• Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
• Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
• Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
• With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
• Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
• Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
• Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
• That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
• In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth
• Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
• Delight thee more, and Siloa’s Brook that flow’d
• Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
• Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
• That with no middle flight intends to soar
• Above th‘ Aonian Mount, while it pursues
• Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
• And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
• Before all Temples th‘ upright heart and pure,
• Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
• Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
• Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
• And mad’st it pregnant: What in me is dark
• Illumin, what is low raise and support;
• That to the highth of this great Argument
• I may assert Eternal Providence,
• And justifie the wayes of God to men.
•  Say first, for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view
• Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
• Mov’d our Grand Parents in that happy State,
• Favour’d of Heav’n so highly, to fall off
• From thir Creator, and transgress his Will
• For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
• Who first seduc’d them to that foul revolt?
• Th‘ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
• Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv’d
• The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
• Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his Host
• Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
• To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
• He trusted to have equal’d the most High,
• If he oppos’d; and with ambitious aim
• Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
• Rais’d impious War in Heav’n and Battel proud
• With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
• Hurld headlong flaming from th‘ Ethereal Skie
• With hideous ruine and combustion down
• To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
• In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
• Who durst defie th‘ Omnipotent to Arms.

aus: Paradise lost, book one

John Milton, englischer Dichtung, (9.12.1608 – 8.11.1674)