purple flowed, Livelier than Meliboean, or the grain Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old In time of truce; Iris had dipt the woof. His starry helm unbuckled showed him prime In manhood where youth ended; by his side, As in a glistering zodiac, hung the sword, Satan’s dire dread, and in his hand the spear. Adam bowed low; he, kingly, from his state Inclined not, but his coming thus declared:
“Adam, Heaven’s high behest no preface needs: Sufficient that thy prayers are heard, and Death, Then due by sentence when thou didst transgress, Defeated of his seizure many days, Given thee of grace, wherein thou may’st repent, And one bad act with many deeds well done May’st cover. Well may then thy Lord, appeased, Redeem thee quite from Death’s rapacious claim; But longer in this Paradise to dwell Permits not: to remove thee I am come, And send thee from the garden forth, to till The ground whence thou wast taken, fitter soil.”
He added not; for Adam at the news Heart-strook with chilling gripe of sorrow stood, That all his senses bound; Eve, who unseen Yet all had heard, with audible lament Discovered soon the place of her retire:
“O unexpected stroke, worse than of Death! Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave Thee, native soil? these happy walks and shades, Fit haunt of Gods? where I had hope to spend, Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day That must be mortal to us both. O flowers, That never will in other climate grow, My early visitation, and my last At even, which I bred up with tender hand From the first opening bud, and gave ye names, Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount? Thee, lastly, nuptial bower, by me adorned With what to sight or smell was sweet, from thee How shall I part, and whither wander down Into a lower world, to this obscure And wild? How shall we breathe in other air Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits?”