My fancy to believe I yet had being,

And lived: One came, methought, of shape divine,

And said, ‘Thy mansion wants thee, Adam; rise,

First Man, of men innumerable ordained

First Father! called by thee, I come thy guide

To the garden of bliss, thy seat prepared.’

So saying, by the hand he took me raised,

And over fields and waters, as in air

Smooth-sliding without step, last led me up

A woody mountain; whose high top was plain,

A circuit wide, enclosed, with goodliest trees

Planted, with walks, and bowers; that what I saw

Of Earth before scarce pleasant seemed. Each tree,

Loaden with fairest fruit that hung to the eye

Tempting, stirred in me sudden appetite

To pluck and eat; whereat I waked, and found

Before mine eyes all real, as the dream

Had lively shadowed: Here had new begun

My wandering, had not he, who was my guide

Up hither, from among the trees appeared,

Presence Divine. Rejoicing, but with awe,

In adoration at his feet I fell

Submiss: He reared me, and ‘Whom thou soughtest I am,’

Said mildly, ‘Author of all this thou seest

Above, or round about thee, or beneath.

This Paradise I give thee, count it thine

To till and keep, and of the fruit to eat:

Of every tree that in the garden grows

Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth:

But of the tree whose operation brings

Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set

The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith,

Amid the garden by the tree of life,

Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,

And shun the bitter consequence: for know,

The day thou eatest thereof, my sole command

Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die,

From that day mortal; and this happy state

Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world

Of woe and sorrow.’ Sternly he pronounced

The rigid interdiction, which resounds

Yet dreadful in mine ear, though in my choice

Not to incur; but soon his clear aspect

Returned, and gracious purpose thus renewed.

‘Not only these fair bounds, but all the Earth

To thee and to thy race I give; as lords

Possess it, and all things that therein live,

Or live in sea, or air; beast, fish, and fowl.

In sign whereof, each bird and beast behold

After their kinds; I bring them to receive

From thee their names, and pay thee fealty

With low subjection; understand the same

Of fish within their watery residence,

Not hither summoned, since they cannot change

Their element, to draw the thinner air.’

As thus he spake, each bird and beast behold

Approaching two and two; these cowering low

With blandishment; each bird stooped on his wing.

I named them, as they passed, and understood

Their nature, with such knowledge God endued

My sudden apprehension: But in these

I found not what methought I wanted still;

And to the heavenly Vision thus presumed.

‘O, by what name, for thou above all these,