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
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!
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
My bowels, their repaft: then buriting forth,
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
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!
She finish'd, and the subtle fiend his lore
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
My felf expofe, with lonely fteps to tread
Th' unfounded Deep, and through the void immense
To fearch with wandring queft a place foretold
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
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
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
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
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
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,
Under spread enfigns marching, might pass through
With horfe and chariots rank'd in loofe array,
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
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
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
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
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,
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
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
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
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,
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
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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