Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/138

Returned on that bright beam, whose point now raised
Bore him slope downward to the sun now fallen591
Beneath the Azorès; whether the prime orb,
Incredible how swift, had hither rolled
Diurnal, or this less volubil earth,
By shorter flight to the east, had left him there,
Arraying with reflected purple and gold
The clouds that on his western throne attend.
Now came still Evening on, and Twilight grey
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,600
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;
She all night long her amorous descant sung.
Silence was placed; now glowed the firmament
With living sapphire; Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw;
When Adam thus to Eve:—"Fair Consort, the hour
Of night and all things now retired to rest611
Mind us of like repose, since God hath set
Labor and rest, as day and night, to men
Successive; and the timely dew of sleep,