Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume II. Love. 1904. | | | | VIII. Wedded Love | | Adam to Eve | | John Milton (1608–1674) |
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O FAIREST of creation, last and best | |
| Of all God’s works, creature in whom excelled | |
| Whatever can to sight or thought be formed, | |
| Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet! | |
| How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost, | 5 |
| Defaced, deflowered, and now to death devote! | |
| Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress | |
| The strict forbiddance, how to violate | |
| The sacred fruit forbidden! Some cursèd fraud | |
| Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown, | 10 |
| And me with thee hath ruined, for with thee | |
| Certain my resolution is to die. | |
| How can I live without thee, how forego | |
| Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined, | |
| To live again in these wild woods forlorn? | 15 |
| Should God create another Eve, and I | |
| Another rib afford, yet loss of thee | |
| Would never from my heart; no, no, I feel | |
| The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh, | |
| Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state | 20 |
| Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe. * * * * * | |
| However, I with thee have fixed my lot, | |
| Certain to undergo like doom; if death | |
| Consort with thee, death is to me as life; | |
| So forcible within my heart I feel | 25 |
| The bond of nature draw me to my own, | |
| My own in thee, for what thou art is mine; | |
| Our state cannot be severed, we are one, | |
| One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself. | | | | |
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