LIGHT
by: John Milton (1608-1674)
- AIL holy light, ofspring of Heav'n
first-born,
- Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam
- May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light,
- And never but in unapproachèd light
- Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee,
- Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
- Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal stream,
- Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun,
- Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
- Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest
- The rising world of waters dark and deep,
- Won from the void and formless infinite.
- Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
- Escap't the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd
- In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight
- Through utter and through middle darkness borne
- With other notes then to th' Orphean Lyre
- I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,
- Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
- The dark descent, and up to reascend,
- Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,
- And feel thy sovran vital Lamp; but thou
- Revisit'st not these eyes, that rowle in vain
- To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
- So thick a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs,
- Or dim suffusion veild. Yet not the more
- Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt
- Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,
- Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
- Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath
- That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow,
- Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget
- Those other two equal'd with me in Fate,
- So were I equal'd with them in renown.
- Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides,
- And Tiresias and Phineus Prophets old.
- Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move
- Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird
- Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid
- Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year
- Seasons return, but not to me returns
- Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn,
- Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose,
- Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
- But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark
- Surrounds me, from the chearful waies of men
- Cut off, and for the Book of knowledge fair
- Presented with a Universal blanc
- Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd,
- And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out.
- So much the rather thou Celestial light
- Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
- Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
- Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
- Of things invisible to mortal sight.
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