Interactive Literature Selections Milton

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Milton

John Milton

Vocabulary from the Selection

baleful
coy
dalliance
damask
dandle
disheveled
ethereal
exalt
filial
guile
impious
invoke
obdurate
omnipotent
perdition
proboscis
ruminating
sanctitude
sovereign

During Reading Strategy
Read with a Purpose in Mind

Guided Reading Question 1
What brought death and woe into the world?
Click to answer

from book 1

	Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
	Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
	Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
	With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
5	Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
	Sing, Heavenly Muse¹, that on the secret top
	Of Oreb, or of Sinai², didst inspire
	That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed³
	In the beginning how the heavens and earth
10	Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
	Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed
	Fast⁴ by the oracle of God, I thence
	Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
	That with no middle flight intends to soar
15	Above th’ Aonian mount⁵, while it pursues
	Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
	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
20	Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
	Dovelike sat’st brooding on the vast abyss,
	And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark
	Illumine; what is low, raise and support;
	That to the height of this great argument

25	I may assert Eternal Providence,
	And justify the ways of God to men.
	Say first (for Heaven hides nothing from thy view,
	Nor the deep tract of Hell), say first what cause
	Moved our grand⁶ parents, in that happy state,
30	Favored of Heaven so highly, to fall off
	From their Creator, and transgress his will
	For one restraint, lords of the world besides?
	Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
	Th’ infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile,

Guided Reading Question 2
What does the speaker wish to justify?
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35	Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
	The mother of mankind, what time his pride
	Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
	Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring
	To set himself in glory above his peers,
40	He trusted to have equaled the Most High,
	If he opposed; and with ambitious aim
	Against the throne and monarchy of God
	Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,
	With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
45	Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky
	With hideous ruin and combustion down
	To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
	In adamantine⁷ chains and penal fire,
	Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms.
50	Nine times the space that measures day and night
	To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
	Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf
	Confounded though immortal. But his doom
	Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought
55	Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
	Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes,
	That witnessed huge affliction and dismay,
	Mixed with obdúrate pride and steadfast hate.

Guided Reading Question 3
What did the “infernal serpent” do?
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	At once, as far as angels ken⁸, he views
60	The dismal situation waste and wild:
	A dungeon horrible, on all sides round
	As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
	No light, but rather darkness visible
	Served only to discover sights of woe,
65	Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
	And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
	That comes to all, but torture without end
	Still urges⁹, and a fiery deluge, fed
	With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed:
70	Such place Eternal Justice had prepared
	For those rebellious; here their prison ordained
	In utter darkness and their portion set
	As far removed from God and light of Heaven
	As from the center thrice to th’ utmost pole¹⁰.

	• • •

	Said then the lost archangel, “this the seat
	That we must change for Heaven? this mournful gloom

Guided Reading Question 4
What type of place has been prepared “for those rebellious”?
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245	For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
	Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid
	What shall be right: farthest from him is best,
	Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme
	Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields,
250	Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
	Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,
	Receive thy new possessor, one who brings
	A mind not to be changed by place or time.
	The mind is its own place, and in itself
255	Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
	What matter where, if I be still the same,
	And what I should be, all but less than he
	Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
	We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built

Guided Reading Question 5
What is the lost archangel’s first reaction to this place?
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260	Here for his envy, will not drive us hence.
	Here we may reign secure; and in my choice
	To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
	Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven . . .”

	• • •

from book 4

	• • •

205	Beneath him with new wonder now he views
	To all delight of human sense exposed
	In narrow room Nature’s whole wealth; yea more,
	A Heaven on Earth; for blissful Paradise
	Of God the garden was, by him in the east
210	Of Eden planted. . . .

	• • •

285	From this Assyrian garden, where the fiend
	Saw undelighted all delight, all kind
	Of living creatures, new to sight and strange.
	Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall,
	Godlike erect, native honor clad

Guided Reading Question 6
What does the lost archangel finally decide?
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290	In naked majesty, seemed lords of all,
	And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine
	The image of their glorious Maker shone,
	Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure—
	Severe, but in true filial freedom placed,
295	Whence true authority in men; though both
	Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed;
	For contemplation he and valor formed,
	For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
	He for God only, she for God in him.
300	His fair large front¹¹ and eye sublime declared
	Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks
	Round from his parted forelock manly hung
	Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad:
	She, as a veil down to the slender waist,
305	Her unadornéd golden tresses wore
	Disheveled, but in wanton ringlets waved
	As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied
	Subjection, but required with gentle sway,
	And by her yielded, by him best received,
310	Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
	And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay.
	Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed;
	Then was not guilty shame. Dishonest shame
	Of Nature’s works, honor dishonorable,
315	Sin-bred, how have ye troubled all mankind
	With shows instead, mere shows of seeming pure,
	And banished from man’s life his happiest life,
	Simplicity and spotless innocence!
	So passed they naked on, nor shunned the sight
320	Of God or angel, for they thought no ill;
	So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair
	That ever since in love’s embraces met:
	Adam the goodliest man of men since born
	His sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve.
325	Under a tuft of shade that on a green
	Stood whispering soft, by a fresh fountain-side,
	They sat them down, and after no more toil
	Of their sweet gardening labor than sufficed
	To recommend cool Zephyr¹², and made ease
330	More easy, wholesome thirst and appetite
	More grateful, to their supper fruits they fell,
	Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs
	Yielded them, sidelong as they sat recline
	On the soft downy bank damasked with flowers.
335	The savory pulp they chew, and in the rind
	Still as they thirsted scoop the brimming stream;
	Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing smiles
	Wanted, nor youthful dalliance, as beseems
	Fair couple linked in happy nuptial league,
340	Alone as they. About them frisking played
	All beasts of th’ earth, since wild, and of all chase¹³
	In wood or wilderness, forest or den.
	Sporting the lion ramped¹⁴, and in his paw
	Dandled the kid, bears, tigers, ounces, pards¹⁵,
345	Gamboled before them; th’ unwieldy elephant
	To make them mirth used all his might, and wreathed
	His lithe proboscis; close the serpent sly,
	Insinuating¹⁶, wove with Gordian twine
	His braided train¹⁷, and of his fatal guile
350	Gave proof unheeded. Others on the grass
	Couched, and now filled with pasture gazing sat,
	Or bedward ruminating; for the sun,
	Declined, was hasting now with prone career
	To th’ ocean isles¹⁸, and in th’ ascending scale
355	Of heaven the stars that usher evening rose:
	When Satan, still in gaze as first he stood,

Guided Reading Question 7
How is the Garden of Eden described? What two creatures are particularly interesting? Why?
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	Scarce thus at length failed speech recovered sad:
	“O Hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold?
	Into our room of bliss thus high advanced
360	Creatures of other mold, Earth-born perhaps,
	Not spirits, yet to heavenly spirits bright
	Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue
	With wonder, and could love; so lively shines
	In them divine resemblance, and such grace
365	The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured.
	Ah! gentle pair, ye little think how nigh
	Your change approaches, when all these delights
	Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe…

	• • •

Guided Reading Question 8
Who is watching the new creatures?
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505	“Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two
	Imparadised in one another’s arms,
	The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill
	Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust,
	Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
510	Among our other torments not the least,
	Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pines.
	Yet let me not forget what I have gained
	From their own mouths: all is not theirs, it seems.
	One fatal tree there stands, of knowledge called,
515	Forbidden them to taste. Knowledge forbidden?
	Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their lord
	Envy them that? Can it be sin to know,
	Can it be death? and do they only stand
	By ignorance, is that their happy state,
520	The proof of their obedience and their faith?
	O fair foundation laid whereon to build

Guided Reading Question 9
How does Satan feel about God’s new creatures?
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	Their ruin! Hence I will excite their minds
	With more desire to know, and to reject
	Envious commands, invented with design
525	To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt
	Equal with gods. Aspiring to be such,
	They taste and die; what likelier can ensue?
	But first with narrow search I must walk round
	This garden, and no corner leave unspied;
530	A chance but chance may lead where I may meet
	Some wandering spirit of Heaven, by fountain side
	Or in thick shade retired, from him to draw
	What further would be learnt. Live while ye may,
	Yet happy pair; enjoy, till I return,
535	Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed.”

Guided Reading Question 10
What does Satan predict will happen?
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