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

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

VIII. Wedded Love

Adam Describing Eve

John Milton (1608–1674)

From “Paradise Lost,” Book VIII.

MINE eyes he closed, but open left the cell

Of fancy, my internal sight, by which

Abstract, as in a trance, methought I saw,

Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape

Still glorious before whom awake I stood;

Who, stooping, opened my left side, and took

From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,

And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound,

But suddenly with flesh filled up and healed:

The rib he formed and fashioned with his hands;

Under his forming hands a creature grew,

Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair,

That what seemed fair in all the world seemed now

Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained,

And in her looks, which from that time infused

Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before,

And into all things from her air inspired

The spirit of love and amorous delight.

She disappeared, and left me dark; I waked

To find her, or forever to deplore

Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:

When out of hope, behold her, not far off,

Such as I saw her in my dream, adorned

With what all earth or Heaven could bestow

To make her amiable. On she came,

Led by her heavenly Maker, though unseen,

And guided by his voice, nor uninformed

Of nuptial sanctity and marriage rites:

Grace was in all her steps, Heaven in her eye,

In every gesture dignity and love.

I, overjoyed, could not forbear aloud:

“This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfilled

Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,

Giver of all things fair, but fairest this

Of all thy gifts, nor enviest. I now see

Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself

Before me; Woman is her name, of man

Extracted: for this cause he shall forego

Father and mother, and to his wife adhere;

And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.”

She heard me thus, and though divinely brought,

Yet innocence and virgin modesty,

Her virtue and the conscience of her worth,

That would be wooed, and not unsought be won,

Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired,

The more desirable; or, to say all,

Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought,

Wrought in her so, that, seeing me, she turned;

I followed her; she what was honor knew,

And with obsequious majesty approved

My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower

I led her blushing like the morn: all Heaven,

And happy constellations on that hour

Shed their selectest influence; the earth

Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;

Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs

Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings

Flung rose, flung odors from the spicy shrub,

Disporting, till the amorous bird of night

Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star

On his hill-top, to light the bridal lamp.

*****
When I approach

Her loveliness, so absolute she seems,

And in herself complete, so well to know

Her own, that what she wills to do or say

Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best;

All higher knowledge in her presence falls

Degraded, wisdom in discourse with her

Loses discountenanced, and like folly shows;

Authority and reason on her wait,

As one intended first, not after made

Occasionally; and, to consummate all,

Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat

Build in her loveliest, and create an awe

About her, as a guard angelic placed,

*****

Neither her outside formed so fair, nor aught

*****

So much delights me, as those graceful acts,

Those thousand decencies that daily flow

From all her words and actions, mixed with love

And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned

Union of mind, or in us both one soul;

Harmony to behold in wedded pair

More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.