Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained: By John Milton – Illustrated

But he thus, overjoyed; ‘O fruit divine,

Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropt,

Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit

For Gods, yet able to make Gods of Men:

And why not Gods of Men; since good, the more

Communicated, more abundant grows,

The author not impaired, but honoured more?

“O sole in whom my thoughts find all repose,

Gabriel, thou hadst in Heaven the esteem of wise,

And such I held thee; but this question asked

Puts me in doubt.

with eyes

Of conjugal attraction unreproved,

yet no purposed foe

To you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,

Though I unpitied: League with you I seek,

And mutual amity, so strait, so close,

That I with you must dwell, or you with me

Henceforth

first grand thief

Me miserable! which way shall I fly

Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?

And understood not that a grateful mind

By owing owes not, but still pays, at once

Indebted and discharged;

The stairs were then let down, whether to dare

The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate

His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:

Thee I revisit safe,

And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou

Revisit’st not these eyes, that roll in vain

To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;