Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/337

Rh Hovering upon the waters, what they met Solid or slimy, as in raging sea Tost up and down, together crowded drove, From each side shoaling, toward the mouth of hell; —As when two polar winds, blowing adverse Upon the Cronian sea, together drive Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way Beyond Petsora eastward to the rich Cathaian coast.—The aggregated soil Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry, As with a trident smote, and fixed as firm As Delos, floating once; the rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move, And with asphaltic slime. Broad as the gate, Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on, Over the foaming Deep high arched, a bridge Of length prodigious, joining to the wall Immovable of this now fenceless World, Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad, Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell. So, if great things to small may be compared, Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke, From Susa, his Memnonian palace high, Came to the sea, and, over Hellespont Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined; And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves.