Paradise Lost by John Milton
page 58 of 354 (16%)
page 58 of 354 (16%)
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Of BARCA or CYRENE'S torrid soil,
Levied to side with warring Winds, and poise Thir lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, Hee rules a moment; CHAOS Umpire sits, And by decision more imbroiles the fray By which he Reigns: next him high Arbiter CHANCE governs all. Into this wilde Abyss, The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave, Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, But all these in thir pregnant causes mixt Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more Worlds, Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while, Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross. Nor was his eare less peal'd With noises loud and ruinous (to compare Great things with small) then when BELLONA storms, With all her battering Engines bent to rase Som Capital City, or less then if this frame Of Heav'n were falling, and these Elements In mutinie had from her Axle torn The stedfast Earth. At last his Sail-broad Vannes He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoak Uplifted spurns the ground, thence many a League As in a cloudy Chair ascending rides Audacious, but that seat soon failing, meets A vast vacuitie: all unawares Fluttring his pennons vain plumb down he drops |
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