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Without my op'ning. Penfive here I fat.
Alone, but long I fat not, till my womb
Pregnant by thee, and now exceffive grown,
Prodigious motion felt, and rueful throes!
At last this odious offspring whom thou seest,
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way
Tore through my intrails; that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus
Transform'd. But he my inbred enemy

grew

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Forth-iffu'd, brandishing his fatal dart,

Made to deftroy: I fled, and cry'd out DEATH!
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and figh'd

From all her caves, and back refounded, DEATH!

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I fled, but he purfu'd (though more, it feems,
Inflam'd with luft than rage) and, fwifter far!
Me overtook his mother, all difmay'd:
And in embraces forcible and foul,
Ingendring with me, of that rape begot

Thefe yelling monfters; that with ceafeless cry
Surround me, as thou faw'ft; hourly conceiv'd,
And hourly born, with forrow infinite
into the womb

To me! For, when they lift,

That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw

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My bowels, their repaft: then buriting forth,

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Afresh with confcious terrors vex me round,

That reft or intermiffion none I find.

Before mine eyes in oppofition fits

Grim DEATH my fon and foe; who fets them on,

And me his parent would full foon devour

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For want of other prey, but that he knows

His end with mine involv'd: and knows that I

Should prove a bitter morfel, and his bane,
Whenever that fhall be; fo Fate pronounc'd.
But thou O father! I forewarn thee, fhun
His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
Though temper'd heav'nly; for that mortal dint,
Save He who reigns above, none can refift!

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She finish'd, and the subtle fiend his lore

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Soon

Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus answer'd smooth.

Dear daughter! fince thou claim'ft me for thy fire,
And my fair fon here show'ft me (the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in heav'n, and joys
Then fweet, now fad to mention, thro' dire change
Befall'n us, unforeseen, unthought of!) know
I come no enemy, but to fet free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain,
Both him and thee, and all the heav'nly hoft
Of spirits that (in our juft pretences arm'd,)
Fell with us from on high: from them I go
This uncouth errand fole; and one for all

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My felf expofe, with lonely fteps to tread

Th' unfounded Deep, and through the void immense

To fearch with wandring queft a place foretold

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Should be, and, by concurring figns, ere-now
Created, vast and round; a place of bliss
In the pourlieus of heav'n, and therein plac'd
A race of upftart creatures, to fupply
Perhaps our vacant room; though more remov'd,
Left heav'n furcharg'd with potent multitude
Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or ought
Than this more fecret, now defign'd, I hafte
To know and this once known, fhall foon return,
And bring ye to the place where Thou and DEATH
Shalt dwell at eafe, and up and down unseen
Wing filently the buxom air, imbalm'd

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With odors: there ye fhall be fed, and fill'd

Immeasurable, all things fhall be your prey.

He ceas'd, for both feem'd highly pleas'd, and DEATH

Grinn'd horrible a ghaftly smile, to hear

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His famine fhould be fill'd; and bleft his maw

Deftin'd to that good hour: no lefs rejoic'd
His mother bad, and thus befpake her fire:

The key of this infernal pit by due,
And by command of heav'n's all pow'rful King,
I keep; by Him forbidden to unlock

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Thefe

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These admantine gates; against all force
DEATH ready ftands to interpofe his dart,
Fearless to be o'ermatch'd by living wight.
But what owe I to His commands above

Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down.
Into this gloom of TARTARUS profound,

To fit in hateful office here confin'd,

Inhabitant of heav'n, and heav'nly-born,
Here in perpetual agony, and pain,

With terrors and with clamors compafs'd round,
Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou
My Being gav'ft me; whom should I obey
But thee? whom follow? thou wilt bring me foon
To that new world of light and blifs, among
The Gods who live at eafe, where I fhall reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems
Thy daughter, and thy darling, without end.

Thus faying, from her fide the fatal key,
Sad inftrument of all our woe! fhe took;
And tow'rds the gate rolling her bestial train,
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew ;
Which but herself, not all the STYGIAN Pow'rs

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Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns
Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and har

Of maffy iron, or folid rock, with ease

With impetuous recoil and jarring found,

Unfaftens on a sudden open fly,

Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate

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Harsh thunder, that the loweft bottom shook
Of EREBUS. She open'd, but to fhut

Excell'd her pow'r; the gates wide open ftood,

That with extended winds a banner'd hoft,

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Under spread enfigns marching, might pass through

With horfe and chariots rank'd in loofe array,

A

So wide they flood! and, like a furnace mouth,

Caft forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.
Before their eyes in fudden view appear
The fecrets of the hoary Deep; a dark

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Fllimi.

Illimitable ocean! without bound,

Without dimenfion; where length, breadth, and height,
And time and place are loft; where eldest NIGHT
And CHAOS, ancestors of Nature, hold

Eternal anarchy amidft the noife

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand:

For, hot, cold, moift, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for ma'ry, and to battel bring

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Their embryon atoms; they around the flag

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Of each his faction, in their fev'ral clans,

Light-arm'd or heavy, fharp, fmooth, fwift or flow,
Swarm populous, unnumbred as the fands
Of BARCA, or CYRENE's torrid foil,

Levy'd to fide with warring winds, and poife

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Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,

He rules a moment: CHAOS umpire fits,

And by decifion more embroils the fray,

By which he reigns; next him high arbiter
CHANCE governs all. Into this wild abyss,
(The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave)
Of neither fea, nor fhore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
(Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds)
Into this wild abyss this wary fiend

Stood on the brink of hell, and look'd a while,

Pond'ring his voyage; (for no narrow frith

He had to cross :) nor was his ear less peal'd

With noifes loud, and ruinous, (to compare

Great things with small) than when BELLONA ftorms,

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With all her batt'ring engins bent to raze

Some capital city; or lefs than if this frame

Of heav'n were falling, and these elements

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In mutiny had from her axle torn

The fledfaft earth. At last his fail-broad vans

He fpreads for flight, and in the furging smoke

Up-lifted fpurns the ground: thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, afcending rides

Audacious; but that feat foon failing, mects

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A

A vaft vacuity: all unawares

Flutt'ring his pennons vain, plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep: and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of fome tumultuous cloud,
Inftinet with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither fea,
Nor good dry land, nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude confiftence, half on foot,
Half flying; behooves him now both oar and fail.
As when a gryfon, through the wilderness
With winged courfe o'er hill or moory dale,
Purfues the ARIMASPIAN, who by ftealth
Had from his wakeful cuftody purloin'd
The guarded gold: fo eagerly the fiend

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O'er bog or fleep, through ftrait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, purfues his way;
And fwims, or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
At length a univerfal hubbub wild

Of fturning founds, and voices all confus'd,
Born through the hollow dark affaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies, ..
Undaunted to meet there whatever Pow'r,
Or fpirit, of the nethermoft abyfs,

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Might in that noise refide, of whom to ask

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies,

Bordering on light: when straight behold the throne

Of CHAOS, and his dark pavilion spread

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Wide on the wasteful Deep: with him inthron'd

Sat fable-vefted NIGHT, eldeft of things,

The confort of his reign: and by them stood
ORCUS, and HADES, and the dreaded name
Of DEMOGORGON: RUMOR next, and CHANCE,
And TUMULT, and CONFUSION all imbroil'd,
And DISCORD with a thousand various mouths.
T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus-Ye Pow'rs,
And fpirits of this nethermost abyss,

CHAOS and ANTIENT NIGHT! I come no spy
With purpose to explore, or to difiurb

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