The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
in sweet forgetfulness all pain ard wo,
All in one moment, and so near the brink;
But fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt
Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards
The ford, and of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on

In confus'u march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands
With shudd'ring horror pale, and eves aghast,
View'd first their lamentable lot, and found
No rest through many a dark and dreary vale
They pass'd, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp.

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death,

A universe of death, which God by curse

Created evil, for evil only good,

Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds
Perverse all monstrous all prodigious things,
Abominable, unutterable, and worse

Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.

Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man,
Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design,
Puts on swift wings, and tow'rds the gates of hell
Explores his solitary flight: sometimes

He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left,
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars
Up to the fiery concave, tow'ring high.
As when far off at sea a fleet descry'd
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles

Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
Their spicy drugs: they on the trading flood
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape
Ply, stemming nightly tow'rd the pole. So seemed
Far off the flying Fiend: at last appear
Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof,

And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass
Three iron, three of adamantine rock
Impenetrable, empal'd with circling me,

Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat
On either side a formidable shape;

The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair,
But ended foul in many a scaly fold
Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd

With mortal sting: about her middle round
A cry of hell hounds never ceasing bark'd
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous peal; yet when they list, would creep,
If ought disturb'd their noise into her womb,
And kennel there, yet there still bark'd and howl'
Within, unseen. Far less abhorr'd than these
Vex'd Scylla bathing in the sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore:
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when call'd
In secret; riding through the air she comes,
Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring moon
Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd, that shape had none
Distinguishable, in member, joint, or limb;
Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd
For each seem'd either; black it stood as Night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as hell,

And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd nis head
'The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand, and from his seat
The monster moving onward, came as fast
With horrid strides, hell trembled as he strode
Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admir'd
Admir'd, not fear'd: God and his Son except,
Created thing naught valu'd he nor shunn'd;
And with disdainful look thus first began:

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape'

That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance
Thy miscreated front athwart my way

To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass
That be assur'd, without leave ask'd of thee;
Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof,
Hell-born. not to contend with spirits of heav'n.
To whom the goblin full of wrath reply'd:
Art thou that traitor Angel, art thou he

Who first broke peace in heav'n, and faith till ther.
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms

Drew after him the third part of heav'n's sons
Conjur'd against the Highest, for which both thor
And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd
To waste eternal days in wo and pain?

And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of heav'n
Hell-doom'd, and breath'st defiance here, and scorn
Where I reign king, and to enrage thee more,
Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings,
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue
Thy ling'ring, or with one stroke of this dart
Strange horror seize thee, and
pangs unfelt before
So spake the grisly terror, and in shape,
So speaking and so threat'ning, grew tenfold
More dreadful and deforın on th' other side
Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head
Levell'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands
No second stroke intend, and such a frown.
Each cast at th' other, as when two black clouds
With heav'n's artillery fraught, come rattling or
Over the Caspian, then stand front to front
Hovering a space, till winds, the signal blow
To join their dark encounter in mid air:
So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell
Grew darker at their frown, so match'd they s.ood

For never but once more was either like

To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds
Had been achiev'd, whereof all hell had rung,
Had not the snaky sorceress that sat

Fast by hell gate, and kept the fatal key,
Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.
O Father, what intends thy hand, she cry'd,
Against thy only son? What fury, O Son.
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart

Against thy Father's head? and know'st for whom?
For him who sits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute

Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids ·
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both.
She spake, and at her words the hellish pest
Forbore; then these, to her, Satan return'd:

So strange thy outcry, and thy words, so strange Thou interposest, that my sudden hand Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds What it intends; till first I know of thee, What thing thou art, thus double form'd and why In this infernal vale first met thou call'st Me Father, and that phantasm call'st my son; I know thee not, nor ever saw till now Sight more detestable than him and thee.

T'whom thus the port'ress of hell gate reply'd.
Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem
Now in thine eye so foul? once deem'd so fair
In heav'n, when at th' assembly, and in sight
Of all the Seraphim with thee combin'd
In bold conspiracy 'gainst heav'n's King,
All on a sudden, miserable pain

Surpriz'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide,
Likest to thee in shape and count'nance bright,
Then shining heav'nly fair, a goddess arm'd
Out of thy head I sprung; amazement seiz'd
All th' host of heav'n; back they recoil'd afraid

At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a sign
Portentous held me; but familiar grown,
I pleas'd, and with attractive graces won
The most averse; thee chiefly, who full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
Becam'st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st
With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd
A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose
And fields were fought in heav'n; wherein remain'd
(For what could else?) to our almighty foe
Clear victory, to our part loss and rout
Through all the empyrean: down they fell
Into this deep, and in the gen'ral fall
I also; at which time this pow'rful key
Driv'n headlong from the pitch of Heav'n, down
Into my hand was giv'n, with charge to keep
These gates for ever shut, which none can pass
Without my opening. Pensive here I sat
Alone, but long I sat not, till my womb
Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.
At last this odious offspring whom thou seest
Thine own begotton, breaking violent way,
Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transform'd: but he my inbred enemy
Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart
Made to destroy: I fled, and cry'd 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
Engend'ring 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