Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid
Tunes her noal hus with the Year [ 40 ]
Seasourn, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of Evn or Morn,
ht of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose,
Or flocks, or heards, or human face divine;
But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark [ 45 ]
Surrounds me, from the chearful wayes of men
Cut off, and for the Book of knowledg fair
Presented with a Universal blanc
Of Natures works to mee expungd and rasd,
And wisdome at orance quite shut out. [ 50 ]
So much the rather thou Celestial light
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight. [ 55 ]
Now had the Almighty Father from above,
From the pure Empyrean where he sits
High Thrond above all highth, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at oo view:
About him all the Sanctities of Heaven [ 60 ]
Stood thick as Starrs, and from his sight receivd
Beatitude past utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his Glory sat,
His onely Son; Oh he first beheld
Our two first Parents, yet the owo [ 65 ]
Of mankind, in the happie Garden plact,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrivald love
In blissful solitude; he then surveyd
Hell and the Gulf between, and Satan there [ 70 ]
Coasting the wall of Heavn on this side Night
In the dun Air sublime, and ready now
To stoop with wearied wings, and willi
On the bare outside of this World, that seemd
Firm land imbosomd without Firmament, [ 75 ]
Uain which, in O or in Air.