Paradiſe loſt. Book I.
Wing’d with red Lightning and impetuous rage.
Perhaps hath ſpent his ſhafts, and ceaſes now
To bellow through the vaſt and boundleſs Deep.
Let us not ſlip th’ occaſion , whether ſcorn,
Or fſtiate fury yield it from our Foe.
180Seeſt thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wilde,
The ſeat of deſolation, void of light.
Save what the glimmering of theſe livid flames
Caſts pale and dreadfu ? Thither let'us tend
From off the toſſing of theſe fiery waves.
There reſt, if any reſt can harbour there.
And reaſſembling our afflicted Powers,
Conſult how we may henceforth moſt offend
Our Enemy, our own loſs how repair.
How overcome this dire Calamity,
190 What reinforcement we may gain from Hope,
If not what reſolution from deſpare.
Thus Satan talking to his neereſt Mate
With Head up-lift above the wave, and Eyes
That ſparkling blaz’d, his other. Parts beſides
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the Fables name of monſtrous ſize,
Titanian, or 'Earth-born, that warr’d on Jove,
Briarios or Typhon, whom the Den
200By ancient Tanſus held, or that Sea-beaſt
Leviathan which God ofa ll his works
Created hugeſt that ſwim th’ Ocean ſtream:
Him haply ſlumbring on the Norway foam
The Pilot of ſome ſmall night-founder’d Skiff,
Deeming ſome Iſland, oft, as Sea-men tell,
With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind
Perhaps hath ſpent his ſhafts, and ceaſes now
To bellow through the vaſt and boundleſs Deep.
Let us not ſlip th’ occaſion , whether ſcorn,
Or fſtiate fury yield it from our Foe.
180Seeſt thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wilde,
The ſeat of deſolation, void of light.
Save what the glimmering of theſe livid flames
Caſts pale and dreadfu ? Thither let'us tend
From off the toſſing of theſe fiery waves.
There reſt, if any reſt can harbour there.
And reaſſembling our afflicted Powers,
Conſult how we may henceforth moſt offend
Our Enemy, our own loſs how repair.
How overcome this dire Calamity,
190 What reinforcement we may gain from Hope,
If not what reſolution from deſpare.
Thus Satan talking to his neereſt Mate
With Head up-lift above the wave, and Eyes
That ſparkling blaz’d, his other. Parts beſides
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the Fables name of monſtrous ſize,
Titanian, or 'Earth-born, that warr’d on Jove,
Briarios or Typhon, whom the Den
200By ancient Tanſus held, or that Sea-beaſt
Leviathan which God ofa ll his works
Created hugeſt that ſwim th’ Ocean ſtream:
Him haply ſlumbring on the Norway foam
The Pilot of ſome ſmall night-founder’d Skiff,
Deeming ſome Iſland, oft, as Sea-men tell,
With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind
Moors
