literary passport

paradise lost #22

Now conscience wakes despair
That slumbered, wakes the bitter memorie
Of what he was, what is, and what must be
Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.

Satan has found out where Paradise is and is winging his way to our destruction as Book IV opens. Is he a happy traveler in bringing us our doom and his vengeance upon the creator? No, Milton won’t have that at all.

paradise lost #21

Glad was the Spirit impure as now in hope
To find who might direct his wandering flight
To Paradise the happie seat of Man,
His journies end and our beginning woe.

Satan has made it through chaos and night, glimpsed the gate of heaven and taken a walk on the sun, but he’s still lost. Mankind, even when he was in Paradise, is the tiniest speck in the vast unknown of the created and chaos.