The Poetical Works of John Milton


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Those Tents thou sawst so pleasant, were the Tents  
Of wickedness, wherein shall dwell his Race  
Who slew his Brother; studious they appere  
Of Arts that polish Life, Inventers rare,  
Unmindful of thir Maker, though his Spirit  
Taught them, but they his gifts acknowledg'd none.  
Yet they a beauteous ofspring shall beget;  
For that fair femal Troop thou sawst, that seemd  
Of Goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay,  
Yet empty of all good wherein consists  
610  
Womans domestic honour and chief praise;  
Bred onely and completed to the taste  
Of lustful apperence, to sing, to dance,  
To dress, and troule the Tongue, and roule the Eye.  
To these that sober Race of Men, whose lives  
Religious titl'd them the Sons of God,  
Shall yeild up all thir vertue, all thir fame  
Ignobly, to the trains and to the smiles  
620  
Of these fair Atheists, and now swim in joy,  
(
Erelong to swim at larg) and laugh; for which  
The world erelong a world of tears must weepe.  
To whom thus Adam of short joy bereft.  
O pittie and shame, that they who to live well  
Enterd so faire, should turn aside to tread  
Paths indirect, or in the mid way faint!  
But still I see the tenor of Mans woe  
589  


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587 588 589 590 591

Quick Jump
1 198 395 593 790