ON MILTON
Natalie Harveld
So sang he first of Man’s primeval fall,
And sought through darkness to recover light;
No outward dawn restored his failing sight,
Yet inward blaze no mortal shade could pall.
He dared the heavens, nor counted virtue small
to stand for truth amidst the public fight,
In pamphlet fierce, in reason’s sharpened right,
Whilst kingdoms trembled at his measured call.
What though the world to visible day was sealed,
He walked with angels in that lucid night,
And Eden bloomed where once transgression shone;
Thus by the mind’s high labour was revealed
a light more constant than the sun’s own might,
To justify what mortal hearts are shown.
And sought through darkness to recover light;
No outward dawn restored his failing sight,
Yet inward blaze no mortal shade could pall.
He dared the heavens, nor counted virtue small
to stand for truth amidst the public fight,
In pamphlet fierce, in reason’s sharpened right,
Whilst kingdoms trembled at his measured call.
What though the world to visible day was sealed,
He walked with angels in that lucid night,
And Eden bloomed where once transgression shone;
Thus by the mind’s high labour was revealed
a light more constant than the sun’s own might,
To justify what mortal hearts are shown.