Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Floats, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes.
From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till ev'n; nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays.
Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd

Their downy breast; the swan, with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet: yet oft they quit
The dank, and rising on stiff pennons tower
The mid aerial sky. Others on ground

435

440

Walk'd firm; the crested cock, whose clarion sounds The silent hours, and th' other, whose gay train

431 air] See Esch. Prom. v. 125.

ἀιθὴς δ' ἐλαφραῖς

Πτερύγων ῥιπαῖς ὑποσυρίζει.

434 Solac'd] Virg. Æn. vii. 32.

Toda.

Æthera mulcebant cantu.' Todd.

438 swan] See Donne's Poems, p. 297. (1633.)
'When goodly like a ship in her full trim,
A swan so white that you may unto him
Compare all whitenesse, but himself to none,
Glided along, and as he glided watch'd,
And with his arched neck this poor fish catch'd,
It mov'd with state.'

440 oary] Sil. Ital. xiv. 190.

'Innatat albus olor, pronoque immobile corpus
Dat fluvio, et pedibus tacitas eremigat undas.'

443 crested cock] See Martial. Epig. xiv. 223.
'Cristataque sonant undique lucis aves.'

See Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 30.

'The crested cock sings "Hunt is up" to him.'

Wakefield.

Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue

Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Ev'ning and morn solemniz'd the fifth day.

The sixth, and of creation last, arose
With ev'ning harps and matin, when God said,
Let the earth bring forth soul living in her kind,

445

450

455

Cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth,
Each in their kind. The earth obey'd, and straight
Op'ning her fertile womb teem'd at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limb'd and full grown. Out of the ground up rose
As from his laire the wild beast, where he wonns
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walk'd;
The cattle in the fields and meadows green:
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks

Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.

446 starry eyes] See Beaumont's Psyche, c. i. st. 61. v. 2. 'As when the gallant peacock doth display

His starry train.'

and A. Ramsæi Poem. Sacr. vol. i. p. 8.

'Dum tumet, et caudæ stellata syrmata spectat.'

460

451 soul] In Milton's own edition 'foul living.' Bentley pointed out the error and corrected it.

452 things] Bentley and Newton consider that there is an error in

the text, and that we ought to read 'thing.'

457 wonns] Fairfax's Tasso, b. xvi. st. 67.

'A thousand devils in Limbo deep that wonne.' Todd.

462 broad] Hom. Il. xi. 678.

-αιπόλια πλάτες αιγῶν. Richardson.

The grassy clods now calv'd, now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds,
And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce,
The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole

464

Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw
In hillocks; the swift stag from under ground
Bore up his branching head; scarce from his mould
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheav'd

His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose,
As plants: ambiguous between sea and land
The river horse and scaly crocodile.

471

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Insect or worm; those wav'd their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride
With spots of gold and purple, azure and

463 calv'd] See Nonni Dionysiaca, iv. 427.

green:

Καὶ στάχυς αυτολόχευτος ἀνηέξητο γιγάντων,
Ων ὃ μὲν ὑψικάρηνος ἀνέδραμεν ἄκρα τιταίνων
Στήθεος ἐυθώρηκος, ὃ δὲ προθορόντι καρήνω
Φρικτὸν ἀνοιγομένης ὑπερέσχεθεν ὠμον ἀρούρης·
* Αλλος ἄνω πρόεκυψεν ἐς ὄμφαλόν· ὃς δ ̓ ἔπι γαῖη
Ημετελὴς ἀνέτελλε, πεδότρεφὲς ὅπλον ἀέιρων·
*Αλλος ὑπερκύπτοντα λόφον προβλήτα τιταίνων,
*Ουπω στέρνον ἔφαινε, καὶ ἔισέτι μήτρὸς ἀνέρπων
Ἐκ λαγόνων κατὰ βαιὸν ἀταρβέϊ μάρνατο Καδμα.

465 broke] Virg. Æn. xi. 492.

'Abruptis fugit præsepia vinclis.' 466 shakes] A. Ramsæi P. Sacr. vol. i. p. 9.

Hinc Leo prædator, Lybicis nova incola campis,
Ore fremens, oculis scintillans, perque torosa
Colla jubas jactans.'-

These as a line their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
Minims of nature; some of serpent kind,
Wondrous in length and corpulence, involv'd
Their snaky folds and added wings.

The parsimonious emmet, provident

First crept

Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd,
Pattern of just equality perhaps

Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes

Of commonalty: swarming next appear'd

The female bee, that feeds her husband drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

480

485

490

With honey stor'd: the rest are numberless,
And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st them

names,

Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown

The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

484 snaky folds] A. Rams. P. Sacr. i. 10.

'Atque orbibus orbes

Implexos sinuantem anguem.'

495

485 provident-large heart] The former part from Hor. Sat. I. i. 35, and the latter from Virg. Georg. iv. 83. Newton.

491 waxen cells] So Marino's Sl. of the Innocents, p. 28.

'Or when the bees, like murmuring armies, hide
The tops of flowers, where sweetest nectar flows,
And on their laden wings the odorous prey

In troops, unto their waxen camp convey.'

497 hairy mane] See Virg. Æn. ii. 206.

Petronii Troja Elosis, v. 38. J. Obsequens de Prodigiis, p. 54. Angues jubati.' Plauti

500

505

Now heaven in all her glory shone, and roll'd Her motions, as the great First Mover's hand First wheel'd their course; earth in her rich attire Consummate lovely smil'd; air, water, earth, By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain'd; There wanted yet the master work, the end Of all yet done; a creature, who not prone And brute as other creatures, but indu'd With sanctity of reason, might erect His stature, and upright with front serene Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence 510 Magnanimous to correspond with heav'n;

But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship GoD supreme, who made him chief 515 Of all his works: therefore the omnipotent

Eternal Father, (for where is not he

Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake.

Let us make now man in our image, man

In our similitude, and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,

Beast of the field, and over all the earth,

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground. This said, he form'd thee, Adam, thee, O man,

520

Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath'd 525 The breath of life: in his own image he

Amphitr. act. v. sc. i. 'Jubatus anguis major solitis.' Capitolin. Vit. Anton. Pii, ix. 35, ed. Putman.