Milton The Poetical Works of John Milton

1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-3-7364-0790-9
Verlag: anboco
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 500 Seiten

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, and man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Milton, John

Leseproben

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

ON THE MORNING OF CHRISTS NATIVITY.
  Compos'd 1629.
  I
  This is the Month, and this the happy morn
  Wherin the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
  Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
  Our great redemption from above did bring;
  For so the holy sages once did sing,
  That he our deadly forfeit should release,
  And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
  II
  That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
  And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,
  Wherwith he wont at Heav'ns high Councel-Table,                      10
  To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
  He laid aside; and here with us to be,
  Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day,
  And chose with us a darksom House of mortal Clay.
  III
  Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
  Afford a present to the Infant God?
  Hast thou no vers, no hymn, or solemn strein,   To welcom him to this his new abode,
  Now while the Heav'n by the Suns team untrod,
  Hath took no print of the approching light,                          20
  And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?
  IV
  See how from far upon the Eastern rode
  The Star-led Wisards haste with odours sweet,
  O run,  prevent them with thy humble ode,
  And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
  Have thou the honour first, thy Lord to greet,
  And joyn thy voice unto the Angel Quire,
  From out his secret Altar toucht with hallow'd fire.

The Hymn.
  I
  IT was the Winter wilde,
  While the Heav'n-born-childe,                                        30
  All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
  Nature in aw to him
  Had doff't her gawdy trim,
  With her great Master so to sympathize:
  It was no season then for her
  To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.
  II
  Only with speeches fair   She woo'd the gentle Air
  To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
  And on her naked shame,                                              40
  Pollute with sinfull blame,
  The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,
  Confounded, that her Makers eyes
  Should look so near upon her foul deformities.
  III
  But he her fears to cease,
  Sent down the meek-eyd Peace,
  She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding
  Down through the turning sphear
  His ready Harbinger,
  With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing,                        50
  And waving wide her mirtle wand,
  She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land.
  IV
  No War, or Battails sound
  Was heard the World around,
  The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
  The hooked Chariot stood
  Unstain'd with hostile blood,
  The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
  And Kings sate still with awfull eye,
  As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.                     60
  V
  But peacefull was the night
  Wherin the Prince of light
  His raign of peace upon the earth began:
  The Windes with wonder whist,
  Smoothly the waters kist,
  Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean,
  Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
  While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
  VI
  The Stars with deep amaze
  Stand fit in steadfast gaze,                                         70
  Bending one way their pretious influence,
  And will not take their flight,
  For all the morning light,
  Or Lucifer that often warned them thence;
  But in their glimmering Orbs did glow,
  Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.
  VII
  And though the shady gloom
  Had given day her room,
  The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed,
  And hid his head for shame,                                          80
  As his inferior flame,
  The new enlightened world no more should need;
  He saw a greater Sun appear
  Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear.
  VIII
  The Shepherds on the Lawn,
  Or ere the point of dawn,
  Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;
  Full little thought they than,
  That the mighty Pan
  Was kindly com to live with them below;                              90
  Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
  Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep.
  IX
  When such Musick sweet
  Their hearts and ears did greet,
  As never was by mortal finger strook,
  Divinely-warbled voice
  Answering the stringed noise,
  As all their souls in blisfull rapture took:
  The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
  With  thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close.           100
  X
  Nature that heard such  sound
  Beneath  the hollow round
  of Cynthia's seat the Airy region thrilling,
  Now was almost won
  To think her part was don
  And that her raign had here its last fulfilling;   She knew such harmony alone
  Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.
  XI
  At last surrounds their...