapless Foes, but stood obdur'd,

And to rebellious fight rallied thir Powers

Insensate, hope conceiving from despair.

In heav'nly Spirits could such perverseness dwell?

But to convince the proud what Signs availe,

Or Wonders move th' obdurate to relent?

They hard'nd more by what might most reclame,

Grieving to see his Glorie, at the sight

Took envie, and aspiring to his highth,

Stood reimbattell'd fierce, by force or fraud

Weening to prosper, and at length prevaile

Against God and MESSIAH, or to fall

In universal ruin last, and now

To final Battel drew, disdaining flight,

Or faint retreat; when the great Son of God

To all his Host on either hand thus spake.

Stand still in bright array ye Saints, here stand

Ye Angels arm'd, this day from Battel rest;

Faithful hath been your Warfare, and of God

Accepted, fearless in his righteous Cause,

And as ye have receivd, so have ye don

Invincibly; but of this cursed crew

The punishment to other hand belongs,

Vengeance is his, or whose he sole appoints;

Number to this dayes work is not ordain'd

Nor multitude, stand onely and behold

Gods indignation on these Godless pourd

By mee; not you but mee they have despis'd,

Yet envied; against mee is all thir rage,

Because the Father, t' whom in Heav'n supream

Kingdom and Power and Glorie appertains,

Hath honourd me according to his will.

Therefore to mee thir doom he hath assig'n'd;

That they may have thir wish, to trie with mee

In Battel which the stronger proves, they all,

Or I alone against them, since by strength

They measure all, of other excellence

Not emulous, nor care who them excells;

Nor other strife with them do I voutsafe.

So spake the Son, and into terrour chang'd

His count'nance too severe to be beheld

And full of wrauth bent on his Enemies.

At once the Four spred out thir Starrie wings

With dreadful shade contiguous, and the Orbes

Of his fierce Chariot rowld, as with the sound

Of torrent Floods, or of a numerous Host.

Hee on his impious Foes right onward drove,

Gloomie as Night; under his burning Wheeles

The stedfast Empyrean shook throughout,

All but the Throne it self of God. Full soon

Among them he arriv'd; in his right hand

Grasping ten thousand Thunders, which he sent

Before him, such as in thir Soules infix'd

Plagues; they astonisht all resistance lost,

All courage; down thir idle weapons drop'd;

O're Shields and Helmes, and helmed heads he rode

Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate,

That wish'd the Mountains now might be again

Thrown on them as a shelter from his ire.

Nor less on either side tempestuous fell

His arrows, from the fourfold-visag'd Foure,

Distinct with eyes, and from the living Wheels,

Distinct alike with multitude of eyes,

One Spirit in them rul'd, and every eye

Glar'd lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire

Among th' accurst, that witherd all thir strength,

And of thir wonted vigour left them draind,

Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall'n.

Yet half his strength he put not forth, but check'd

His Thunder in mid Volie, for he meant

Not to destroy, but root them out of Heav'n:

The overthrown he rais'd, and as a Heard

Of Goats or timerous flock together throngd

Drove them before him Thunder-struck, pursu'd

With terrors and with furies to the bounds

And Chrystall wall of Heav'n, which op'ning wide,

Rowld inward, and a spacious Gap disclos'd

Into the wastful Deep; the monstrous sight

Strook them with horror backward, but far worse

Urg'd them behind; headlong themselvs they threw

Down from the verge of Heav'n, Eternal wrauth

Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.

Hell heard th' unsufferable noise, Hell saw

Heav'n ruining from Heav'n and would have fled

Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep

Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.

Nine dayes they fell; confounded CHAOS roard,

And felt tenfold confusion in thir fall

Through his wilde Anarchie, so huge a rout

Incumberd him with ruin: Hell at last

Yawning receavd them whole, and on them clos'd,

Hell thir fit habitation fraught with fire

Unquenchable, the house of woe and paine.

Disburd'nd Heav'n rejoic'd, and soon repaird

Her mural breach, returning whence it rowld.