Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/273

Rh Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign, Giver of all things fair! but fairest this Of all thy gifts, nor enviest. I now see Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself Before me; Woman's her name, of Man Extracted; for this cause he shall forgo Father and mother, and to his wife adhere; And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.'
 * 'She heard me thus; and, though divinely brought,

Yet innocence and virgin modesty, Her virtue and the conscience of her worth, That would be wooed, and not unsought be won, Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired, The more desirable; or, to say all, Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought, Wrought in her so, that seeing me she turned; I followed her, she what was honor knew, And with obsequious majesty approved 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 signs of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odors from the spicy shrub, Disporting, till the amorous bird of night