Paradise Lost: The Arguments - WW Norton & Company

8 John Milton
And silent 3 as the moon,
When she deserts the night,
Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. 4
Since light so necessary is to life, 90
And almost life itself, if it be true
That light is in the soul,
She all in every part, 5 why was the sight
To such a tender ball as th’ eye confined,
So obvious 6 and so easy to be quenched, 95
And not, as feeling, through all parts diffused,
That she might look at will through every pore?
Then had I not been thus exiled from light,
As in the land of darkness, yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death, 100
And buried; but, O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulcher, a moving grave;
Buried, yet not exempt
By privilege of death and burial
From worst of other evils, pains, and wrongs; 105
But made hereby obnoxious 7 more
To all the miseries of life,
Life in captivity
Among inhuman foes.
But who are these? for with joint pace I hear 110
The tread of many feet steering this way;
Perhaps my enemies, who come to stare
At my affliction, and perhaps to insult,
Their daily practice to afflict me more.
chorus. This, this is he; softly a while; 115
Let us not break in upon him.
O change beyond report, thought, or belief !
See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused, 8
3. I.e., unperceived.
4. Ancient astronomers supposed that during its dark (“interlunar”) phase, the moon hid in a cave. “Vacant”:
i.e., where the moon is at ease (Latin vacare, whence modern “vacation”).
5. A famous formula of Plotinus (Ennead 4.2.1) describes the soul as “all in all and all in every part.”
6. Exposed.
7. Vulnerable, subject.
8. Literally, “poured forth,” sprawled.