Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/157

My glory, my perfection, glad I see
Thy face, and morn returned; for I this night—30
Such night till this I never passed—have dreamed,
If dreamed, not, as I oft am wont, of thee,
Works of day past, or morrow's next design,
But of offence and trouble, which my mind
Knew never till this irksome night. Methought,
Close at mine ear, one called me forth to walk
With gentle voice—I thought it thine. It said,
'Why sleepest thou, Eve? now is the pleasant time,
The cool, the silent, save where silence yields
To the night-warbling bird, that now awake40
Tunes sweetest his love-labored song; now reigns
Full-orbed the moon, and, with more pleasing light,
Shadowy sets off the face of things; in vain,
If none regard. Heaven wakes with all his eyes,
Whom to behold but thee, Nature's desire?
In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.'
I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;
To find thee I directed then my walk;
And on, methought, alone I passed through ways50
That brought me on a sudden to the tree
Of interdicted knowledge. Fair it seemed,
Much fairer to my fancy than by day;