John Milton - Paradise Lost (1667)

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Incens'd with indignation Satan stood Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war.

John Milton
He scarce had ceased when the superior fiend
Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield
Ethereal temper, massy, large and round,
Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fésolè,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.

John Milton
Where eldest Night And chaos, ancestors of nature, hold Eternal anarchy amidst the noise Of endless wars.

John Milton
Into the blissful field, through Groves of Myrrhe, And flouring Odours, Cassia, Nard, and Blame; A Wilderness of Sweets...

John Milton
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge Rose, like an exhalation.

John Milton
And the more I see Pleasures about me, so much more I feel Torment within me.

John Milton
O execrable son! so to aspire
Above his brethren, to himself assuming
Authority usurped, from God not given.
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation; but man over men
He made not lord; such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free.

John Milton
Nothing lovelier can be found In woman, than to study household good, And good works in her husband to promote.

John Milton
At His birth a star, unseen before in heaven, proclaims Him come.

John Milton
So glistered the dire Snake, and into fraud Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the Tree Of Prohibition, root of all our woe.

John Milton
For the air of youth,
Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign
A melancholy damp of cold and dry
To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume
The balm of life.

John Milton
Yet I shall temper so Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most Them fully satisfy'd, and thee appease.

John Milton
The Tree of Knowledge grew fast by, Knowledge of Good bought dear by knowing ill.

John Milton
She what was honour knew, And with obsequious majesty approv'd My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower I led her blushing like the morn; all heaven And happy constellations on that hour Shed their selectest influence; the earth Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub.

John Milton
Who can in reason then or right assume monarchy over such as live by right his equals, if in power or splendor less, in freedom equal?

John Milton
Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply With our own hands his office on ourselves; Why stand we longer shivering under fears, That show no end but death, and have the power, Of many ways to die the shortest choosing, Destruction with destruction to destroy.

John Milton
Heaven
Is as the Book of God before thee set,
Wherein to read His wondrous works.

John Milton
All maladies Of ghastly Spasm, or racking torture, qualms Of heart-sick Agonie, all feverous kinds, Convulsions, Epilepsies, fierce Catarrhs, Intestine Stone and Ulcer, Colic pangs, Dropsies and Asthmas, and Joint-racking Rheums.

John Milton
[Infinity is],..a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension; where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place, are lost.

John Milton
Satan; so call him now, his former name Is heard no more in heaven.

John Milton
If by fire Of sooty coal th' empiric alchymist Can turn, or holds it possible to turn, Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold.

John Milton
Fate shall yield
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife.

John Milton
Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?

John Milton
Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh Your change approaches, when all these delights Will vanish and deliver ye to woe, More woe, the more your taste is now of joy.

John Milton
Son of Heav'n and Earth, Attend: that thou art happy, owe to God; That thou continuest such, owe to thyself, That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.

John Milton
And I will place within them as a guide My umpire conscience, whom if they will hear Light after light well used they shall attain, And to the end persisting, safe arrive.

John Milton
Nor turned I ween Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rites Mysterious of connubial love refused: Whatever hypocrites austerely talk Of purity and place and innocence, Defaming as impure what God declares Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.

John Milton
If at great things thou would'st arrive, Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap, Not difficult, if thou hearken to me; Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand, They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.

John Milton
A dark Illimitable ocean without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height And time and place are lost.

John Milton
Hereafter, when they come to model Heav'n And calculate the Stars, how they will wield The mightier frame, how build, unbind, contrive To save appearances, how gird the Shear With Centric and Eccentric scribbled ore, Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb.

John Milton