Chapter 2 1
HAil holy light, of spring of Heavn first-born,
Or of th Eternal Coeternal beam
May I express thee unblamd? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from Eternitie, dwell then in thee, [ 5 ]
Bright effect of bright essence increate.
Or heard thou rather pure Ethereal stream,
Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun,
Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest [ 10 ]
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.
Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
Escapt the Stygian Pool, though long detaind
In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight [ 15 ]
Through utter and through middle darkness borne
With other notes then to th Orphean Lyre
I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,
Taught by the heavily Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend, [ 20 ]
Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,
And feel thy sovran vital Lamp; but thou
Revisits not these eyes, that rowle in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs, [ 25 ]
Or dim suffusion veild. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt
Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,
Smit with the love of sacred Song; but chief
Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath [ 30 ]
That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor somtimes forget
Those other two equald with me in Fate,
So were I equald with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Maonides, [ 35 ]
And Tiresias and Phineus Prophets old.