So on he fares, and to the border comes
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise
Now nearer, crowns with her inclosure green,
As with a rural mound, the champaign head
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides.
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Access denyed; and over-head up grew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,

Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene; and as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre

Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verdurous wall 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,
Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue,
Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colours mix'd:
On which the sun more glad impress'd his beams
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath shower'd the earth; so lovely seem'd
That landscape: and of pure, now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All sadness but despair, nov 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
Sabean odours from the spicy shore

Così egli vanne, ed i confini appressa
Dell' Eden, ù ridente il paradiso

Or più vicino cerchia a verdi chiusi,
Qual villesco argin, la pianura posta
Su d'erto monte, i cui chiomati fianchi
Per selve irsute troppo e forti ed aspre
Negan l'accesso; e sopra il capo estollesi
Altezza maestosa d' ombre altere,

Ramosa palma e abete e pino e cedro,
Silvestre scena; e quasi ad ordin sorge
Ombra sopra ombra, un gran silvan teatro
Superbo al guardo. Ma sui lor cacumi
Di paradiso s' erge il verde muro,

Che al primo padre offria d' intorno intorno
In ampia vista il sottoposto impero.
Ed alti più del muro in giro filano
Alberi vaghi d' alme frutta onusti;
Parean qui frutta e fiori insiem d'aspetto
Aureo smaltato a gai colori e misti:
Su cui suoi raggi il sol più lieto vibra
Che in gentil nube a sera, o in iri acquosa,
Quando Dio piovve in terra; amabil tanto
Quel quadro par! L'aer gli sfoga incontro
Di puro in puro più, ed inspira al core
Gioia e vernal piacer ch' ogni ansia sperde
Tranne disperazion: lievi aure scotono
L'ali odorose, e natii olezzi spandono
E mormoran scherzando onde i balsamici
Furti involar. Così a chi ne veleggia
Oltre il confin di Libia e Mozambico
Or or varcò, Vulturno spira odori
Sabei sul mar dalle aromáte sponde

Of Araby the blest: with such delay

Well pleas'd they slack their course, and many a league
Cheer'd with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles:
So entertain'd those odorous sweets the Fiend,

Who came their bane: though with them better pleas'd
Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume,

That drove him, though enamour'd from the spouse
Of Tobit's son; and with a vengeance sent

From Medea post to Egypt, there fast bound.
Now to the ascent of that steep savage hill

Satan had journey'd on, pensive and slow;
But further way found none; so thick intwin'd
As one continued brake, the undergrowth
Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd
All path of man or beast that pass'd that way.
One gate there only was, and that look'd East
On the other side: which when the' arch-felon saw,
Due entrance he disdain'd; and, in contempt,
At one slight bound high over-leap'd all bound
Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within
Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,
Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve
In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,
Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold:
Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash
Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,
Cross-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no assault:
In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles:
So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold.
Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life,
The middle tree and highest there that grew,

Dell' Arabo felice; a tal rattento

Lenta ei giulivo il corso, e al gráto olezzo
Per leghe moltè l'océan gioconda:

Que' dolci odori si tenean Satano

Che lor vien tosco: ben più lieto ad elli
Che non si fu Asmodeo del pesce al fumo
Che il cacciò benchè amante dalla sposa
Del figlio di Tobia, e lo spinse irato
Da Media là, dove esulò, in Egitto.

Di quel selvaggio e forté monte al clivo
Satan veniva omai pensoso é lento;
Quando più gir non può; sì folto e intesto,
Qual lunga siepe, d'implicati dumni

E arbusti alto sterpeto avea deluso

Ad uomo o a belva ogni sentier di vía.

Solo una porta v'era inver l'oriente

Dall' altro lato quel fellon la vide

:

Ma l'usa entrata ei sdegna, e à scherno un saltó

Snello e deciso spicca oltre i confini

Di monte ó d'alto muro, é dentro netto

In piedi stá. Qual è rapacé lúpo,
Cui fame caccia a ormar novelle prede

U' vigili pastori le lor greggie
Tra reti guardan per sicuri campi,
Lieve sui chiusi salta entro all' ovile:

O qual ladrone, a frugar l'arche inteso

Di ricco cive a cui le arcane porte
Per sbarre e chiovi non temon d'assalto,

Per le finestre s'arpica o sui tetti:

Tal quel primier ladrón di Dio nel claustro.
Quindi volo e su l'albero di vita,

Alber mediano, e a tutti il più sublime,

Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life

Thereby regain'd, but sat devising death

To them who liv'd; nor on the virtue thought
Of that life-giving plant, but only us'd

For prospect what well used had been the pledge
Of immortality. So little knows

Any, but God alone, to value right

The good before him, but perverts best things

To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.

Beneath him with new wonder now he views, To all delight of human sense expos'd,

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 stretch'd her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings.
Or where the sons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telassar: in this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordain'd;
Out of the fertile ground he caus'd to grow
All trees of nobles 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 chang'd his course, but through the shaggy hill Pass'd underneath ingulf'd; for God had thrown That mountain as his garden-mound high rais'd Upon the rapid current, which, through veins