Paradise Regain'd: A Poem, in Four Books. To which is Added Samson Agonistes; and Poems Upon Several Occasions. With a Tractate of Education. The Author John Milton

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J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper, R. Ware, J. Hodges, R. Wellington, C. Corbet [and 3 others in London], 1747 - 387 pages
 

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Page 151 - Sometimes, with secure delight, The upland hamlets will invite, When the merry bells ring round, And the jocund rebecks sound To many a youth and many a maid, Dancing in the chequered shade; And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holiday, Till the livelong daylight fail...
Page 145 - Enow of such, as for their bellies' sake Creep and intrude and climb into the fold! Of other care they little reckoning make Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, And shove away the worthy bidden guest; Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught else the least That to the faithful herdman's art belongs ! What recks it them?
Page 142 - Oaten Flute, Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel, From the glad sound would not be absent long, And old Damoetas loved to hear our song. But O the heavy change, now thou art gone, Now thou art gone and never must return! Thee, Shepherd, thee the Woods, and desert Caves, With wild Thyme and the gadding Vine o'ergrown, And all their echoes, mourn.
Page 59 - Think not but that I know these things, or think I know them not ; not therefore am I short Of knowing what I ought : he, who receives Light from above, from the fountain of light, No other doctrine needs, though granted true ; But these are false, or little else but dreams, Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
Page 142 - For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill. Together both, ere the high lawns appeared Under the opening eyelids of the morn, We drove afield, and both together heard What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn...
Page 158 - With antique pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light. There let the pealing organ blow, To the full-voiced quire below, In service high and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.
Page 141 - Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear Compels me to disturb your season due: For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer: Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. He must not float upon his watery bier Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, Without the meed of some melodious tear.
Page 143 - Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days : But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears And slits the thin-spun life. But not the praise...
Page 98 - Fearless of danger, like a petty God I walk'd about admir'd of all and dreaded On hostile ground, none daring my affront.
Page 10 - Authority which I deriv'd from Heaven. And now by some strong motion I am led Into this Wilderness, to what intent I learn not yet, perhaps I need not know; For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.

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