[100] / And now he attempts to subdue even the invincible Diana, / whoever sits in the sacred hearth by the chaste Vesta. / Venus herself annually refreshes her aging form, / and is believed sprung anew from the warm sea. / Through the marble cities the youth cry aloud, Hymen; [105] / the shore and hollow rocks echo, Io, Hymen. / He appears more elegant and more becoming in proper dress; / his odorous attire diffuses the perfume of purple crocus. / And many a girl with her virgin breasts encircled with gold / comes forth to the inward joys of lovely spring. [110] / Each is her own vow; one vow of all is the same, / that Cytherea will give her the man whom she desires. / Now also the shepherd is making music on his sevenfold reed pipe / and Phyllis has songs which she joins to his. / The sailor calms his stars with nocturnal song [115] / and calls the swift dolphins to the surface of the shallows.17 / Jove sports himself on high Olympus with his spouse / and assembles the servile gods to his feast. / Now even the satyrs, when the evening shadows rise, / flit about through the flowery fields in a swift dance, [120] / and Sylvanus girded with his cypress foliage, / and the god half-goat and the goat half-god. / The Dryads who have lurked under the ancient trees / wander through the mountains and the lonely fields. / Maenalian Pan revels through the crops and the thickets; [125] / hardly mother Cybele, hardly Ceres is safe from him; / and lustful Faunus ravishes some Oread, / while the nymph reflects to herself on trembling feet. / And now she lies hidden, and lurking she wishes to be seen poorly concealed, / and she flees, and fleeing she may wish herself to be made captive. [130] / The gods also do not hesitate to prefer the woods to heaven, / and every grove possesses its own deities. / Long may every grove possess its own deities; / ye gods, I pray, do not go from your arboreal home! / May the golden age restore you, Jove, to a wretched world! [135] / Why do you come back with your cruel weapons in the clouds? / At least drive your swift team, Apollo, as leisurely / as you can, and may the time of spring pass slowly; / and may foul winter bring prolonged nights tardily, / and may shadow attack later within our heavens. [140]
(spring 1629)
1 See El. 4, n. 10.
2 a fountain at Corinth.
3 Pursued by Apollo, Daphne was turned into a laurel at her own entreaty; thereafter, the leaves of the tree became a symbol of his patronage of poetry and music.
4 the nightingale, whose song in spring portends success in love.
6 the vernal equinox. Ethiopia was considered all Africa south of Egypt; Tithonus, loved by Aurora, the dawn, stands for the east; and Arctos, the double constellation of the Great and Lesser Bears, is the north.
6 See Ely, n. 12. Lycaon, the son of Callisto (the Wain) and Jove, is the Lesser Bear.
7 See Fair Infant, n. 8.
8 the moon; Lucifer is the sun.
9 Jove made her beloved Tithonus immortal but not eternally youthful.
10 While hunting, Cephalus, also beloved by Aurora, unwittingly killed his jealous wife Procis.
11 a mountain overlooking Athens.
12 goddess of crops, identified with Earth and Cybele, the Great Mother, who was worshipped on Mt. Ida.
13 See Vice-Chancellor, n. 16.
14 Apollo was god of healing.
15 consort of Oceanus and mother of rivers. Hesperia was the west, and Tartessus, a maritime city of Spain.
16 Juno, in anger, persuaded her to entreat Jove to visit her, a mortal, as a god, for Juno knew that she would be consumed by his lightning.
17 alluding to the myth of Arion.
On the Morning of Christs Nativity1
I
This is the Month, and this the happy morn
Wherin the Son of Heav’ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother2 bom,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
5
5 For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
II
That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,
10
10 Wherwith he wont at Heav’ns high Councel-Table,
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside;3 and here with us to be,
Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day,
And chose with us a darksom House of mortal Clay.
III
15
15 Say Heav’nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no vers, no hymn, or solemn strein,
To welcom him to this his new abode,
Now while the Heav’n by the Suns team untrod,
20
20 Hath took no print of the approaching light,
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?
IV
See how from far upon the Eastern rode
The Star-led Wisards4 haste with odours sweet:
O run, prevent5 them with thy humble ode,
25
25 And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first, thy Lord to greet,
And joyn thy voice unto the Angel Quire,
From out his secret Altar toucht with hallow’d fire.6
The Hymn
I
It was the Winter wild,
30
30 While the Heav’n-born-child,
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff’t her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
35
35 It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun, her lusty Paramour.
II
Onely with speeches fair
She woos the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
40
40 And on her naked shame,
Pollute7 with sinfull blame,
The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,8
Confounded, that her Makers eyes
Should look so neer upon her foul deformities.
III
45
45 But he her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-ey’d Peace;
She crown’d with Olive green,9 came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphear10
His ready Harbinger,
50
50 With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing,
And waving wide her mirtle wand,
She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land.
IV
No War, or Battails sound
Was heard the World around:11
55
55 The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hooked Chariot stood
Unstain’d with hostile blood,
The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sate still with awfull eye,
60
60 As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.
V
But peacefull was the night
Wherin the Prince of light
His raign of peace upon the earth began:
The Winds with wonder whist,12
65
65 Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joyes to the mild Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm13 sit brooding on the charmed wave.
VI
The Stars with deep amaze
70
70 Stand fixt in stedfast gaze,
Bending one way their pretious influence,14
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,
Or Lucifer15 that often warn’d them thence;
75
75 But in their glimmering Orbs did glow,
Untill their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.
VII
And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,
The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed,
80
80 And hid his head for shame,
As his inferiour flame,
The new-enlight’n’d world no more should need;
He saw a greater Sun appear
Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree16 could bear.
VIII
85
85 The Shepherds17 on the Lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sate simply chatting in a rustick row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan18
90
90 Was kindly19 com to live with them below;
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly20 thoughts so busie keep.
IX
When such musick sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,
95
95 As never was by mortall singer strook,
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blisfull rapture took:
The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
100
100 With thousand echoes still prolongs each heav’nly close.21
X
Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow round
Of Cynthia’s seat,22 the Airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
105
105 To think her part was don,
And that her raign had here its last fulfilling;
She knew such harmony23 alone
Could hold all Heav’n and Earth in happier union.
XI
At last surrounds their sight
110
110 A Globe of circular light,
That with long beams the shame-fac’t night array’d,
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
115
115 Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive24 notes to Heav’ns new-born Heir.
XII
Such Musick (as ‘tis said)25
Before was never made,
But when of old the sons of morning sung,
120
120 While the Creator Great
His constellations set,
And the well-ballanc’t world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep.
XIII
125
125 Ring out ye Crystall sphears,26
Once bless our human ears,
(If ye have power to touch our senses so)
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;
130
130 And let the Base of Heav’ns deep Organ blow,
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort27 to th’ Angelick symphony.
XIV
For if such holy Song
Enwrap our fancy long,
135
135 Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold,28
And speckl’d29 vanity
Will sicken soon and die,
And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould,
And Hell it self will pass away,
140
140 And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering30 day.
XV
Yea Truth, and Justice then
Will down return to men,
Orb’d in a Rain-bow;31 and like glories wearing
Mercy will sit between,
145
145 Thron’d in Celestiall sheen,
With radiant feet the tissued clouds down stealing,
And Heav’n as at som festivall,
Will open wide the Gates of her high Palace Hall.
XVI
But wisest Fate sayes no,
150
150 This must not yet be so,
The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy,
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss;
So both himself and us to glorifie:
155
155 Yet first to those ychain’d in sleep,32
The wakefull trump of doom must thunder through the deep.33
XVII
With such a horrid clang
As on mount Sinai rang
While the red fire, and smouldring clouds out brake:34
160
160 The aged Earth agast
With terrour of that blast,
Shall from the surface to the center shake,
When at the worlds last session,
The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne.
XVIII
165
165 And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is,
But now begins; for from this happy day
Th’ old Dragon35 under ground
In straiter limits bound,
170
170 Not half so far casts his usurped sway,
And wroth to see his Kingdom fail,
Swindges36 the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail.
XIX
The Oracles are dumm,37
No voice or hideous humm
175
175 Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
180
180 Inspires the pale-ey’d38 Priest from the prophetic cell
XX
The lonely mountains o’re,
And the resounding shore,
A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;39
From haunted spring, and dale
185
185 Edg’d with poplar pale,
The parting Genius40 is with sighing sent;
With flowr-inwov’n tresses torn
The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
XXI
In consecrated Earth,
190
190 And on the holy Hearth,
The Lars, and Lemures41 moan with midnight plaint;
In Urns, and Altars round,
A drear, and dying sound
Affrights the Flamins at their service quaint;
195
195 And the chill Marble seems to sweat,42
While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.
XXII
Peor,43 and Baalim,
Forsake their Temples dim,
With that twise batter’d god of Palestine,
200
200 And mooned Ashtaroth,
Heav’ns Queen and Mother both,
Now sits not girt with Tapers holy shine,
The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn,
In vain the Tyrian Maids their wounded Thamuz mourn.
XXIII
205
205 And sullen Moloch fled,
Hath left in shadows dred
His burning Idol all of blackest hue;
In vain with Cymbals ring,
They call the grisly king,
210
210 In dismall dance about the furnace blue;
The brutish gods of Nile as fast,
Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis hast.
XXIV
Nor is Osiris seen
In Memphian Grove, or Green,
215
215 Trampling th’ unshowr’d44 Grass with lowings loud:
Nor can he be at rest
Within his sacred chest,
Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud;
In vain with Timbrel’d Anthems dark
220
220 The sable-stoled Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark.45
XXV
He feels from Judas Land
The dredded Infants hand,
The rayes of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;
Nor all the gods beside,
225
225 Longer dare abide,
Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine:
Our Babe to shew his Godhead true,
Can in his swadling bands46 controul the damned crew.
XXVI
So when the Sun in bed,
230
230 Curtain’d with cloudy red,
Pillows his chin upon an Orient wave,
The flocking shadows pale
Troop to th’ infernall jail,47
Each fetter’d Ghost slips to his severall grave,
235
235 And the yellow-skirted Fayes
Fly after the Night-steeds, leaving their Moon-lov’d maze.
XXVII
But see the Virgin blest,
Hath laid her Babe to rest.
Time is our tedious48 Song should here have ending:
240
240 Heav’ns youngest teemed Star49
Hath fixt her polisht Car,
Her sleeping Lord with Handmaid Lamp attending,
And all about the Courtly Stable,
Bright-harnest50 Angels sit in order serviceable.
(Dec. 1629)
1 The theme is the celebration of Christ’s harmonizing of all life by becoming mortal man. This gift of praise for the birthday of Christ has been divided into a pattern of creative sun or silence (I–VIII), the concord which is the essence of music (IX–XVIII), and the conquest and reconciliation of discordant paganism (XIX–XXVI). The return to silence in the last stanza rounds out the pattern drawn by Arthur Barker in UTQ, X (1941), 167-81. Don C. Allen (The Harmonious Vision) emphasizes the conflict between Milton’s aesthetic and intellectual daemons (p. 25), but concludes that the timelessness, immutable Nature, and harmony of God unify the poem (p.
1 comment