The next many days I'm going to read Paradise Lost by John Milton. I
have attempted to read this book a couple times in the past. But it was
too challenging a read to sustain my attention. Now it's on the blog and
I must achieve it. Each break in the verse will be a section. I will
read and post 1 section each day, two if one is too short.
Book 1: lines 27-83
Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Mov'd our Grand Parents in that
happy State,
Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off [ 30 ]
From thir Creator, and transgress
his Will
For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
Who first seduc'd them to that
foul revolt?
Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose
guile
Stird up with Envy and Revenge,
deceiv'd [ 35 ]
The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav'n, with
all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the
most High, [ 40 ]
If he oppos'd; and with ambitious
aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
Rais'd impious War in Heav'n and Battel proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie [ 45 ]
With hideous ruine and combustion
down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and
penal Fire,
Who durst defie th'
Omnipotent to Arms.
Nine times the Space that
measures Day and Night [ 50 ]
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
Confounded though immortal: But his doom
Reserv'd him to more wrath; for
now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain [ 55
]
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That witness'd huge affliction
and dismay
Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once as far as Angels kenn he
views
The dismal Situation waste and wilde, [ 60 ]
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames
No
light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd onely to
discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace [ 65 ]
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to
all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With
ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd:
Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd
[ 70 ]
For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and
thir portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n
As from the Center thrice to th' utmost Pole.
O how unlike the
place from whence they fell! [ 75 ]
There the companions of his fall, o'rewhelm'd
With Floods and Whirlwinds of
tempestuous fire,
He soon discerns, and weltring by his side
One next
himself in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and nam'd [ 80 ]
Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,
And thence in Heav'n call'd Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence thus began.
Eternal Justice sounds like such a jerk. I have a hard time understanding how punishment and pain equal justice. That doesn't satisfy moral compass although I see it as a natural reaction.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone cause us pain we usually strike back whether physically or verbally. But I'd argue that isn't justice. Didn't Jesus preach Forgiveness? Can't God forgive Satan? Or can't God teach Satan to embrace forgiveness? Or maybe they already did. I like that idea.