Page 63 - PARADISE LOST
P. 63

Paradise Lost


                                  Some capital city; or less than if this frame
                                  Of Heaven were falling, and these elements
                                  In mutiny had from her axle torn
                                  The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans
                                  He spread for flight, and, in the surging smoke
                                  Uplifted, spurns the ground; thence many a league,
                                  As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides
                                  Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets
                                  A vast vacuity. All unawares,
                                  Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb-down he drops
                                  Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour
                                  Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance,
                                  The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud,
                                  Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
                                  As many miles aloft. That fury stayed—
                                  Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,
                                  Nor good dry land—nigh foundered, on he fares,
                                  Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
                                  Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail.
                                  As when a gryphon through the wilderness
                                  With winged course, o’er hill or moory dale,
                                  Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
                                  Had from his wakeful custody purloined
                                  The guarded gold; so eagerly the Fiend
                                  O’er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
                                  With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
                                  And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
                                  At length a universal hubbub wild
                                  Of stunning sounds, and voices all confused,


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