"With thee conversing I forget all time, All seasons, and their change; all please alike. Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun When first on this delightful land he spreads His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, Glist'ring with dew; fragrant the fertile earth After soft showers; and sweet the coming on Of grateful ev'ning mild; then silent night With this her solemn bird and this fair moon, And these the gems of heaven, her starry train: But neither breath of morn when she ascends With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower, Glist'ring with dew, nor fragrance after showers, Nor grateful ev'ning mild, nor silent night With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet."

"The timely dew of sleep."

"The wakeful nightingale, She all night long her amorous descant sung; Silence was pleased: now glowed the firmament With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light, And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw."

"Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad; Silence accompany'd; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale; She all night long her amorous descant sung; Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmament With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light, And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw."

"Knowledge forbidd'n? Suspicious, reasonless. Why should thir Lord Envie them that? can it be sin to know, Can it be death? and do they onely stand By Ignorance, is that thir happie state, The proof of thir obedience and thir faith? O fair foundation laid whereon to build Thir ruine! Hence I will excite thir minds With more desire to know, and to reject Envious commands, invented with designe To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt Equal with Gods; aspiring to be such, They taste and die: what likelier can ensue?"

"Live while ye may, Yet happy pair."

"Imparadis'd in one another's arms."

"As Jupiter On Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds That shed May flowers."

"So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds."

"Adam the goodliest man of men since born His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve."

"Implied Subjection, but required with gentle sway, And by her yielded, by him best received, Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, And sweet reluctant amorous delay."

"For contemplation he and valor formed, For softness she and sweet attractive grace; He for God only, she for God in him. His fair large front and eye sublime declar'd Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks Round from his parted forelock manly hung Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad."

"Two of far nobler shape erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native honor clad In naked majesty seemed lords of all."

"Proserpine gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower."

"Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose."

"Flowers worthy of paradise."

"A heaven on earth."

"And on the Tree of Life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant."

"Sabean odours from the spicy shore Of Araby the Blest."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

"Lines 682-684"

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

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

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

"Dark with excessive bright."

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

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

"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."

"Thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers."

"The rising world of waters dark and deep."

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

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

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

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

"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."

"To compare Great things with small."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

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