O Father, what intends thy hand, Against thy only Son? What fury O Son, Possesses thee to bend that mortal Dart Against thy Fathers head? and know for whom; For him who sits above and laughs the while At thee ordained his drudge, to execute What ever his wrath, which he calls justice, bids, His wrath which one day will destroy ye both. has thou forgot me then, and do I seem Now in thine eyes so foul, once deemed so fair In Heaven, when at The Assembly, and in sight Of all the Seraphim with thee combined In bold conspiracy against Heavens King, All on a sudden miserable pain Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, Then shining heavenly fair, a Goddess armed Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seized All the Host of Heaven; back they recoiled afraid At first, and called me Sin, and for a Sign Portentous held me; but familiar grown, I pleased, and with attractive graces won The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft Thy self in me thy perfect image viewing Became enamoured, and such joy thou took With me in secret, that my womb conceived A growing burden. Mean while War arose, And fields were fought in Heaven; wherein remained (For what could else) to our Almighty Foe Clear Victory, to our part loss and rout Through all the Empyrean: down they fell Driven headlong from the Pitch of Heaven, down Into this Deep, and in the general fall I also; at which time this powerful Key Into my hand was given, with charge to keep These Gates for ever shut, which none can pass Without my opening. Pensive here I sat Alone, but long I sat not, till my womb Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. At last this odious offspring whom thou see Thine own begotten, breaking violent way Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew Transformed: but he my inbred enemy Forth issued, brandishing his fatal Dart Made to destroy: I fled, and cried out Death; Hell trembled at the hideous Name, and sighed From all her Caves, and back resounded Death. I fled, but he pursued (though more, it seems, Inflamed with lust then rage) and swifter far, Me overtook his mother all dismayed, And in embraces forcible and foul Engendering with me, of that rape begot These yelling Monsters that with ceaseless cry Surround me, as thou saw, hourly conceived And hourly born, with sorrow infinite To me, for when they list into the womb That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw My Bowels, their repast; then bursting forth A fresh with conscious terrors vex me round, That rest or intermission none I find. Before mine eyes in opposition sits Grim Death my Son and foe, who sets them on, And me his Parent would full soon devour For want of other prey, but that he knows His end with mine involved; and knows that I Should prove a bitter Morsel, and his bane, When ever that shall be; so Fate pronounced. But thou O Father, I forewarn thee, shun His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope To be invulnerable in those bright Arms, Though tempered heavenly, for that mortal dint, Save he who reigns above, none can resist. The key of this infernal Pit by due, And by command of Heavens all-powerful King I keep, by him forbidden to unlock These Adamantine Gates; against all force Death ready stands to interpose his dart, Fearless to be overmatched by living might. But what ow 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, 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 gave 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. O Son, why sit we here each other viewing Idly, while Satan our great Author thrives In other Worlds, and happier Seat provides For us his offspring dear; It cannot be But that success attends him; if mishap, Ere this he had returned, with fury driven By his Avenger, since no place like this Can fit his punishment, or their revenge. Methinks I feel new strength within me rise, Wings growing, and Dominion given me large Beyond this Deep; whatever draws me on, Or sympathy, or some connatural force Powerful at greatest distance to unite With secret amity things of like kind By secretest conveyance. Thou my Shade Inseparable must with me along: For Death from Sin no power can separate. But least the difficulty of passing back Stay his return perhaps over this Gulf Impassable, Impervious, let us try Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine Not unagreeable, to found a path Over this Maine from Hell to that new World Where Satan now prevails, a Monument Of merit high to all the infernal Host, Easing their passage hence, for intercourse, Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead. Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn By this new felt attraction and instinct. O Parent, these are thy magnificant deeds, Thy Trophies, which thou view as not thine own, Thou art their Author and prime Architect: For I no sooner in my Heart divined, My Heart, which by a secret harmony Still moves with thine, joined in connexion sweet, That thou on Earth had prospered, which thy looks Now also evidence, but straight I felt Though distant from thee Worlds between, yet felt That I must after thee with this thy Son; Such fatal consequence unites us three: Hell could no longer hold us in her bounds, Nor this unvoyageable Gulf obscure Detain from following thy illustrious track. Thou has achieved our liberty, confined Within Hell Gates till, now, thou us impow'rd To fortify thus far, and overlay With this portentous Bridge the dark Abyss. Thine now is all this World, thy virtue hath won What thy hands builded not, thy Wisdom gained With odds what War hath lost, and fully avenged Our foil in Heaven; here thou shalt Monarch reign, There did not; there let him still Victor sway, As Battle hath adjudged, from this new World Retiring, by his own doom alienated, And henceforth Monarchy with thee divide Of all things parted by the Empyreal bounds, His Quadrature, from thy Orbicular World, Or try thee now more dangerous to his Throne. Second of Satan sprung, all conquering Death, What think thou of our Empire now, though earned With travail difficult, not better far Then still at Hells dark threshold to have sate watch, Unnamed, untreated, and thy self half starved? Thou therefore on these Herbs, and Fruits, and Flours Feed first, on each Beast next, and Fish, and Foul, No homely morsels, and whatever thing The Sith of Time mowes down, devour unspar'd, Till I in Man residing through the Race, His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect, And season him thy last and sweetest prey.