Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/387

 JOHN MILTON

That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow,

Nightly I visit: nor somtimes forget

Those other two equaPd with me in Fate,

So were I equal'd with them in renown.

Blind Thamyris and blind Maeonides,

And Tircsias and Phincus Prophets old.

Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move

Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird

Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid

Tunes her nocturnal Note. 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 Summers Rose,

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;

But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark

Surrounds me, from the chcarful waies of men

Cut off, and for the Book of knowlcdg fair

Presented with a Universal blanc

Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd,

And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out.

So much the rather thou Celestial light

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight.

��552 (*) From 'Samson Agowstes*

how comely it is and how reviving To the Spirits of just men long opprest! When God into the hands of thir deliverer Puts invincible might

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