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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Adam and Eve

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

Descriptive Poems: II. Nature and Art

Adam and Eve

John Milton (1608–1674)

From “Paradise Lost,” Book IV.

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,

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;

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

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

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

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.

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

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:

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,

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,

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

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

Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose.