Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/65

Rh The lips of Tantalus. Thus roving on, In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands, With shuddering horror pale and eyes aghast, Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale They passed, and many a region dolorous, O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death; A universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good, Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, inutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire. Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man, Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, Puts on swift wings; and toward the gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight. Sometimes He scours the right-hand coast, sometimes the left; Now shaves with level wing the deep; then soars Up to the fiery concave, towering high.