Season 3 Podcast 198 Milton's Paradise Lost, Bk VIII, Pt XVII, "The Story of Creation," Pt III
“The Story of Creation” Pt IV
As Adam ponders the questions—Who am I we? Who created me? Where did I come from? Why am I here on this earth?—the answer comes in a dream.
On a green shady Bank profuse of Flowers
Pensive I sat me down; there gentle sleep
First found me, and with soft oppression seis’d
My drowsed sense, untroubled, though I thought
I then was passing to my former state
Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:
When suddenly stood at my Head a dream,
Whose inward apparition gently moved
My Fancy to believe I yet had being,
And lived: One came, methought, of shape Divine,
And said, thy Mansion wants thee, Adam, rise,
First Man, of Men innumerable ordained
First Father, called by thee I come thy Guide
To the Garden of bliss, thy seat prepared.
So saying, by the hand he took me raised,
And over Fields and Waters, as in Aire
Smooth sliding without step, last led me up
A woodie Mountain; whose high top was plaine,
A Circuit wide, enclosed, with goodliest Trees
Planted, with Walks, and Bowers, that what I saw
Of Earth before scarse pleasant seemed. Each Tree
Load’n with fairest Fruit, that hung to the Eye
Tempting, stirred in me sudden appetite
To pluck and eat;
Adam woke from his dream and discovers the dream was real. He discovers himself standing in the presence of God.
Whereat I waked, and found
Before mine Eyes all real, as the dream
Had lively shadowed: Here had new begun
My wandering, had not he who was my Guide
Up hither, from among the Trees appeared,
Presence Divine. Rejoicing, but with aw
In adoration at his feet I fell
Submiss: he reared me, & Whom thou soughtst I am,
Said mildly, Author of all this thou seest
Above, or round about thee or beneath.
This Paradise I give thee, count it thine
To Till and keep, and of the Fruit to eat:
Adam is given charge of the Garden. In fact, he inherits the garden. He has access to every fruit for it is his; however, Adam is forbidden to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Of every Tree that in the Garden grows
Eat freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth:
But of the Tree whose operation brings
Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set
The Pledge of thy Obedience and thy Faith,
Amid the Garden by the Tree of Life,
Remember what I warn thee, shun to taste,
And shun the bitter consequence: for know,
The day thou eat’st thereof, my sole command
Transgrest, inevitably thou shalt dye;
From that day mortal, and this happy State
Shalt loose, expelled from hence into a World
Of woe and sorrow. Sternly he pronounced
The rigid interdiction, which resounds
Yet dreadful in mine ear, though in my choice
Not to incur; but soon his clear aspect
Returned and gracious purpose thus renewed.
Not only these fair bounds, but all the Earth
To thee and to thy Race I give; as Lords
Possess it, and all things that therein live,
Or live in Sea, or Aire, Beast, Fish, and Fowle.
God explains the curse that is placed upon the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The price is death and loss of happiness and loss of the garden. He shall be expelled from Eden and sent into a world of sorrow and woe. It was a dreadful curse; however, Adam soon forgot the horror and focused on the present. He was made Lord of the earth and everything in it. He was Lord of everything that lived in the Sea, on the land, or in the Air. Adam is commanded to name the animals.
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