Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/397

 POEMS IN VARIOUS METRES

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��Et sempiterni ducit ad vultus Patris,

At justa raptat iinpios Sub regna furvi luctuosa Tartar!

Sedesque subterraneas. Hanc ut vocautem Isetus audivi, cit6

Fcedum reliqui carcerem, Volatilesque faustus inter milites

Ad astra subliinis feror, Vates ut olim raptus ad cselum senex,

Auriga currus iguei. 5

Nou me Bootis terruere lucidi

Sarraca tarda frigore, aut Formidolosi Scorpionis brachia;

Non ensis, Orion, tuus. Prsetervolavi fulgidi solis globum;

Longeque sub pedibus deam Vidi triformera, dum coercebat suos

Frsenis dracones aureis. Erraticorum siderum per ordines,

Per lacteas vehor plagas, 60

Velocitatem ssepe miratus novam,

Donee nitentes ad fores Ventum est Olympi, et regiam crystalli- nam, et

Stratum smaragdis atrium. Sed hie tacebo, nam quis effari queat

Oriundus humano patre Aiiurnitutes illius loci ? Mihi

Sat est in seternum frui."

��day from night. And these souls she leads before the face of the Sempiternal Father; but the souls of the impious she hurries away to the mournful realms of Hell, and the subterranean abodes. When I heard her voice calling me I rejoiced; straight- way I left my dark prison of flesh, and was borne in the midst of winged soldiery to the stars, as of old the aged prophet was rapt to heaven charioted in fire. The wain of bright Bootes, slow with cold, did not appall me, nor the arms of the fearful Scorpion, nor thy sword, Orion. I sped past the globe of the fulgid sun; far be- neath my feet I saw the tri-form goddess of the moon tugging at the golden reins of her dragons. Through the ranks of the erratic stars, and the inilky stretches of space, I was borne, wondering at the novel speed of my flight, until I came to the glit- tering portals of Heaven, and the palace of crystal, and the courts paved with jasper and malachite. But here I will be silent, for who born of mortal father can tell the pleasures of that place ? It is enough for me to enjoy it forever."

��NATURAM NON PATI SENIUM THAT NATURE IS NOT SUBJECT TO OLD AGE

��It is probable, from a letter written by Mil- ton to Alexander Gill, his former master at St. Paul's School, that, this piece was composed to oblige a Fellow of Christ's College, who was called upon to furnish some verse of the kind for the commencement exercises of 1628. Mil- ton says : " A certain Fellow of our college, who had to act as Respondent in the philosophical disputation at this Commencement, chanced to entrust to my puerility the composition of the verses required by the annual custom to be writ- ten on the questions in dispute, being himself already long past the age for trifles of that sort, and more intent on serious things." The " Respondent in the philosophical disputation " was a person chosen from among the candidates for the Master's degree, to uphold a given

HEU ! quam perpetuis erroribus acta fatis-

cit Avia mens homhium, tenebrisque immcrsa

profundis

��thesis, and defend it against the attacks of two Opponents, similarly chosen. He was required to furnish a kind of poetical illustration of his thesis, to be distributed among the audience before the disputation began. The question here dealt with, that of the ultimate decay or eternal youthfulness of Nature, was a popular one in the seventeenth century, philosophic thought being about equally divided upon it. Milton's verses are a vigorous poetic protest against the theory of degeneracy, conceived with a fervor of conviction and a strength of imagery which gives the trifle a permanent significance. Milton was at the end of his fourth academic year at the time of writing, and hence in the twentieth year of his age.

��AH, how man's roving mind is driven and wearied by perpetual error, involved in profound shade and night such as blind

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