Diastic Reading

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Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
    Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
    Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
    With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
    Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
    Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
    Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
    That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
    In the beginning how the heavens and earth
    Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
    Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed
    Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
    Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
    That with no middle flight intends to soar
    Above th’ Aonian mount, while it pursues
    Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
    And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
    Before all temples th’ upright heart and pure,
    Instruct me, for thou know’st; thou from the first
    Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
    Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast Abyss,
    And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark
    Illumine, what is low raise and support;
    That, to the height of this great argument,
    I may assert Eternal Providence,
    And justify the ways of God to men.
    Say first—for Heaven hides nothing from thy view,
    Nor the deep tract of Hell—say first what cause
    Moved our grand parents, in that happy state,
    Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off
    From their Creator, and transgress his will
    For one restraint, lords of the World besides.
    Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
    Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile,
    Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
    The mother of mankind, what time his pride
    Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
    Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
    To set himself in glory above his peers,
    He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
    If he opposed, and with ambitious aim
    Against the throne and monarchy of God,
    Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,
    With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
    Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky,
    With hideous ruin and combustion, down
    To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
    In adamantine chains and penal fire,

Jackson Mac Low's Diastic reading

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