Transform'd: But he my inbred enemy Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart, Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death! Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd From all her caves, and back resounded Death! I fled; but he pursued, (though more it seems Inflam'd with lust than rage,) and, swifter far, Me overtook his mother all dismay'd, And, in embraces forcible and foul, Ingendering with me, of that rape begot These yelling monsters, that, with ceaseless cry, Surround me, as thou saw'st; hourly conceiv'd, And hourly born, with sorrow infinite To me; for, when they list, into the womb That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw My bowels, their repast; then, bursting forth Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round, That rest or intermission none I find.
Before mine eyes in opposition sits
Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on, And me his parent would full soon devour For want of other prey, but that he knows His end with mine involved; and knows that I Should prove a bitter morsel and his bane, Whenever that shall be; so Fate pronounced. But thou, O Father! I forewarn thee, shun His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope To be invulnerable in those bright arms, Though temper'd heavenly; for that mortal dint, Save He who reigns above, none can resist.
She finish'd; and the subtle Fiend his lore Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus answer'd smooth. Dear Daughter! since thou claim'st me for thy sire, And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys
Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change Befallen us, unforeseen, unthought of; know,
I come no enemy, but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host Of Spirits, that, in our just pretences arm'd, Fell with us from on high: From them I go This uncouth errand sole; and, one for all, Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread
The unfounded deep, and through the void immense To search with wand'ring quest a place foretold Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now Created, vast and round, a place of bliss In the pourlieus of Heaven, and therein placed A race of upstart creatures, to supply Perhaps our vacant room; though more removed, Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught Than this more secret now design'd, I haste To know; and, this once known, shall soon return, And bring ye to the place where Thou and Death Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen Wing silently the buxom1 air imbalm'd With odours; there ye shall be fed and fill'd Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey.
He ceased, for both seem'd highly pleased; and Death Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear
His famine should be fill'd; and blest his maw Destined to that good hour: No less rejoiced His mother bad; and thus bespake her sire. The key of this infernal pit by due, And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King, 'Buxom :' yielding.
I keep; by him forbidden to unlock These adamantine gates; against all force Death ready stands to interpose his dart, Fearless to be o'ermatch'd by living might. But what owe I to his commands above Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,
To sit in hateful office here confin'd, Inhabitant of Heaven, and heavenly born, Here, in perpetual agony and pain,
With terrours and with clamours compass'd round Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed? Thou art my father, thou my author, thou My being gav'st me; whom should I obey But thee? whom follow? thou wilt bring me soon To that new world of light and bliss, among The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems Thy daughter and thy darling, without end. Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew, Which, but herself, not all the Stygian Powers Could once have moved: then in the key-hole turns The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar
Of massy iron, or solid rock, with ease Unfastens; On a sudden open fly With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut Excell❜d her power; the gates wide open stood, That with extended wings a banner'd host,
Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through 886 With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array; So wide they stood, and, like a furnace-mouth Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. Before their eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound,
Without dimension; where length, breadth, and highth, And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring Their embryon atoms; they around the flag Of each his faction, in their several clans, Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands Of Barca, or Cyrene's1 torrid soil,
Levied to side with warring winds, and poise
Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere. He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits,
And by decision more By which he reigns: Chance governs all. The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds; Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend Stood on the brink of Hell, and look'd a while,
embroils the fray, Next him, high arbiter, Into this wild abyss,
1 Barca and Cyrene:' regions of Africa.
Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd With noises loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with small), than when Bellona1 storms, With all her battering engines bent to rase Some capital city; or less than if this frame Of Heaven were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from her axle torn
The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans He spreads for flight, and, in the surging smoke Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league, As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets A vast vacuity: All unawares,
Fluttering his pennons vain, plump down he drops. Ten thousand fathom deep; and to this hour Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance, The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him As many miles aloft: That fury staid, Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis,2 neither sea
Nor good dry land: Nigh founder'd on he fares, Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail. As when a gryphon,3 through the wilderness With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale, Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd The guarded gold: So eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
"Bellona:' the war goddess.-2 Syrtis:' a bog.—3 Gryphon :' a fabulous creature; upper part like an eagle, lower part like a lion; said to guard gold mines. Arimaspian :' a people of Scythia, said to be one-eyed, and fond of gold.
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