Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook

Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut

Excell'd her pow'r; the gates wide open stood,
That with extended wings a banner'd host,

883

Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through
With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array;

So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth

Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.
Before their eyes in sudden view appear

890

The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark

limitable ocean, without bound,

Without dimension where length, breadth, and height,

And time, and place are lost; where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold

893

Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.

For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mast'ry, and to hattle bring

Their embryon atoms: they around the flag

900

Of each his faction, in their several clans,

Light arm'd, or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands

Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise

905

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,
He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits,

The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,

915

Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain

His dark materials to create more worlds;
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend

Stood on the brink of Hell, and looked awhile,
Pond'ring his voyage; for no narrow frith

He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd

929

With noises loud and ruinous (to compare

Great things with small) than when Bellona storms,

With all her battering engines bent to raze

Some capital city'; or less than if this frame

Of Heav'n were falling, and these elements

925

In mutiny had from her axle torn

The stedfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke

Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides

930

Audacious; but, that seat soon failing meets

A vast vacuity: all unawares,

Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops

Ten thousand fathom deep; and to this hour

Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,

Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude consistence, half op foot,
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail,
As when a gryphon, through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or noory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: so eagerly the fiend

940

945

O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies :
At length a universal hubbub wild

950

Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever power
Or spirit of the nethermost abyss

955

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies

Bord'ring on light; when strait behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread

960

Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthron'd
Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,
The consort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon; Rumour next, and Chance,

965

And Tumult and Confusion, all embroil'd,

And Discord with a thousand various mouths.

T'whom Satan, turning boldly, thus."Ye powers

And spirits of this nethermost abyss,

Chaos and ancient Night? I come no spy,

970

With purpose to explore or to disturb

The secrets of your realm; but by constraint
Wand'ring this darksome desert, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light,

Alone, and without guide, half lost I seek

975

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds

Confine with Heav'n; or if some other place,

From your dominion won, th' ethereal King

Possesses lately, thither to arrive

I travel this profound; direct my course;

980

Directed, no mean recompense it brings
To your behoof, if I that region lost,
All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness, and your sway
(Which is my present journey), and once more
Erect the standard there of ancient Night:
Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge.”

Thus Satan; and him thus the anarch old,

985

With falt'ring speech and visage incompos'd,

Answer'd. “I know thee, stranger! who thou art,

990

That mighty leading angel, who of late

Made head against Heav'n's King, though overthrown.

I saw and heard; for such a numerous host

Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils,
Weak'ning the sceptre of old Night: first Hell,
Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately Heav'n and Earth, another world,
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain

1895

To that side Heav'n from whence your legions fell:

If that way be your walk, you have not far;

So much the nearer danger; go, and speed!

Havock, and spoil, and ruin are my gain."

1010

He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply, But, glad that now sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity and force renew'd,

Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire

Into the wild expanse, and through the shock
Of fighting elements, on all sides round
Environ'd, wins his way; harder beset
And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd
Through Bosporus, betwixt the justling rocks:
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd
Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool steer'd.
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Mov'd on, with difficulty' and labour he:
But, he once past, soon after, when man fell,
Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain

1015

1020

Following his track, such was the will of Heav'n,
Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way

1025

Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf

Tamely endur'd a bridge of wondrous length
From Hell continued, reaching th' utmost orb

Of this frail world; by which the spi'rits perverse
With easy intercourse pass to and fro

1030

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom

"God and good angels guard by special grace.

But now at last the sacred influence

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven

1035

Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night

A glimmering dawn: here Nature first begins

'Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire,
As from her outmost works a broken foe,
With tumult less, and with less hostile din;
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,

1040

Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light,

And, like a weather beaten vessel, holds

Gladly the port, though shronds and tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,

1045

Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold