- 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)
