| HAIL holy light, ofspring of Heav'n first-born, | |
| Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam | |
| May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light, | |
| And never but in unapproachèd light | |
| Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, | 5 |
| Bright effluence of bright essence increate. | |
| Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal stream, | |
| Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun, | |
| Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice | |
| Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest | 10 |
| The rising world of waters dark and deep, | |
| Won from the void and formless infinite. | |
| Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing, | |
| Escap't the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd | |
| In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight | 15 |
| Through utter and through middle darkness borne | |
| With other notes then to th' Orphean Lyre | |
| I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night, | |
| Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down | |
| The dark descent, and up to reascend, | 20 |
| Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe, | |
| And feel thy sovran vital Lamp; but thou | |
| Revisit'st not these eyes, that rowle in vain | |
| To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; | |
| So thick a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs, | 25 |
| Or dim suffusion veild. Yet not the more | |
| Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt | |
| Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill, | |
| Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief | |
| Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath | 30 |
| That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow, | |
| Nightly I visit: nor somtimes forget | |
| Those other two equal'd with me in Fate, | |
| So were I equal'd with them in renown. | |
| Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides, | 35 |
| And Tiresias and Phineus Prophets old. | |
| Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move | |
| Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird | |
| Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid | |
| Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year | 40 |
| Seasons return, but not to me returns | |
| Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn, | |
| Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose, | |
| Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; | |
| But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark | 45 |
| Surrounds me, from the chearful waies of men | |
| Cut off, and for the Book of knowledg fair | |
| Presented with a Universal blanc | |
| Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd, | |
| And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out. | 50 |
| So much the rather thou Celestial light | |
| Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers | |
| Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence | |
| Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell | |
| Of things invisible to mortal sight. | 55 |
