Paradise Lost

"To sit in darkness here Hatching vain empires."

"The palpable obscure."

"Long is the way And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light."

"Their rising all at once was as the sound Of thunder heard remote."

"The low'ring element Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape."

"Oh, shame to men! devil with devil damn'd Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational."

"In discourse more sweet; For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense. Others apart sat on a hill retired, In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost."

"Vain wisdom all and false philosophy."

"Arm th' obdur'd breast With stubborn patience as with triple steel."

"A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. Thither by harpy-footed Furies hal'd, At certain revolutions all the damn'd Are brought, and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes,—extremes by change more fierce; From beds of raging fire to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round, Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire."

"O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death."

"Gorgons and Hydras and Chimæras dire."

"The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, For each seem'd either,—black it stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand."

"Whence and what art thou, execrable shape?"

"Back to thy punishment, False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings."

"So spake the grisly Terror."

"Incens'd with indignation Satan stood Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war."

"Their fatal hands No second stroke intend."

"Hell Grew darker at their frown."

"I fled, and cry'd out, DEATH! Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd From all her caves, and back resounded, DEATH!"

"Before mine eyes in opposition sits Grim Death, my son and foe."

"Death Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear His famine should be fill'd."

"On a sudden open fly, With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder."

"Where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand; For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mast'ry."

"Into this wilde Abyss, The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave, Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, But all these in thir pregnant causes mixt Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more Worlds, Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while, Pondering his Voyage."

"To compare Great things with small."

"O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies."

"With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded."

"So he with difficulty and labour hard Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he."

"And fast by, hanging in a golden chain, This pendent world, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon."

"Hail, holy light! offspring of heav'n first born."

"The rising world of waters dark and deep."

"Thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers."

"Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank Of Nature's works to me expunged and razed, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out."

"I made him just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall."

"Golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, With joy and love triumphing."

"Dark with excessive bright."

"Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars, White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery."

"Into a limbo large and broad, since call'd The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown."

"Neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible"

"Lines 682-684"

"And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems."

"Satan, now first inflam’d with rage, came down, The Tempter ere th’ Accuser of man-kind, To wreck on innocent frail man his loss Of that first Battel, and his flight to Hell: Yet not rejoycing in his speed, though bold, Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast, Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth Now rowling, boiles in his tumultuous brest, And like a devillish Engine back recoiles Upon himself; horror and doubt distract His troubl’d thoughts, and from the bottom stirr The Hell within him, for within him Hell He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell One step no more then from himself can fly By change of place: Now conscience wakes despair That slumberd, wakes the bitter memorie Of what he was, what is, and what must be Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue."

"At whose sight all the stars Hide their diminish'd heads."

"A grateful mind By owing owes not, but still pays, at once Indebted and discharg'd."

"Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath and infinite despair? Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep, Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide, To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven."

"Under what torments inwardly I groane; While they adore me on the Throne of Hell, With Diadem and Scepter high advanc’d The lower still I fall, onely Supream In miserie; such joy Ambition findes. But say I could repent and could obtaine By Act of Grace my former state; how soon Would highth recal high thoughts, how soon unsay What feign’d submission swore: ease would recant Vows made in pain, as violent and void. For never can true reconcilement grow Where wounds of deadly hate have peirc’d so deep: Which would but lead me to a worse relapse And heavier fall: so should I purchase deare Short intermission bought with double smart. This knows my punisher; therefore as farr From granting hee, as I from begging peace: All hope excluded thus, behold in stead Of us out-cast, exil'd, his new delight, Mankind created, and for him this World."

"So farewel Hope, and with Hope farewel Fear, Farewel Remorse: all Good to me is lost; Evil be thou my Good; by thee at least Divided Empire with Heav'ns King I hold By thee, and more then half perhaps will reigne; As Man ere long, and this new World shall know."

"That practis'd falsehood under saintly shew, Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge."

"Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,"