© 2006-2008 Dr. Martha J. Bianco 1 Paradise Lost: Books V-IX.

© 2006-2008 Dr. Martha J. Bianco

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Paradise Lost: Books V-IXParadise Lost: Books V-IX


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V: What Glorious Shape Comes this WayV: What Glorious Shape Comes this Way

Adam:

“Haste higher, Eve, and worthy thy

sight behold

Eastward among those Trees, what

glorious shape

Comes this way moving . . .”

Gustave Doré


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V: O Adam, One Almighty Is V: O Adam, One Almighty Is

“O Adam, one Almighty is, from whomAll things proceed, and up to him return,If not depraved from good, created allSuch to perfection, . . .”

Gustave Doré


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V: Discourse is Oftest Yours, Reason Most is

Ours V: Discourse is Oftest Yours, Reason Most is

Ours “. . . by gradual scale sublimedTo vital Spirits aspire, to animal,To intellectual, give both life and sense,Fancy and understanding, whence the soulReason receives, and reason is her being,Discursive, or Intuitive; discourseIs oftest yours, the latter most is ours”


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V: Freely We Serve, Because We Love

Freely V: Freely We Serve, Because We Love

Freely “Your bodies may at last turn all to Spirit,Improved by tract of time, and winged ascendEthereal, as we, or may at choiceHere or in Heavenly Paradises dwell;If ye be found obedient, . . . He left it in thy power, ordained thy willBy nature free, not overruled by Fate . . .

freely we serve,Because we freely love, as in our willTo love or not; in this we stand or fall . . .”


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VI: “To Root Them out of Heaven, the Overthrown he

Raised” VI: “To Root Them out of Heaven, the Overthrown he

Raised” “Not to destroy, but root them out of HeavenThe overthrown he raised, and as a HerdOf Goats or timorous flock together throngedDrove them before him Thunder-struck, pursuedWith terrors and with furies to the boundsAnd Crystal wall of Heaven, which opening wide, Rolled inward, and a spacious Gap disclosedInto the wasteful Deep; the monstrous sightStruck them with horror backward, but far worseUrged them behind; . . .”

Edward Burney


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“. . . headlong themselves they threwDown from the verge of Heaven, eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.”

John Milton, The Downfall of the Revel Angels

VI: “To the Bottomless Pit” VI: “To the Bottomless Pit”


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VII: The More to Magnify His Works, the More We

Know VII: The More to Magnify His Works, the More We

Know

Raphael telling the story of creation to Adam and Eve, by John Medina

. . . if unforbid thou may’st unfoldWhat we, not to explore the secrets askOf his eternal empire, but the moreTo magnify his works, the more we know.


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VII: Desire of Knowledge Within Bounds VII: Desire of Knowledge Within Bounds

Raphael telling the story of creation to Adam and Eve, by Edward Burney

This also thy request with caution asktObtain: though to recount Almighty worksWhat words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,Or heart of man suffice to comprehend? Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serveTo glorify the Maker, and inferThee also happier, shall not be withheldThy hearing, such Commission from aboveI have received, to answer thy desireOf knowledge within bounds; beyond abstain To ask, nor let thine own inventions hopeThings not revealed, . . .


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VIII. Be Lowly Wise VIII. Be Lowly Wise

William Blake, The Creation of Eve

. . . joy thouIn what he gives to thee, this ParadiseAnd thy fair Eve; Heaven is for thee too highTo know what passes there; be lowly wise:Think only what concerns thee and thy being;Dream not of other Worlds, what Creatures thereLive, in what state, condition or degree,Contented that thus far hath been revealedNot of Earth only but of highest Heaven.


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VIII: That Which Lies Before Us in Daily Life is the Prime

Wisdom VIII: That Which Lies Before Us in Daily Life is the Prime

Wisdom Adam:How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure Intelligence of Heaven, Angel serene,And freed from intricacies, taught to liveThe easiest way, nor with perplexing thoughtsTo interrupt the sweet of Life, from whichGod hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares,And not molest us, unless we ourselvesSeek them with wandering thoughts, and notions vain.

But apt the Mind or Fancy is to roveUnchecked, and of her roving is no end;Till warned, or by experience taught, she learn, That not to know at large of things remoteFrom use, obscure and subtle, but to knowThat which before us lies in daily life,Is the prime Wisdom, what is more, is fume,Or emptiness, or fond impertinence, . . .


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IX: She Plucked, She Eat . . . All Was LostIX: She Plucked, She Eat . . . All Was Lost

. . . Her rash hand in evil hourForth reaching to the Fruit, she plucked, she eat:Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seatSighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,That all was lost.

William Blake, The Temptation of Eve


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IX: Back to the Thicket Slunk the Guilty Serpent IX: Back to the Thicket Slunk the Guilty Serpent

Back to the Thicket slunkThe guilty Serpent . . .

Eve:O Sovran, virtuous, precious of all TreesIn Paradise, of operation blessedTo sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed, And thy fair Fruit let hang, as to no endCreated; but henceforth my early care,Not without Song, each Morning, and due praiseShall tend thee, and the fertile burden easeOf thy full branches offered free to all; . . .

Back to the Thicket Slunk the Guilty Serpent, by Gustave Doré


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IX: I Grow Mature in Knowledge IX: I Grow Mature in Knowledge

. . . I grow matureIn knowledge, as the Gods who all things know;. . . Experience, next to thee I owe,Best guide; not following thee, I had remainedIn ignorance, thou openst Wisdom’s way,And givest access, . . .

Heaven is high,High and remote to see from thence distinctEach thing on Earth; and other care perhapsMay have diverted from continual watchOur great Forbidder, safe with all his SpiesAbout him.


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IX. On My Experience, Adam, Freely Taste IX. On My Experience, Adam, Freely Taste

Were it I thought Death menaced would ensueThis my attempt, I would sustain alone. . . but I feelFar otherwise the event, not Death, but LifeAugmented, opened Eyes, new Hopes, new Joys, Taste so Divine, that what of sweet beforeHath touched my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh.On my experience, Adam, freely taste,And fear of Death deliver to the Winds.

Eve Gives Adam the Apple, by Richard Westall


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IX. Much Pleasure We Have Lost, While We

Abstained IX. Much Pleasure We Have Lost, While We

Abstained

Adam, to Eve:Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstainedFrom this delightful Fruit, nor known till nowTrue relish, tasting; if such pleasure beIn things to us forbidden, it might be wished, For this one Tree had been forbidden ten.

John Martin, Eve Gives Fruit to Adam


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IX. We Know Both Good and EvilIX. We Know Both Good and Evil

Adam and Eve Cover Themselves in Shame, John Martin

O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give earTo that false Worm, of whomsoever taughtTo counterfeit Man’s voice, true in our Fall,False in our promised Rising; since our Eyes Opened we find indeed, and find we knowBoth Good and Evil, Good lost, and Evil got,Bad Fruit of Knowledge, if this be to know,Which leaves us naked thus, of Honour void,Of Innocence, of Faith, of Purity, . . .


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IX. They Sat Them Down To WeepIX. They Sat Them Down To Weep

Gustave Doré, They Sat Down to Weep

They sat them down to weep, nor only TearsRained at their Eyes, but high Winds worse withinBegan to rise, high Passions, Anger, Hate,Mistrust, Suspicion, Discord, and shook soreTheir inward State of Mind, calm Region onceAnd full of Peace, now tossed and turbulent: . . .

© 2006-2008 Dr. Martha J. Bianco 1 Paradise Lost: Books V-IX.

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Transcript of © 2006-2008 Dr. Martha J. Bianco 1 Paradise Lost: Books V-IX.