The verdurous wall1 of Paradise up sprung; Which to our general sire gave prospect large Into his nether empire neighbouring round: And higher than that wall a circling row Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,2 Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue, Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed; On which the sun more glad impressed his beams, Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath showered the earth; so lovely seemed That landscape and of pure3 now purer air Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All sadness but despair: now gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow Sabæan odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the blest; with such delay
Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles:
So entertained those odorous sweets the fiend
Beneath him with new wonder now he views, To all delight of human sense exposed,
In narrow room, Nature's whole wealth, yea, more, A heaven on earth: for blissful Paradise Of God the garden was, by him in the east Of Eden planted; Eden stretched her line From Auran5 eastward to the royal towers Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings; Or where the sons of Eden long before Dwelt in Telassar.6 In this pleasant soil
1 Verdurous wall-i. e. a sort of bank set with a green hedge over which Adam could look downwards on Eden. All the scenery hitherto described is outside of the garden itself.
2 Fruit-used here in the sense of produce, including both blossoms and fruit. 3 Of pure, &c.-of frequently implies change of circumstance, as in "Paradise Lost," Bk. x, v. 720-"O miserable of happy."
His far more pleasant garden God ordained: Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow All trees of noblest kind, for sight, smell, taste; And all amid them stood the Tree of Life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold; and next to life,
Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by,— Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill! Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill Passed underneath ingulfed: for God had thrown That mountain as his garden-mould, high raised Upon the rapid current, which, through1 veins Of porous earth with kindly thirst up-drawn, Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill Watered the garden; thence united fell Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood, Which from his darksome passage now appears, And now, divided into four main streams, Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm And country, whereof here needs no account; But rather to tell how, if art could tell,
How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks, Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, With mazy error under pendent shades Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed Flowers worthy of Paradise; which not nice art In beds and curious knots, but nature boon Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain; Both where the morning sun first warmly smote The open field, and where the unpierced shade Imbrowned the noon-tide bowers. Thus was this place A happy rural seat of various view;
Groves, whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm; Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,
Which, through, &c.-i. e. the water of the river being absorbed, it rose up through the mound placed upon it, and gushed out in the garden as a fountain -a feat of enchantment scarcely harmonising with the general character of the scene, in which nature is elevated and adorned, but not violated.
2 Groves, &c.-"In the description of Paradise, the poet has observed Aristotle's rule of lavishing all the ornaments of diction on the weak inactive parts of the fable, which are not supported by the beauty of sentiment and character:" Addison.
Hung amiable, (Hesperian fables1 true, If true, here only,) and of delicious taste. Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks Grazing the tender herb, were interposed, Or palmy hillock; or the flowery lap
Of some irriguous2 valley spread her store ;— Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose. Another side, umbrageous grots, and caves Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling3 vine Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps Luxuriant: meanwhile murmuring waters fall Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake, That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams. The birds their quire apply: airs, vernal airs, Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune The trembling leaves; while universal Pan,+ Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance, Led on the eternal Spring. Not that fair field Of Enna, where Prosèrpine gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis5
Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain To seek her through the world; nor that sweet grove Of Daphne by Orontes, and the inspired
Castalian spring, might with this Paradise
ADAM AND EVE IN PARADISE.
Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native honour clad,
Hesperian fables, &c.-i. e. "What is said of the Hesperian gardens is true here only; if all is not pure invention, this garden was meant:" Richardson. 2 Irriguous-well-watered, full of springs and rills.
3 Mantling-covering as with a mantle, spreading luxuriantly.
4 While universal Pan, &c.-"The ancients personised every thing. Pan is Nature, the Graces are the beautiful Seasons, and the Hours are the time for the production and perfection of things:" Richardson.
6 Daphne-"A grove near Antioch, in Syria, on the banks of the river Orontes; there also was the Castalian spring, of the same name with that in Greece, and extolled for its prophetic qualities:" Newton.
"The description of Adam and Eve, as they first appeared to Satan, is exquisitely drawn, and sufficient to make the fallen angel gaze upon them with all that astonishment and those emotions of envy, in which he is represented :" Addison.
In naked majesty, seemed lords of all, And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine The image of their glorious Maker shone, Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure, (Severe, but in true filial freedom placed,) Whence true authority in men; though both Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed; For contemplation he and valour formed; For softness she, and sweet attractive grace; He for God only, she for God in him: His fair large front and eye sublime declared Absolute rule; and hyacinthine3 locks Round from his parted forelock manly hung Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad: She, as a veil, down to the slender waist Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved As the vine curls her tendrils; which implied Subjection, but required with gentle sway, And by her yielded, by him best received, Yielded 5 with coy submission, modest pride, And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay.
So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair That ever since in love's embraces met; Adam, the goodliest man of men since born His sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve. Under a tuft of shade that on a green Stood whispering soft, by a fresh fountain-side They sat them down; and after no more toil Of their sweet gardening labour than sufficed
1 Severe, &c.-i. e. strict, but yet consistent with the freedom of children, "denoting," says Dr. Pearce, "a reverence rather than fear of the Deity." 2 Whence, &c.-i. e. from the truth, wisdom, and holiness just mentioned, which, Dr. Pearce remarks, "are qualities that give to magistrates'true authority,' that proper authority which they may want who yet have legal authority."
3 Hyacinthine-a classical epithet, denoting, black or dark brown, chestnut. 4 Which implied subjection-"in reference to 1 Cor. xi, 10: the woman ought to have power on her head,' where the word ouσav is interpreted in the margin, 'a covering,' a sign that she is under the power of her husband." 5 Yielded, &c.-i. e. when yielded by her, &c.
6 Adam the goodliest, &c.-The superlative is here used for the comparative, as sometimes in Greek. The meaning of course is that Adam was a handsomer man than any of his sons, and Eve fairer than any of her daughters.
To recommend cool zephyr, and made ease More easy, wholesome thirst and appetite More grateful, to their supper fruits they fell- Nectarine fruits, which the compliant boughs Yielded them, side-long as they sat recline On the soft downy bank damasked with flowers. The savoury pulp they chew, and in the rind, Still as they thirsted, scoop the brimming stream. About them frisking played
All beasts of the earth, since wild, and of all chace In wood or wilderness, forest or den;
Sporting the lion ramped,3 and in his paw
Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards, Gamboled before them; the unwieldy elephant, To make them mirth, used all his might, and wreathed His lithe proboscis; close the serpent sly Insinuating, wove with Gordian+ twine His braided train, and of his fatal guile Gave proof unheeded; others on the grass Couched, and now filled with pasture gazing sat, Or bedward ruminating;5 for the sun,
Declined, was hasting now with prone career To the ocean isles,6 and in the ascending scale7 Of heaven the stars that usher evening rose.
Now came still evening on, and twilight grey Had in her sober livery all things clad;
1 Nectarine-as sweet as nectar.
2 Recline-reclining.
3 Ramped-"Stood on his two hinder legs in the posture of climbing; from the French ramper, to climb.. In heraldry, a lion in this attitude is said to be rampant:" Richardson.
4 Wove with Gordian, &c.-Wove his twisted tail into a complicated braid, like the famous Gordian knot.
5 Bedward ruminating—" Chewing the cud before they go to rest:" Hume. 6 Ocean isles-the islands in the western ocean.
7 The ascending scale, &c.-A metaphor for the changes of day and night, as if like a balance, the one ascended as the other sank.
8 Now came &c.-" Words cannot furnish out a more lovely description. The greatest poets in all ages have, as it were, vied with one another in their descriptions of evening and night; but for the variety of numbers and pleasing images, I know of nothing parallel or comparable to this to be found among all the treasures of ancient or modern poetry:" Newton.
« EelmineJätka » |