Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/182

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��PARADISE LOST

��So on he fares, and to the border comes Of Eden, where delicious Paradise, Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure

green,

As with a rural mound, the champain head Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides With thicket overgrown, grotesque and

wild,

Access denied; and overhead up-grew Insuperable highth of loftiest shade, Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching

palm,

A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend 140 Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their

tops

The verdurous wall of Paradise up-sprung; Which to our general Sire gave prospect

large

Into his nether empire neighbouring round. And higher than that wall a circling row Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit, Blossoms and fruits at once of golden

hue, Appeared, with gay enamelled colours

mixed; On which the sun more glad impressed his

beams 150

Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow, When God hath showered the earth: so

lovely seemed

That lantskip. And of pure now purer air Meets his approach, and to the heart in- spires

Vernal delight and joy, able to drive All sadness but despair. Now gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they

stole Those balmy spoils. As, when to them who

sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are

past 1 60

Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow Sabean odours from the spicy shore Of Araby the Blest, with such delay Well pleased they slack their course, and

many a league Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean

smiles; So entertained those odorous sweets the

Fiend Who came their bane, though with them

better pleased Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume

��That drove him, though enamoured, from the spouse

Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent 170

From Media post to -35gypt, there fast

bound.

Now to the ascent of that steep savage hill

Satan had journeyed on, pensive and slow;

But further way found none; so thick en- twined,

As one continued brake, the undergrowth

Of shrubs and tangling bushes had per- plexed

All path of man or beast that passed that way.

One gate there only was, and that looked east

On the other side. Which when the Arch- Felon saw,

Due entrance he disdained, and, in con- tempt, >8o

At one slight bound high overleaped all bound

Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within

Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,

Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,

Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve,

In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,

Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold;

Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash

Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,

Cross-barred and bolted fast, fear no as- sault, >9

In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles;

So clomb this first grand Thief into God's fold:

So since into his Church lewd hirelings climb.

Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,

The middle tree and highest there that grew,

Sat like a Cormorant; yet not true life

Thereby regained, but sat devising death

To them who lived; nor on the virtue thought

Of that life-giving plant, but only used

For prospect what, well used, had been the pledge 200

Of immortality. So little knows

Any, but God alone, to value right

�� �