from Paradise Lost by John Milton, 1667; p 724-739

 

    Paradise Lost was published as 10 books in 1667, republished as 12 in 1674, written through diction as its author went blind, features blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), and includes over 1500 allusions throughout! The first book focuses on the fall of Satan and his followers from Heaven and teaches us a moral lesson about faith and maintaining a healthy fear of the power of God. No one is more powerful than God: He created all. Even Satan would not have been able to revolt if not for God. The selection below is a speech by Satan to his demon followers regarding their current state and new dwelling:

 

      “’Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,’

      Said then the lost archangel, ‘this the seat

      That we must change for Heav’n? This mournful gloom

      For that celestial light? Be it so, since He

      Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid

      What shall be right: farthest from Him is best

      Whom reason has equalled, force has made supreme

      Above His equals. Farewell, happy fields,

      Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! Hail,

      Infernal world! And thou, profoundest Hell,

      Receive thy new possessor—one who brings

      A mind not to be changed by place or time.

      The mind is its own place, and in itself

      Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

      What matter where, if I be still the same,

      And what I should be, all but less than He

      Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least

      We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not build

      Here for His envy, will not drive us hence:

      Here we may reign secure; and in my choice,

      To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:

      Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n.

      But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

      Th’ associates and co-partners of our loss,

      Lie thus astonished on th’ oblivious pool,

      And call them not to share with us their part

      In this unhappy mansion, or once more

      With rallied arms to try what may be yet

      Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?’” (Lines 242-270, p 730-731)