The Life of John Milton with Conjectures on the Origin of Paradise Lost. By William Hailey [i.e. Hayley] |
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| II. | SCENE THE SECOND. |
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 | The Life of John Milton |  |
SCENE THE SECOND.
LUCIFER.Who from my dark abyss
Calls me to gaze on this excess of light?
What miracles unseen
Show'st thou to me, O God?
Art thou then tired of residence in Heav'n?
Why hast thou raised on earth
This lovely Paradise,
And wherefore placed in it
Two earthly demi-gods of human mould?
Say, thou vile architect,
Forming thy works of dust,
What will befal this naked helpless man,
The sole inhabitant of glens and woods?
Does he then dream of treading on the stars?
Heav'n is impoverish'd, and I, alone
The cause, enjoy the ruin I produced:
Let him unite above
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And let his Godhead toil
To re-adorn and re-illume his heav'n;
Since in the end derision
Shall prove his works, and all his efforts, vain;
For Lucifer alone was that full light,
Which scatter'd radiance o'er the plains of Heav'n.
But these his present fires are shade and smoke,
Base counterfeits of my more potent beams;
I reck not what he means to make his heav'n;
Nor care I what this creature man may be,
Too obstinate and firm
Is my undaunted thought
In proving that I am implacable,
'Gainst heav'n, 'gainst man, the angels, and their God.
| The Life of John Milton | |