Paradise Lost

"Midnight brought on the dusky hour Friendliest to sleep and silence."

"Innumerable as the stars of night, Or stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun Impearls on every leaf and every flower."

"Will ye submit your necks, and chuse to bend The supple knee? ye will not, if I trust To know ye right, or if ye know your selves Natives and Sons of Heav'n possest before By none, and if not equal all, yet free, Equally free; for Orders and Degrees Jarr not with liberty, but well consist. Who can in reason then or right assume Monarchie over such as live by right..."

"So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found; Among the faithless, faithful only he."

"Morn, Waked by the circling hours, with rosy hand Unbarred the gates of light."

"Servant of God, well done, well hast thou fought The better fight, who single hast maintained Against revolted multitudes the cause Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms."

"How few somtimes may know, when thousands err."

"Arms on armour clashing bray'd Horrible discord, and the madding wheels Of brazen chariots rag'd: dire was the noise Of conflict."

"Spirits that live throughout, Vital in every part, not as frail man, In entrails, heart or head, liver or reins, Cannot but by annihilating die."

"Far off his coming shone."

"In heavenly spirits could such perverseness dwell?"

"More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged To hoarse or mute, though fall'n, and evil tongues; In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, And solitude."

"Still govern thou my song, Urania, and fit audience find, though few."

"Out of one man a race Of men innumerable."

"Heaven open'd wide Her ever during gates, harmonious sound, On golden hinges moving."

"On heav'nly ground they stood, and from the shore They view'd the vast immeasurable Abyss Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wilde, Up from the bottom turn'd by furious windes And surging waves, as Mountains to assault Heav'ns highth, and with the Center mix the Pole. "Silence, ye troubl'd waves, and thou Deep, peace!" Said then th' Omnific Word, "Your discord end!" Nor staid, but on the Wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in Paternal Glorie rode Farr into Chaos, and the World unborn; For Chaos heard his voice: him all his Traine Follow'd in bright procession to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then staid the fervid Wheeles, and in his hand He took the golden Compasses, prepar'd In Gods Eternal store, to circumscribe This Universe, and all created things: One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd Round through the vast profunditie obscure, And said, "Thus farr extend, thus farr thy bounds, This be thy just Circumference, O World!""

"Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repairing, in their golden urns draw light."

"There Leviathan Hugest of living creatures, on the deep Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims, And seems a moving land, and at his gills Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea."

"Now half appear'd The tawny lion, pawing to get free His hinder parts."

"Indu'd With sanctity of reason."

"The planets in their stations list'ning stood, While the bright pomp ascended jubilant. Open, ye everlasting gates, they sung, Open ye heavens, your living doors; let in The great Creator from his work returned Magnificent, his six days' work, a world."

"A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold, And pavement stars,—as stars to thee appear Seen in the galaxy, that milky way Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest Powder'd with stars."

"The angel ended, and in Adam's ear So charming left his voice that he awhile Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear."

"There swift return Diurnal, merely to officiate light Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot."

"And grace that won who saw to wish her stay."

"And touch'd by her fair tendance, gladlier grew."

"With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb."

"Her silent course advance With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps On her soft axle."

"Be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being."

"To know That which before us lies in daily life Is the prime wisdom."

"Liquid lapse of murmuring streams."

"And feel that I am happier than I know."

"Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?"

"Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, In every gesture dignity and love."

"Her virtue and the conscience of her worth, That would be wooed, and not unsought be won."

"She what was honour knew, And with obsequious majesty approv'd My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower I led her blushing like the morn; all heaven And happy constellations on that hour Shed their selectest influence; the earth Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub."

"The sum of earthly bliss."

"So absolute she seems And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best."

"Accuse not Nature: she hath done her part; Do thou but thine."

"Ofttimes nothing profits more Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right Well managed."

"Those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions."

"With a smile that glow'd Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue."

"My unpremeditated verse."

"Pleas'd me, long choosing and beginning late."

"Not sedulous by Nature to indite Warrs, hitherto the onely Argument Heroic deem'd, chief maistrie to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabl'd Knights In Battels feign'd; the better fortitude Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom Unsung"

"Unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing."

"The serpent subtlest beast of all the field."

"Revenge, at first though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils."

"The work under our labour grows, Luxurious by restraint."

"Smiles from reason flow, To brute deny'd, and are of love the food."