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TWO of far nobler shape, erect and tall, | |
| Godlike erect, with native honor clad | |
| In naked majesty, seemed lords of all: | |
| And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine | |
| The image of their glorious Maker shone, | 5 |
| Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure, | |
| (Severe, but in true filial freedom placed,) | |
| Whence true authority in men; though both | |
| Not equal, as their sex not equal, seemed; | |
| For contemplation he and valor formed; | 10 |
| For softness she and sweet attractive grace; | |
| He for God only, she for God in him: | |
| His fair large front and eye sublime declared | |
| Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks | |
| Round from his parted forelock manly hung | 15 |
| Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad; | |
| She, as a veil, down to the slender waist | |
| Her unadornèd golden tresses wore | |
| Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved | |
| As the vine curls her tendrils; which implied | 20 |
| Subjection, but required with gentle sway, | |
| And by her yielded, by him best received, | |
| Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, | |
| And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay. * * * * * | |
| So passed they naked on, nor shunned the sight | 25 |
| Of God or angel; for they thought no ill: | |
| So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair, | |
| That ever since in love’s embraces met: | |
| Adam the goodliest man of men since born | |
| His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve. | 30 |
| Under a tuft of shade that on a green | |
| Stood whispering soft, by a fresh fountain side | |
| They sat them down: and, after no more toil | |
| Of their sweet gardening labor than sufficed | |
| To recommend cool Zephyr, and made ease | 35 |
| More easy, wholesome thirst and appetite | |
| More grateful, to their supper-fruits they fell, | |
| Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs | |
| Yielded them, sidelong as they sat recline | |
| On the soft downy banks damasked with flowers: | 40 |
| The savory pulp they chew, and in the rind, | |
| Still as they thirsted, scoop the brimming stream; | |
| Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing smiles | |
| Wanted, nor youthful dalliance, as beseems | |
| Fair couple, linked in happy nuptial league, | 45 |
| Alone as they. About them frisking played | |
| All beasts of the Earth, since wild, and of all chase | |
| In wood or wilderness, forest or den; | |
| Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw | |
| Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards, | 50 |
| Gambolled before them; the unwieldy elephant, | |
| To make them mirth, used all his might, and wreathed | |
| His lithe proboscis; close the serpent sly, | |
| Insinuating, wove with Gordian twine | |
| His braided train, and of his fatal guile | 55 |
| Gave proof unheeded; others on the grass | |
| Couched, and now filled with pasture gazing sat, | |
| Or bedward ruminating; for the Sun, | |
| Declined, was hastening now with prone career | |
| To the ocean isles, and in the ascending scale | 60 |
| Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose. | |
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