Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IV. The Higher Life. 1904. | | | | V. Selections from “Paradise Lost” | | Eve’s Lament | | John Milton (1608–1674) |
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O UNEXPECTED stroke, worse than of death! | |
| Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave | |
| Thee, native soil! these happy walks and shades, | |
| Fit haunt of gods; where I had hope to spend, | |
| Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day | 5 |
| That must be mortal to us both? O flowers, | |
| That never will in other climate grow, | |
| My early visitation, and my last | |
| At even, which I bred up with tender hand | |
| From the first opening bud, and gave ye names! | 10 |
| Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank | |
| Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount? | |
| Thee, lastly, nuptial bower! by me adorned | |
| With what to sight or smell was sweet, from thee | |
| How shall I part, and whither wander down | 15 |
| Into a lower world, to this obscure | |
| And wild? how shall we breathe in other air | |
| Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits? | | | | |
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