I.
This is the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heaven’s eternal King, Of wedded maid and Virgin Mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing, That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. II.
That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable, And that far-beaming blaze of majesty, Wherewith he wont at Heaven’s high council-table To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, He laid aside, and, here with us to be, Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.
II.
Say,
Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant God? Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, To welcome him to this his new abode, Now while the heaven, by the Sun’s team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? IV.
See how from far upon the Eastern road The star-led Wisards haste with odours sweet! Oh! run; prevent them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his blessèd feet;
Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, And join thy voice unto the Angel Quire, From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire.
HE
NI. It was the winter wild, While the heaven-born child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Nature, in awe to him, Had doffed her gaudy trim, With her great Master so to sympathize: It was no season then for her To wanton with the Sun, her lusty Paramour. II. Only with speeches fair She woos the gentle air To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, And on her naked shame, Pollute with sinful blame, The saintly veil of maiden white to throw; Confounded, that her Maker’s eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities.
II. But he, her fears to cease, Sent down the meek-eyed Peace: She, crowned with olive green, came softly sliding Down through the turning sphere, His ready Harbinger, With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing;
And, waving wide her myrtle wand, She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. IV. No war, or battail’s sound, Was heard the world around; The idle spear and shield were high uphung; The hookèd chariot stood, Unstained with hostile blood; The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng; And Kings sat still with awful eye, As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. V. But peaceful was the night Wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began. The winds, with wonder whist, Smoothly the waters kissed, Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean, Who now hath quite forgot to rave, While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. VI. The stars, with deep amaze, Stand fixed in steadfast gaze, Bending one way their precious influence, And will not take their flight, For all the morning light, Or Lucifer that often warned them thence; But in their glimmering orbs did glow, Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.
II. And, though the shady gloom Had given day her room, The Sun himself withheld his wonted speed, And hid his head of shame, As his inferior flame The new-enlightened world no more should need: He saw a greater Sun appear Than his bright Throne or burning axletree could bear.
II. The Shepherds on the lawn, Or ere the point of dawn, Sat simply chatting in a rustic row; Full little thought they than That the mighty Pan Was kindly come to live with them below: Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep. IX. When such music sweet Their hearts and ears did greet As never was by mortal finger strook, Divinely-warbled voice Answering the stringèd noise, As all their souls in blissful rapture took: The air, such pleasure loth to lose, With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close. X. Nature, that heard such sound Beneath the hollow round Of Cynthia’s seat the airy Region thrilling, Now was almost won To think her part was done, And that her reign had here its last fulfilling: She knew such harmony alone Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier union. XI. At last surrounds their sight A globe of circular light, That with long beams the shamefaced Night arrayed; The helmèd Cherubim And sworded Seraphim Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed, Harping in loud and solemn quire, With unexpressive notes, to Heaven’s newborn Heir.
II. Such music (as ’tis said) Before was never made, But when of old the Sons of Morning sung, While the Creator great His constellations set, And the well-balanced World on hinges hung, And cast the dark foundations deep, And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.
II. Ring out, ye crystal spheres! Once bless our human ears, If ye have power to touch our senses so; And let your silver chime Move in melodious time; And let the bass of heaven’s deep organ blow; And with your ninefold harmony Make up full consort of the angelic symphony.
IV. For, if such holy song Enwrap our fancy long, Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold; And speckled Vanity Will sicken soon and die, And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; And Hell itself will pass away, And leave her dolorous mansions of the peering day. XV. Yes,
Truth and Justice then Will down return to men, The enamelled arras of the rainbow wearing; And Mercy set between, Throned in celestial sheen, With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering; And Heaven, as at some festival, Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall.
VI. But wisest Fate says No, This must not yet be so; The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy That on the bitter cross Must redeem our loss, So both himself and us to glorify: Yet first, to those chained in sleep,
The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep,
II. With such a horrid clang As on Mount Sinai rang, While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake: The aged Earth, aghast With terror of that blast, Shall from the surface to the centre shake, When, at the world’s last sessiön, The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne.
II. And then at last our bliss Full and perfect is, But now begins; for from this happy day The Old Dragon under ground, In straiter limits bound, Not half so far casts his usurpèd sway,
And, wroth to see his Kingdom fail, Swindges the scaly horror of his folded tail.
IX. The Oracles are dumb; No voice or hideous hum Runs through the archèd roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, Will hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathèd spell, Inspires the pale-eyed Priest from the prophetic cell. XX. The lonely mountains o’er, And the resounding shore, A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; Edgèd with poplar pale, From haunted spring, and dale The parting Genius is with sighing sent; With flower-inwoven tresses torn The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
XI. In consecrated earth, And on the holy hearth, The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; In urns, and altars round, A drear and dying sound Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint; And the chill marble seems to sweat, While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.
II. Peor and Baälim Forsake their temples dim, With that twice-battered god of Palestine; And moonèd Ashtaroth, Heaven’s Queen and Mother both, Now sits not girt with tapers’ holy shine: The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn; In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.
II. And sullen Moloch, fled, Hath left in shadows dread His burning idol all of blackest hue; In vain with cymbals’ ring They call the grisly king, In dismal dance about the furnace blue; The brutish gods of Nile as fast, Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste.
IV. Nor is Osiris seen In Memphian grove or green, Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud; Nor can he be at rest Within his sacred chest; Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud; In vain, with timbreled anthems dark, The sable-stolèd Sorcerers bear his worshiped ark.
XV. He feels from Juda’s land The dreaded Infant’s hand; The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn; Nor all the gods beside Longer dare abide, Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, Can in his swaddling bands control the damnèd crew.
VI. So, when the Sun in bed, Curtained with cloudy red, Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, The flocking shadows pale Troop to the infernal jail, Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave, And the yellow-skirted Fays Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze.
II. But see! the Virgin blest Hath laid her Babe to rest, Time is our tedious song should here have ending: Heaven’s youngest-teemèd star Hath fixed her polished car, Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending; And all about the courtly stable Bright-harnessed Angels sit in order serviceable.'To the title of this Ode we have added the date, which is prefixed in the edition of 1645, 'Compos'd 1629', so that Milton was then 21 years old.
He speaks of this poem in the conclusion of his sixth elegy to Charles Deodati: and it was probably made as an exercise at Cambridge; and there is not only great learning shown in it, but likewise a fine vein of poetry.(From out his secret altar touch'd...):
Alluding to Isaiah VI. 6, 7. "Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said,
Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." In his Reason of Church Government our author has another beautiful allusion to the same passage,-- "that eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his Seraphim, with the hallow'd fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases." As Mr.
Pope's "Messiah" is formed upon passages taken from the prophet Isaiah, he very properly invocates the same divine Spirit.(Or e'er the point of dawn,...): 'Ere' with 'e'er' or 'ever' following is changed into 'or;' and there are frequent instances of it not only in all our old writers, but likewise in the English translation of the Bible.(But when of old the sons of morning sung...,):
As we read in
OB
II.7. "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."'(Swindges the scaly horror of his folded tail...):
These images are plainly copied from Spenser's description of the old dragon: and no wonder Milton was fond of it in his younger years, for he was still pleased with it when he was older, and had his eye upon it several times in Paradise Lost.(Apollo from his
Can no more divine, &c...):
Our author builds here upon the common hypothesis of the oracles being struck dumb at the coming of Christ, which is allowable enough in a young poet: and in this passage he alludes particularly to the famous story of Augustus Caesar's consulting the Pythia or priestess of Apollo who should reign after him, and her answering that an Hebrew boy had commanded her to leave that temple and return to Hell.
See Suidas in Augustus Caesar.(A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;...):
Alluding to the story of a voice proclaiming that the great Pan was dead, and immediately was heard a great groaning and lamentation.
Lars, and Lemures :
Household Gods and Night Spirits.
Flamens, priests. (With that twice batter'd God of Palestine;...):
Dagon, who was twice batter'd by Samson,
Judg.
VI. and by the ark of God,
I Sam.
V. Our author is larger in his account of these deities in the first book of the Paradise Lost.'~ Th.
Newton,
Milton's Works, 2nd edition, 1753.
