2

OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]

Sing Heavnly Muse,that on the secret top

Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,

In the Beginning how the Heavns and Earth

Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [ 10 ]

Delight thee more, and Siloas Brook that flowd

Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence

Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,

That with no middle flight intends to soar

Above th Aonian Mount, while it pursues [ 15 ]

Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.

And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer

Before all Temples th upright heart and pure,

Instruct me, for Thou knowst; Thou from the first

Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread [ 20 ]

Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss

And madst it pregnant: What in me is dark

Illumin, what is low raise and support;

That to the highth of this great Argument

I may assert Eternal Providence, [ 25 ]

And justifie the wayes of God to men.

Say first, for Heavn hides nothing from thy view

Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause

Movd our Grand Parents in that happy State,

Favourd of Heavn so highly, to fall off [ 30 ]

From thir Creator, and transgress his Will

For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?

Who first seducd them to that foul revolt?

Th infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile

Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceivd [ 35 ]

The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride

Had cast him out from Heavn, with all his Host

Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring

To set himself in Glory above his Peers,

He trusted to have equald the most High, [ 40 ]