The rebel host, and such a rancorous mind
As he possessed who first moved discontent
And horrid discord.

Then the Archangel spake,

His soul inflamed with dark, malicious thoughts: "In the North part of God's sublime domain Will I a kingdom found, a palace rear,

Such is my sovereign will."

50

Then was God wroth

With that rebellious host, whom at the first,
With Heavenly glory and Angelic mien

He had endowed. Forthwith, in ire, He formed

A place of banishment, an exile-house,

Filled with deep anguish and with hellish groans
And direful punishments; a fell retreat

For those who faithless proved to their high trust.

Deep was the torture-house and void of joys;
Home of perpetual Night, with sulphur charged,
With fire and cold intense, with lurid flame

60

And black Tartarean smoke. The cold, He bade,
And direful flames increase a thousand-fold

That by alternate tortures Hell itself

Might be henceforth doubly unbearable.

Then, through the rebel host could nought be heard

But horrid blasphemies and bitter cries.

Against their righteous King, for taking thus

Grim retribution on His fallen foes;

70 And in fierce raging mood each rebel sware To wrest the Kingdom from Almighty God.

But when the Archangel's Sovereign high upreared
His mighty arm against that traitor band,
Their haughty boast deceived them, for the King
Sent terror in their hearts, and prone they fell
Powerless to fight. For in His wrath He bent
Their vengeful pride, stripped them of might and

state

And hoped-for triumph. Then as abject thralls, Joyless and shorn of Heaven's effulgent crown, 80 They stood examples of presumptuous pride. In purpose stern and with relentless hand

The Almighty strongly grasped and might have crushed

And utterly destroyed His foe. In lieu

He seized the realms and stately palaces

Their hands had reared, and from His Kingdom

hurled

The faithless tribe and sent them wailing forth

Down the dark, steep, unutterable path

That leads to Hell. No longer might be heard.

The scornful vaunt; for now their grandeur turned

90 To deepest infamy, their beauteous forms

By sin defaced, they urged their darksome way

To darker punishment. In torments dire

Accursed they dwelt.

No longer did they raise

The loud derisive laugh; for ceaseless woe,

Deep racking pain, grief unassuageable

And hydra-headed torture, all around,

Enthroned in blackest darkness, mocked their cries;

Just retribution for the unholy war

They thought to wage against Almighty God.

Then, once again, there reigned celestial Peace
Within the walls and battlements of Heaven.
The Great Supreme, to all His servants dear,
Increased their joys, and blissful harmony,
Throughout the loyal hosts of Heaven's domain,
Held undisputed sway.

Strife, Fear and Hate,

Offspring of traitorous and unholy thought,

From Heaven expelled, found refuge in the dark

100

And joyless shades of God's great torture-house.
And now, that broad domain of Heaven's fair realm, 110
The fairest and most powerful to move

Rebellious lust, in lonely grandeur stood;

Its palaces so richly wrought and fair,
Conceived and fashioned by rebellious skill,
Stood tenantless. Then thought the mighty God
How, once again, those bright Angelic seats.
And beauteous realms, created by His will,

He might repeople with a better race

And nobler, than the vaunting myrmidons

120 Who lightly forfeited their heaven-born right.

Then Holy God resolved, beneath the vast,
Celestial firmament (tho' still within

His boundless realms), to form a beauteous World
With overarching skies and waters wide

And earthly creatures filled, in place of those
Whom headlong He had hurled from His abode.

As yet, was naught beneath God's radiant Throne
But gloom as dark as in the cavern reigns,
And this wide-spread Abyss stood deep and dim
130 In idle uselessness, distasteful sight

To Him the source of all-creative power.
The mighty King, in mind resolved, beheld
The joyless shade and saw the lowering cloud
Lie swart and waste, like an eternal sea
Of blackest Night, beneath the effulgent glow
Of Light ineffable; till by the Word
And fiat of the King this World appeared.
Here the eternal Lord, Head of creation,
In the beginning shaped the Universe,

140 The sky upreared, and this fair spacious Earth
By His strong might was stablished evermore.
As yet, no verdure decked the new-born World;
The Ocean far and wide, in deepest Night,

Concealed the Universe. Then o'er the Deep
Was swiftly borne, on bright and radiant wing,
The Spirit of the Lord. The mighty King
Bade Light come forth far o'er the spacious Deep,
And instantly His high behest was done,

And holy Light shone brightly o'er the waste
Fulfilling His command.

In triumph then

He severed Light from Darkness and to both
The Lord of Life gave name; and holy Light,
First born of all created things, beauteous

And bright, above all creatures fair

He called the Day. Then was the Lord well-pleased

With this beginning of creative force,

For now He saw the black and swarthy Shade

Subsiding o'er the deep and wide abyss.

150

Then time passed o'er the quivering face of Earth, 160

And Even first, at God's command, dispelled

The radiant Day, till onward rolled the dark

And murky cloud which God Himself called Night,

Chasing away the Even's twilight gleam.

Thus, sundered by Almighty power, they stand

Subject to Heaven's decree, and evermore

Have done their Maker's will.

Pale, heavenly Light,

Succeeding Earth's first Darkness, ushered in

The second Day. Then bade the Almighty King, 170

Forth from the bosom of the ocean flood,