John Milton (1608-1674)

This is the second of three readings from ‘Paradise Lost’.

This is from Book Nine, line 421 ff

Satan has escaped from Hell and found Adam and Eve. In this extract he finds Eve alone in the Garden. The extract includes one of my favourite moments in English Poetry (I have many favourite moments) when Satan is made ‘Stupidly good’ by the sight of Eve.

It also contains some fine examples of the unusual way in which Milton dealt with English Syntax. Here’s one sentence:

He sought them both, but wished his hap might find
Eve Separate: he wished, but not with hope
Of what so seldom chanced, when to his wish
Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies,
Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood
Half Spied, so thick the roses bushing round
About her glowed, oft stooping to support
Each flow’r of slender stalk, whose head though gay
Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold,
Hung drooping unsustained: them she upstays
Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while,
Herself, though fairest unsupported flow’r
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.’

If you’re reading Paradise Lost, for the first time you need to be patient. The syntax does become familiar and the poem is worth the effort it requires.