Their dread Commander: he, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent, Stood like a tower: his form had yet not lost All her original brightness; nor appeared Less than Arch-Angel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured: as when the sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone Above them all the Arch-Angel: but his face Deep scars of thunder had intrenched; and care Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride Waiting revenge: cruel his eye, but cast Signs of remorse and passion, to behold The fellows of his crime, the followers rather, (Far other once beheld in bliss) condemned For ever now to have their lot in pain; Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced Of Heaven, and from eternal splendours flung For his revolt; yet faithful how they stood, Their glory withered: as when Heaven's fire Hath scathed the forest oaks, or mountain pines, With singed top their stately growth, though bare,
Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend From wing to wing, and half enclose him round With all his peers: attention held them mute. Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth at last Words, interwove with sighs, found out their
O Myriads of immortal Spirits! O Powers Matchless, but with the Almighty! and that strife Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, As this place testifies, and this dire change Hateful to utter: but what power of mind, Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth Of knowledge past or present, could have feared, How such united force of Gods, how such As stood like these, could ever know repulse? For who can yet believe, though after loss, That all these puissant legions, whose exíle Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend Self-raised, and re-possess their native seat? For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, If counsels different, or dangers shunned
By me have lost our hopes. But he, who reigns Monarch in Heaven, till then as one secure Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, Consent or custom; and his regal state
Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed, Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. Henceforth his might we know, and know our own; So as not either to provoke, or dread
New war, provoked: our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile, What force effected not: that he no less At length from us may find, who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long Intended to create, and therein plant A generation, whom his choice regard Should favour equal to the sons of Heaven: Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps Our first eruption; thither or elsewhere: For this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the abyss Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts Full counsel must mature: peace is despaired; For who can think submission? War then, War, Open or understood, must be resolved.
He spake: and, to confirm his words, out-flew Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze Far round illumined Hell: highly they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.
There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire Shone with a glossy scurf; undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic ore,
The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, A numerous brigad hastened: as when bands Of pioneers, with spade and pickax armed, Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on; Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From Heaven; for e'en in Heaven his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heaven's pavement trodden gold,
Than aught, divine or holy, else enjoyed
In vision beatifick: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransacked the center, and with impious hands Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth For treasures, better hid. Soon had his crew Opened into the hill a spacious wound, And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those,
Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings, Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, And strength, and art, are easily out-done By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour What in an age they with incessant toil And hands innumerable scarce perform. Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, That underneath had veins of liquid fire Sluced from the lake, a second multitude With wonderous art founded the massy ore,
Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion dross:
A third as soon had formed within the ground
A various mould, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook; As in an organ, from one blast of wind,
To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. Anon, out of the earth, a fabrick huge Rose like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, Built like a temple, where pilasters round
Were set, and Dorick pillars overlaid
With golden architrave; nor did there want Cornice or freeze, with bossy sculptures graven : The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,
Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence
« AnteriorContinuar » |