And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud! For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill. Together both, ere the high lawns appeared Under the opening eyelids of the morn, 26 We drove a-field, and both together heard What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, Oft till the star that rose at evening bright Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. 31 Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute; Tempered to the oaten flute Rough satyrs danced, and fauns with cloven heel From the glad sound would not be absent long: 35 And old Damotas loved to hear our song. But, oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone, Now thou art gone and never must return! Thee, shepherd, thee the woods, and desert 'Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, Nor in the glistering foil Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor 'Ah! who hath reft,' quoth he, 'my dearest pledge?' Last came, and last did go, III Two massy keys he bore, of metals twain, 'How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! Of other care they little reckoning make 116 Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast And shove away the worthy bidden guest; Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook, or have learned ought else the least 120 as revolting from God, and drawing to his side many legions of angels, was, by the command of God, driven out of heaven, with all his crew, into the great deep. Which action passed over, the poem hastens into the midst of things, presenting Satan, with his angels, now fallen into hell, described here, not in the center (for heaven and earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed), but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos: here Satan with his angels, lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, from confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by him. They confer of their miserable fall; Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded. They rise; their numbers; array of battle; their chief leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy, or report, in heaven for, that the angels were long before this visible creation, was the opinion of many ancient fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of the deep: the infernal peers there sit in council. 22 25 |