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- Oh thou, that, with surpassing glory crowned,
- Lookest from thy sole dominion like the God
- Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
- Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,
- But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
- Of Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
- That bring to my remembrance from what state
- I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
- Till pride and worse ambition threw me down
- Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King:
- Ah, wherefore he deserved no such return
- From me, whom he created what I was
- In that bright eminence, and with his good
- Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
- What could be less than to afford him praise,
- The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,
- How due, yet all his good proved ill in me,
- And wrought but malice; lifted up so high
- I ‘sdained subjection, and thought one step higher
- Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
- The debt immense of endless gratitude,
- So burdensome still paying, still to owe,
- Forgetful what from him I still received,
- And understood not that a grateful mind
- By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
- Indebted and discharged; what burden then
- Oh, had his powerful destiny ordained
- Me some inferior angel, I had stood
- Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised
- Ambition. Yet why not some other Power
- As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,
- Drawn to his part; but other Powers as great
- Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
- Or from without, to all temptations armed.
- Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
- Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
- But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all?
- Be then his love accursed, since love or hate,
- To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
- Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will
- Chose freely what it now so justly rues.
- Me miserable, which way shall I fly
- Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
- Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;
- And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep
- Still threatening to devour me opens wide,
- To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.
- Oh, then, at last relent: Is there no place
- Left for repentance, none for pardon left?
- None left but by submission; and that word
- Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
- Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced
- With other promises and other vaunts
- Than to submit, boasting I could subdue
- The Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know
- How dearly I abide that boast so vain,
- Under what torments inwardly I groan,
- While they adore me on the throne of Hell.
- With diadem and scepter high advanced,
- The lower still I fall, only supreme
- In misery: Such joy ambition finds.
- But say I could repent, and could obtain,
- By act of grace, my former state; how soon
- Would heighth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
- What feigned submission swore? Ease would recant
- Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
- For never can true reconcilement grow,
- Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:
- Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
- And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear
- Short intermission bought with double smart.
- This knows my Punisher; therefore as far
- From granting he, as I from begging, peace;
- All hope excluded thus, behold, in stead
- Mankind created, and for him this world.
- So farewell, hope; and with hope farewell, fear;
- Farewell, remorse, all good to me is lost;
- Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least
- Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,
- By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;
- As man ere long, and this new world, shall know.
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