HAil holy light, of Heavn first-born,
Or of th Eternal Coeternal beam
May I express thee unblamd? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, [ 5 ]
Bright effluence ht essencreate.
Or hearst thou rather pure Ethereal stream,
Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun,
Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a Mantle didst i [ 10 ]
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
Escapt the Stygian Pool, though loaind
In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight [ 15 ]
Through utter and through middle darkness borne
With other hen to th Orphean Lyre
I sung of Chaos aernal Night,
Taught by the heavnly Muse to venture down
The dark dest, and up to reasd, [ 20 ]
Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,
Ahy sovran vital Lamp; but thou
Revisitst not these eyes, that rowle in vain
To find thy pierg ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop sereh quencht thir Orbs, [ 25 ]
Or dim suffusion veild. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt
Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,
Smit with the love of sacred Song; but chief
Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beh [ 30 ]
That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor somtimes fet
Those other two equald with me in Fate,
So were I equald with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides, [ 35 ]
And Tiresias and Phineus Prophets old.