第2章 1

HAil holy light, ofspring of Heavn first-born, Or of th Eternal Coeternal beam May I express thee unblamd? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, [ 5 ] Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or hearst thou rather pure Ethereal stream,

Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun, Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest [ 10 ] The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing, Escapt the Stygian Pool, though long detaind

In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight [ 15 ] Through utter and through middle darkness borne With other notes then to th Orphean Lyre I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night, Taught by the heavnly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to reascend, [ 20 ] Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,

And feel thy sovran vital Lamp; but thou Revisitst not these eyes, that rowle in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs, [ 25 ] Or dim suffusion veild. Yet not the more Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,

Smit with the love of sacred Song; but chief Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath [ 30 ] That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I visit: nor somtimes forget Those other two equald with me in Fate, So were I equald with them in renown, Blind Thamyris and blind Maonides, [ 35 ]

And Tiresias and Phineus Prophets old.