Paradise Lost. John Milton

Tribunal: forthwith from all Windes

      The living, and forthwith the cited dead

      Of all past Ages to the general Doom

      Shall hast’n, such a peal shall rouse thir sleep.

      Then all thy Saints assembl’d, thou shalt judge

      Bad men and Angels, they arraignd shall sink

      Beneath thy Sentence; Hell, her numbers full,

      Thenceforth shall be for ever shut. Mean while

      The World shall burn, and from her ashes spring

      New Heav’n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell

      And after all thir tribulations long

      See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,

      With Joy and Love triumphing, and fair Truth.

      Then thou thy regal Scepter shalt lay by,

      For regal Scepter then no more shall need,

      God shall be All in All. But all ye Gods,

      Adore him, who to compass all this dies,

      Adore the Son, and honour him as mee.

      No sooner had th’ Almighty ceas’t, but all

      The multitude of Angels with a shout

      Loud as from numbers without number, sweet

      As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heav’n rung

      With Jubilee, and loud Hosanna’s fill’d

      Th’ eternal Regions: lowly reverent

      Towards either Throne they bow, & to the ground

      With solemn adoration down they cast

      Thir Crowns inwove with Amarant and Gold,

      Immortal Amarant, a Flour which once

      In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life

      Began to bloom, but soon for mans offence

      To Heav’n remov’d where first it grew, there grows,

      And flours aloft shading the Fount of Life,

      And where the river of Bliss through midst of Heavn

      Rowls o’re ELISIAN Flours her Amber stream;

      With these that never fade the Spirits Elect

      Bind thir resplendent locks inwreath’d with beams,

      Now in loose Garlands thick thrown off, the bright

      Pavement that like a Sea of Jasper shon

      Impurpl’d with Celestial Roses smil’d.

      Then Crown’d again thir gold’n Harps they took,

      Harps ever tun’d, that glittering by their side

      Like Quivers hung, and with Praeamble sweet

      Of charming symphonie they introduce

      Thir sacred Song, and waken raptures high;

      No voice exempt, no voice but well could joine

      Melodious part, such concord is in Heav’n.

      Thee Father first they sung Omnipotent,

      Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,

      Eternal King; thee Author of all being,

      Fountain of Light, thy self invisible

      Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit’st

      Thron’d inaccessible, but when thou shad’st

      The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud

      Drawn round about thee like a radiant Shrine,

      Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appeer,

      Yet dazle Heav’n, that brightest Seraphim

      Approach not, but with both wings veil thir eyes.

      Thee next they sang of all Creation first,

      Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,

      In whose conspicuous count’nance, without cloud

      Made visible, th’ Almighty Father shines,

      Whom else no Creature can behold; on thee

      Impresst the effulgence of his Glorie abides,

      Transfus’d on thee his ample Spirit rests.

      Hee Heav’n of Heavens and all the Powers therein

      By thee created, and by thee threw down

      Th’ aspiring Dominations: thou that day

      Thy Fathers dreadful Thunder didst not spare,

      Nor stop thy flaming Chariot wheels, that shook

      Heav’ns everlasting Frame, while o’re the necks

      Thou drov’st of warring Angels disarraid.

      Back from pursuit thy Powers with loud acclaime

      Thee only extold, Son of thy Fathers might,

      To execute fierce vengeance on his foes,

      Not so on Man; him through their malice fall’n,

      Father of Mercie and Grace, thou didst not doome

      So strictly, but much more to pitie encline:

      No sooner did thy dear and onely Son

      Perceive thee purpos’d not to doom frail Man

      So strictly, but much more to pitie enclin’d,

      He to appease thy wrauth, and end the strife

      Of Mercy and Justice in thy face discern’d,

      Regardless of the Bliss wherein hee sat

      Second to thee, offerd himself to die

      For mans offence. O unexampl’d love,

      Love no where to be found less then Divine!

      Hail Son of God, Saviour of Men, thy Name

      Shall be the copious matter of my Song

      Henceforth, and never shall my Harp thy praise

      Forget, nor from thy Fathers praise disjoine.

      Thus they in Heav’n, above the starry Sphear,

      Thir happie hours in joy and hymning spent.

      Mean while upon the firm opacous Globe

      Of this round World, whose first convex divides

      The luminous inferior Orbs, enclos’d

      From CHAOS and th’ inroad of Darkness old,

      SATAN alighted walks: a Globe farr off

      It seem’d, now seems a boundless Continent

      Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night

      Starless expos’d, and ever-threatning storms

      Of CHAOS blustring round, inclement skie;

      Save on that side which from the wall of Heav’n

      Though distant farr som small reflection gaines

      Of glimmering air less vext with tempest loud:

      Here walk’d the Fiend at large in spacious field.

      As when a Vultur on IMAUS bred,

      Whose snowie ridge the roving TARTAR bounds,

      Dislodging from a Region scarce