Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,
That on my head all might be visited;
Thy frailty and infirmer sex forgiven;
To me committed, and by me exposed.

But rise; let us no more contend, nor blame
Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; but strive,
In offices of love, how we may lighten
Each other's burden, in our share of woe,
Since this day's death denounced, if aught I see,
Will prove no sudden, but a slow-paced evil
A long day's dying to augment our pain,
And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived.

To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied:

Adam, by sad experience I know

How little weight my words with thee can find,
Found so erroneous, thence by just event

Found so unfortunate: nevertheless,
Restored by thee, vile as I am, to place
Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain
Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart,
Living or dying, from thee I will not hide
What thoughts in my unquiet breast are risen,
Tending to some relief of our extremes,
Or end; though sharp and sad, yet tolerable,
As in our evils, and of easier choice.

If care of our descent perplex us most
Which must be born to certain woe, devoured

By death at last-and miserable it is

To be to others cause of misery,

Our own begotten, and of our loins to bring
Into this cursed world a woeful race,

That, after wretched life, must be at last
Food for so foul a monster -in thy power

It lies yet, ere conception, to prevent
The race umblest, to being yet unbegot.
Childless thou art, childless remain; so Death

Shall be deceived his glut, and with us two
Be forced to satisfy his ravenous maw.
But if thou judge it hard and difficult,
Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain

From love's due rights, nuptial embraces sweet,
And, with desire, to languish without hope,
Before the present object languishing
With like desire, which would be misery
And torment less than none of what we dread,
Then, both ourselves and seed at once to free
From what we fear for both, let us make short.
Let us seek Death; or, he not found, supply
With our own hands his office on ourselves.
Why stand we longer shivering under fears
That show no end but Death; and have the power,
Of many ways to die, the shortest choosing,
Destruction with destruction to destroy?

She ended here, or vehement despair

Broke off the rest; so much of Death her thoughts
Had entertained, as dyed her cheeks with pale.
But Adam, with such counsel nothing swayed,
To better hopes his more attentive mind
Laboring had raised; and thus to Eve replied:

Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems
To argue in thee something more sublime
And excellent than what thy mind contemns;
But self-destruction therefore sought, refutes
That excellence thought in thee; and implies,
Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret
For loss of life and pleasure overloved.
Or if thou covet death, as utmost end
Of misery, so thinking to evade
The penalty pronounced, doubt not but God
Hath wiselier armed his vengeful ire, than so
To die forestalled; much more I fear lest death,
So snatched, will not exempt us from the pain

We are by doom to pay; rather, such acts
Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
To make death in us live. Then let us seek
Some safer resolution, which methinks

I have in view, calling to mind with heed
Part of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise
The serpent's head-piteous amends! unless
Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe,
Satan, who, in the serpent, hath contrived
Against us this deceit - to crush his head
Would be revenge indeed! which will be lost,
By death brought on ourselves, or childless days
Resolved, as thou proposest; so our foe
Shall 'scape his punishment ordained, and we,
Instead, shall double ours upon our heads.
No more be mentioned then, of violence
Against ourselves, and willful barrenness.
That cuts us off from hope, and savors only
Rancor and pride, impatience and despite.
Reluctance against God, and his just yoke
Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild
And gracious temper He both heard and judged,
Without wrath or reviling. We expected
Immediate dissolution, which we thought

Was meant by death that day; when, lo! to thee
Pains only in child-bearing were foretold,
And bringing forth, soon recompensed with joy,
Fruit of thy womb. On me the curse aslope
Glanced on the ground;
My bread-what harm?

with labor I must earn
Idleness had been worse;

My labor will sustain me; and, lest cold
Or heat should injure us, his timely care
Hath, unbesought, provided, and his hands
Clothed us, unworthy, pitying while He judged;
How much more, if we pray Him, will his ear
Be open, and his heart to pity incline,

And teach us .urther by what means to shun
The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow!
Which now the sky, with various face, begins
To show us in this mountain; while the winds
Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks
Of these fair-spreading trees; which bids us seek
Some better shroud, some better warmth, to cherish
Our limbs benumbed, ere this diurnal star

Leave cold the night, how we his gathered beams
Reflected may with matter sere foment;

Or, by collision of two bodies, grind

The air attrite to fire: as late the clouds

Justling, or pushed with winds, rude in their shock,

Tine the slant lightning, whose thwart flame, driven down, Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine,

And sends a comfortable heat from far,

Which might supply the sun: such fire to use,
And what may else be remedy or cure

To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,
He will instruct us praying, and of grace
Beseeching Him. So as we need not fear
To pass commodiously this life, sustained
By Him with many comforts, till we end
In dust, our final rest and native home.
What better can we do, than, to the place
Repairing where He judged us, prostrate fall
Before Him, reverent; and there confess

Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek?
Undoubtedly He will relent, and turn
From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
When angry most He seemed, and most severe,
What else but favor, grace, and mercy, shone?

So spake our father, penitent; nor Eve

Felt less remorse: they, forthwith to the place
Repairing where He judged them, prostrate fell
Before Him, reverent, and both confessed

Humbly their faults, and pardon begged, with tears
Watering the ground; and with their sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek.