Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/223

 BOOK SEVENTH

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��Of congregated waters he called Seas; And saw that it was good, and said, ' Let

the Earth Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding

seed, 310

And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind, Whose seed is in herself upon the Earth ! ' He scarce had said when the bare Earth,

till then

Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned, Brought forth the tender grass, whose ver- dure clad

Her universal face with pleasant green; Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden

flowered,

Opening their various colours, and made gay Her bosom, smelling sweet; and, these

scarce blown, Forth flourished thick the clustering vine,

forth crept 320

The smelling gourd, up stood the corny reed Imbattled in her field: add the humble

shrub,

And bush with frizzled hair implicit: last Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and

spread Their branches hung with copious fruit, or

gemmed Their blossoms. With high woods the hills

were crowned,

With tufts the valleys and each fountain- side, With borders long the rivers, that Earth

now Seemed like to Heaven, a seat where gods

might dwell, Or wander with delight, and love to

haunt 33

Her sacred shades; though God had yet

not rained

Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground None was, but from the Earth a dewy

mist Went up and watered all the ground, and

each Plant of the field, which ere it was in the

Earth

God made, and every herb before it grew On the green stem. God saw that it was

good;

So even and morn recorded the third Day. " Again the Almighty spake, * Let there

be Lights

High in the expanse of Heaven, to di- vide 340

��The Day from Night; and let them be for

signs, For seasons, and for days, and circling

years;

And let them be for lights, as I ordain Their office in the firmament of heaven, To give light on the Earth ! ' and it was so. And God made two great Lights, great for

their use

To Man, the greater to have rule by day, The less by night, alterne; and made the

Stars,

And set them in the firmament of heaven To illuminate the Earth, and rule the

day 350

In their vicissitude, and rule the night, And light from darkness to divide. God

saw,

Surveying his great work, that it was good: For, of celestial bodies, first the Sun A mighty sphere he framed, unlightsome

first, Though of ethereal mould; then formed

the Moon

Globose, and every magnitude of Stars, And sowed with stars the heaven thick as a

field.

Of light by far the greater part he took, Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and

placed 360

In the Sun's orb, made porous to receive And drink the liquid light, firm to retain Her gathered beams, great palace now of

Light.

Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, And hence the morning planet gilds her

horns;

By tincture or reflection they augment Their small peculiar, though, from human

sight

So far remote, with diminution seen. First in his east the glorious lamp was

seen, 370

Regent of day, and all the horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocond to run His longitude through heaven's high-road;

the grey

Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced, Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the

Moon,

But opposite in levelled west, was set, His mirror, with full face borrowing her

light From him ; for other light she needed none

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