Paradise Lost, and the Fragment of a Commentary upon it by William CowperW. Mason, 1810 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Alcinous Almighty Angels answer'd appear'd arm'd arms beast behold Belial bliss bright burning lake call'd Canaan celestial Cherubim cloud created creatures dark days of Heaven death deep delight divine dreadful dwell earth eternal evil eyes fair faith Father fear fierce fire fix'd flaming flowers fruit glory Gods grace hand happy hast hath heard heart Heaven heavenly Hell highth hill Iliad Ithuriel join'd King less lest light LINE live mankind Messiah Milton Moloch morn mov'd night numbers o'er ordain'd Oreb pain PARADISE LOST pass'd peace pleas'd rais'd reign replied return'd round sapience Satan seat seem'd Seraph Serpent shalt sight soon sovran spake Spirits stood sweet taste Thammuz thee thence thine things thither thou hast thoughts throne thunder thyself tree turn'd Uriel vex'd voice whence wings wonder words Zephon
Popular passages
Page 30 - From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day ; and with the setting sun Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, On Lemnos the /Egean isle : thus they relate, Erring...
Page 77 - Eternal coeternal beam May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or hear'st 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 The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite.
Page 4 - And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, And mad'st it pregnant...
Page 13 - He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast ; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesole Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
Page 129 - Had in her sober livery all things clad; Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, 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 pleased: now...
Page 108 - O thou that with surpassing glory crowned, Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call, But with no friendly voice, and add thy name 0 sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams That bring to my remembrance from what state 1 fell, how glorious once above thy sphere; Till pride and worse ambition threw me down 40 Warring in heaven against heaven's matchless king: Ah wherefore!
Page 79 - Thus with the year Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine: But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank Of nature's works, to me expunged and rased, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
Page 420 - They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, Wav'd over by that flaming brand ; the gate With dreadful faces throng'd, and fiery arms. Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide : They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.
Page 5 - A dungeon horrible on all sides round, As one great furnace flam'd ; yet from those flames No light ; but rather darkness visible Serv'd only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell ; hope never comes, That comes to all ; but torture without end Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed...
Page 179 - So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found Among the faithless, faithful only he ; Among innumerable false, unmoved, Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal ; Nor number, nor example, with him wrought To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, Though single.