OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]
Sing Heavnly Muse,that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heavns ah
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [ 10 ]
Delight thee more, and Siloas Brook that flowd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Ihy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th Aonian Mount, while it pursues [ 15 ]
Things ued yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou knowst; Thou from the first
resent, and with mighty wings outspread [ 20 ]
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And madst it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence, [ 25 ]
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
Say first, for Heavn hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Movd rand Parents in that happy State,
Favourd of Heavn so highly, to fall off [ 30 ]
From thir Creator, and transgress his Will
For oraint, Lords of the World besides?
Who first seducd them to that foul revolt?
Th infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceivd [ 35 ]
The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heavn, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equald the most High, [ 40 ]