Poem 5

So spake the Eternal Father, and fulfilled All justice; nor delayed the winged Saint After his charge received; but from among Thousand celestial Ardours, where he stood Veiled with his gorgeous wings, upspringing light, Flew through the midst of Heaven; the angelic choirs, On each hand parting, to his speed gave way Through all the empyreal road, till, at the gate Of Heaven arrived, the gate self-opened wide, On golden hinges turning, as by work Divine the sovereign Architect had framed. From hence⁠—no cloud or, to obstruct his sight, Star interposed, however small⁠—he sees, Not unconform to other shining globes, Earth, and the Garden of God, with cedars crowned Above all hills; as when by night the glass Of Galileo, less assured, observes Imagined lands and regions in the moon; Or pilot from amidst the Cyclades Delos or Samos first appearing kens, A cloudy spot. Down thither prone in flight He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing Now on the polar winds; then with quick fan Winnows the buxom air, till, within soar Of towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems A phoenix⁠—gazed by all, as that sole bird, When, to enshrine his relics in the Sun’s Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies. At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise He lights, and to his proper shape returns, A Seraph winged. Six wings he wore, to shade His lineaments divine: the pair that clad Each shoulder broad came mantling o’er his breast With regal ornament; the middle pair Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold And colours dipt in heaven; the third his feet Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail, Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia’s son he stood, And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled The circuit wide. Straight knew him all the bands Of Angels under watch; and to his state And to his message high in honour rise; For on some message high they