| [Paradise Lost by John Milton]@TWC D-Link bookParadise Lost PARADISELOST
 26/34
 
  On th' other side, ADAM, soon as he heard   The fatal Trespass don by EVE, amaz'd,   Astonied stood and Blank, while horror chill   Ran through his veins, and all his joynts relax'd;   From his slack hand the Garland wreath'd for EVE   Down drop'd, and all the faded Roses shed:   Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length   First to himself he inward silence broke.  O fairest of Creation, last and best   Of all Gods Works, Creature in whom excell'd   Whatever can to fight or thought be found,   Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!   How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,   Defac't, deflourd, and now to Death devote?Rather how hast thou yeelded to transgress   The strict forbiddance, how to violate   The sacred Fruit forbidd'n! som cursed fraud   Of Enemie hath beguil'd thee, yet unknown,   And mee with thee hath ruind, for with thee   Certain my resolution is to Die;   How can I live without thee, how forgoe   Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn'd,   To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn?
 Should God create another EVE, and I   Another Rib afford, yet loss of thee   Would never from my heart; no no, I feel   The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,   Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State   Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.
  So having said, as one from sad dismay   Recomforted, and after thoughts disturbd   Submitting to what seemd remediless,   Thus in calme mood his Words to EVE he turnd.  Bold deed thou hast presum'd, adventrous EVE,   And peril great provok't, who thus hast dar'd   Had it bin onely coveting to Eye   That sacred Fruit, sacred to abstinence,   Much more to taste it under banne to touch.  But past who can recall, or don undoe?Not God omnipotent, for Fate, yet so   Perhaps thou shalt not Die, perhaps the Fact   Is not so hainous now, foretasted Fruit,   Profan'd first by the Serpent, by him first   Made common and unhallowd: ere one tastes;   Nor yet on him found deadly; he yet lives,   Lives, as thou saidst, and gaines to live as Man   Higher degree of Life, inducement strong   To us, as likely tasting to attaine   Proportional ascent, which cannot be   But to be Gods, or Angels Demi-gods.
 <<Back  Index  Next>>
 D-Link book Top
 TWC mobile books
 
 |