BOOK SECOND
��I2 5
��I keep, by Him forbidden to unlock These adamantine gates; against all force Death ready stands to interpose his dart, Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. But what owe I to His commands above, Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me
down
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, To sit in hateful office here confined, Inhabitant of Heaven and heavenly- born 860 Here in perpetual agony and pain, With terrors and with clamours compassed
round Of mine own brood, that on my bowels
feed?
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou My being gav'st me ; whom should I obey But thee ? whom follow ? Thou wilt bring
me soon
To that new world of light and bliss, among The gods who live at ease, where I shall
reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems Thy daughter and thy darling, without end." 8 7 o
Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad instrument of all our woe, she took; And, toward the gate rowling her bestial
train,
Forthwith the huge porcullis high up-drew, Which, but herself, not all the Stygian
Powers
Could once have moved; then in the key- hole turns
The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar Of massy iron or solid rock with ease Unfastens. On a sudden open fly, With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 880 The infernal doors, and on their hinges
grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom
shook
Of Erebus. She opened ; but to shut Excelled her power: the gates wide open
stood,
That with extended wings a bannered host, Under spread ensigns marching, might pass
through With horse and chariots ranked in loose
array;
So wide they stood, and like a furnace- mouth
Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 88g
��Before their eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoary Deep a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension; where length, breadth,
and highth,
And time, and place, are lost; where eld- est Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four cham- pions fierce,
Strive here for maistrie, and to battle bring Their embryon atoms : they around the
flag 900
Of each his faction, in their several clans, Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift,
or slow,
Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands Of Barca or Gyrene's torrid soil, Levied to side with warring winds, and
poise Their lighter wings. To whom these most
adhere
He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits, And by decision more imbroils 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, 911
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a
while,
Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross. Nor was his ear less
pealed 92
With noises loud and ruinous (to compare Great things with small) than when Bellona
storms
With all her battering engines, bent to rase Some capital city; or less than if this frame Of heaven were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from her axle torn The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad
vans He spreads for flight, and, in the surging
smoke Uplifted, spurns the ground; thence many
a league, i As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 930
�� �
