XI

At last surrounds their sight

A Globe of circular light,

That with long beams the shamefaced night array'd, The helmed Cherubim

And sworded Seraphim,

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display'd, Harping in loud and solemn quire

With unexpressive notes to Heaven's new-born Heir.

Such Music (as 'tis said)

Before was never made,

XII

But when of old the sons of morning sung, While the Creator Great

His constellations set,

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung; And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.

XIII

Ring out ye Crystal spheres !

Once bless our human ears,

(If ye have power to touch our senses so)

And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time;

And let the Bass of Heav'n's deep Organ blow, And with your ninefold harmony

Make up full consort to th' Angelic symphony.

For if such holy Song

Enwrap our fancy long,

XIV

Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold;

XI. unexpressive] inexpressible.

XIII. crystal spheres]*.

consort] orchestra, concert.

And speckled vanity

Will sicken soon and die,

And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould; And Hell itself will pass away,

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

XV

Yea, Truth and Justice then

Will down return to men,

Orb'd in a Rain-bow; and like glories wearing Mercy will sit between,

Throned in Celestial sheen,

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering, And Heav'n, as at some festival,

Will

open wide the Gates of her high Palace Hall.

The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy, That on the bitter cross

Must redeem our loss;

So both himself and us to glorify:

Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep,

The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep,

With such a horrid clang

As on mount Sinai rang

XVII

While the red fire, and smouldering clouds outbrake:

The agèd Earth aghast

With terror of that blast,

Shall from the surface to the centre shake,

When at the world's last sessiòn,

The dreadful Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne.

XIV. speckled] plague-spotted.

XVII. session] sitting in judgment.

And then at last our bliss

Full and perfect is,

XVIII

But now begins; for from this happy day Th' old Dragon under ground

In straiter limits bound,

Not half so far casts his usurpèd sway ; And wroth to see his Kingdom fail,

Swindges the scaly Horror of his folded tail.

The Oracles are dumb;

No voice or hideous hum

XIX

Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving: No nightly trance, or breathèd spell,

Inspires the pale-eyed Priest from the prophetic cell.

The lonely mountains o'er,

And the resounding shore,

XX

A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; From haunted spring, and dale,

Edged with poplar pale,

The parting Genius is with sighing sent;

With flower-inwoven tresses torn

The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.

ΧΧΙ

In consecrated Earth

And on the holy Hearth

The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint,

In Urns, and Altars round,

XIX. divine] give oracles.

xx. genius] spirit of the place.

A drear and dying sound

Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint ; And the chill marble seems to sweat,

While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.

XXII

Peor and Baalim

Forsake their Temples dim,

With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine ;

And mooned Ashtaroth,

Heav'n's Queen and Mother both,

Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine;

The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn;

In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammus mourn.

And sullen Moloch fled,

Hath left in shadows dread

XXIII

His burning Idol all of blackest hue;

In vain with cymbals' ring,

They call the grisly king,

In dismal dance about the furnace blue;

The brutish gods of Nile as fast,

Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis haste.

XXIV

Nor is Osiris seen

In Memphian Grove, or Green,

Trampling the unshower'd grass with lowings loud: Nor can he be at rest

Within his sacred chest ;

Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud; In vain with Timbrel'd Anthems dark

The sable-stolèd Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark.

XXIV. stoled] cloaked.

с

He feels from Juda's Land

XXV

The dreaded Infant's hand;

The

rays

of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;

Nor all the gods beside,

Longer dare abide,

Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine :

Our Babe, to shew his Godhead true,

Can in his swaddling bands control the damnèd crew.

So when the Sun in bed,

XXVI

Curtain'd with cloudy red,

Pillows his chin upon an Orient wave,

The flocking shadows pale,

Troop to th' infernal jail,

Each fetter'd Ghost slips to his several grave; And the yellow-skirted Fays

Fly after the Night-steeds, leaving their Moon-lov'd

maze.

XXVII

But see, the Virgin blest

Hath laid her Babe to rest;

Time is our tedious Song should here have ending ; Heav'n's youngest-teemèd Star

Hath fix'd her polish'd Car,

Her sleeping Lord with Handmaid Lamp attending : And all about the courtly Stable,

Bright-harness'd Angels sit in order serviceable.

Milton, 1629.

XXVII. youngest-teemed] latest born, that is the star of Bethlehem.

fixed] stood still over the stable.

harnessed] armoured.