The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems by John Milton, Burton Raffel Page A

then,
563
      
Of happiness and final misery,
564
      
Passion and apathy, and glory and shame:
565
      
Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy
566
      
Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm
567
      
Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite
568
      
Fallacious hope, or arm th’ obdurèd 2162 breast
569
      
With stubborn patience, as with triple steel.
570
      
Another part, in squadrons and gross 2163 bands,
571
      
On bold 2164 adventure to discover 2165 wide 2166
572
      
That dismal world, if any clime perhaps
573
      
Might yield them easier habitation, bend
574
      
Four ways their flying 2167 march, along the banks
575
      
Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge
576
      
Into the burning lake their baleful 2168 streams—
577
      
Abhorrèd Styx, the flood 2169 of deadly hate;
578
      
Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;
579
      
Cocytus, 2170 named of 2171 lamentation loud
580
      
Heard on the rueful 2172 stream; fierce Phlegeton, 2173
581
      
Whose waves of torrent 2174 fire inflame 2175 with rage. 2176
582
      
Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
583
      
Lethe, 2177 the river of oblivion, rolls
584
      
Her wat’ry labyrinth, 2178 whereof who drinks
585
      
Forthwith 2179 his former state and being forgets—
586
      
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
587
      
Beyond this flood 2180 a frozen continent
588
      
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
589
      
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
590
      
Thaws not, but gathers heap, 2181 and ruin seems
591
      
Of ancient pile, 2182 all else deep snow and ice,
592
      
A gulf 2183 profound 2184 as that Serbonian bog 2185
593
      
Betwixt Damiata 2186 and Mount Casius 2187 old,
594
      
Where armies whole have sunk. The parching 2188 air
595
      
Burns frore, 2189 and cold performs 2190 th’ effect of fire.
596
      
Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled, 2191
597
      
At certain revolutions 2192 all the damned
598
      
Are brought and feel by turns the bitter change
599
      
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
600
      
From 2193 beds of raging fire to starve 2194 in ice
601
      
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine 2195
602
      
Immovable, infixed, and frozen round,
603
      
Periods 2196 of time, thence hurried back to fire.
604
      
They ferry over this Lethean sound
605
      
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,
606
      
And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
607
      
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
608
      
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
609
      
All in one moment, and so near the brink.
610
      
But Fate withstands 2197 and, to oppose th’ attempt,
611
      
Medusa, 2198 with Gorgonian terror, guards
612
      
The ford, and of itself the water flies 2199
613
      
All taste of living wight, 2200 as once it fled
614
      
The lip of Tantalus. 2201 Thus roving on
615
      
In confused 2202 march forlorn, th’ adventurous bands,
616
      
With shuddering horror pale and eyes aghast,
617
      
Viewed first their lamentable 2203 lot, and found
618
      
No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale
619
      
They passed, and many a region dolorous,
620
      
O’er many a frozen, many a fiery alp,
621
      
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death—
622
      
A universe of death, which God by curse
623
      
Created evil, for evil only good, 2204
624
      
Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,
625
      
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious