I,
           WHO erewhile the happy Garden
              sung By one man's
                 disobedience
                    lost,
         now sing Recovered Paradise
               to all mankind,
        By one man's firm
            obedience fully
              tried Through all temptation,
         and the Tempter
              foiled In all his wiles,
           defeated and repulsed,
         And Eden
              raised in the waste Wilderness.

    Thou Spirit,
           who led'st
               this glorious Eremite Into
             the desert,
         his victorious field Against
               the spiritual foe,
           and brought'st him
              thence By proof
                   the undoubted Son
                 of God,
         inspire,
           As thou art wont,
         my prompted song,
           else mute,
         And bear through highth
              or depth of Nature's bounds,
           With prosperous wing full summed,
         to tell
               of deeds Above heroic,
           though in secret done,
         And unrecorded
              left through many an age:
        Worthy to
            have not
                remained so long unsung.

    Now had the great Proclaimer,
           with a voice More awful
               than the sound of trumpet,
         cried Repentance,
           and Heaven's kingdom nigh
               at hand To all baptized.

    To his great baptism
          flocked With awe
               the regions round,
           and with them
            came From Nazareth the son
                   of Joseph
                  deemed To the flood Jordan
          --came as then obscure,
           Unmarked,
         unknown.

    But him the Baptist
          soon Descried,
           divinely warned,
         and witness bore As
               to his worthier,
           and would have resigned To
               him his heavenly office.

  Nor was long His witness
          unconfirmed:
        on him baptized Heaven opened,
           and in likeness
               of a Dove
                   The Spirit descended,
      while the Father's
         voice From Heaven
              pronounced him his beloved Son.

    That heard the Adversary,
           who,
         roving still About the world,
        at that assembly
           famed Would not
              be last,
         and,
           with the voice
               divine Nigh thunder-struck,
         the exalted man
             to whom Such high attest
                was given a
             while surveyed With wonder;
        then,
           with envy fraught and rage,
         Flies to his place,
           nor rests,
      but in mid air
           To council
              summons all his mighty Peers,
            Within thick clouds
               and dark tenfold involved,
         A gloomy consistory;
        and them amidst,
           With looks aghast and sad,
         he thus bespake:-
        -

    "O ancient Powers of Air
           and this wide World
         (For much more willingly
             I mention Air,
           This our old conquest,
         than remember Hell,
           Our hated habitation),
          well ye
              know How many ages,
               as the years of men,
             This Universe we have possessed,
               and ruled In manner
                   at our
                will the affairs of Earth,
              Since Adam and his facile
                  consort Eve Lost Paradise,
               deceived by me,
             though since With dread attending
                 when that fatal wound Shall
                      be inflicted
                           by the seed
                               of Eve Upon my head.

    Long the decrees
           of Heaven Delay,
         for longest time to Him
            is short;
        And now,
           too soon for us,
         the circling hours This
             dreaded time
              have compassed,
           wherein we Must bide
               the stroke of
             that long-threatened wound
         (At least,
           if so we can,
         and by the head Broken
              be not
                 intended all our power To
                  be infringed,
           our freedom and our
            being In this fair empire
                  won of Earth and Air)
          --
          For this ill news
             I bring: The Woman's Seed,
               Destined to this,
             is late of woman born.

    His birth to our
          just fear
        gave no small cause;
           But his growth
              now to youth's full flower,
           displaying All virtue,
         grace and wisdom
              to achieve Things highest,
           greatest,
         multiplies my fear.

    Before him a great Prophet,
           to proclaim His coming,
         is sent harbinger,
           who all Invites,
         and in the consecrated
               stream Pretends
                  to wash off sin,
           and fit them so Purified
              to receive him pure,
         or rather To
              do him honour
                   as their King.

    All come,
           And he himself among them
            was baptized
          -- Not thence
              to be more pure,
           but to receive The testimony
               of Heaven,
         that who
             he is Thenceforth the nations
                may not doubt.

    I saw The Prophet
          do him reverence;