Light

Hail holy light, ofspring of Heav'n first-born,     Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam     May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light,     And never but in unapproached light     Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee,     Bright effluence of bright essence increate.     Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal stream,     Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun,     Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice     Of God, as with a Mantle didst invest     The rising world of waters dark and deep,     Won from the void and formless infinite.     Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,     Escap't the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd     In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight     Through utter and through middle darkness borne     With other notes then to th' Orphean Lyre     I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,     Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down     The dark descent, and up to reascend,     Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,     And feel thy sovran vital Lamp; but thou     Revisit'st not these eyes, that rowle in vain     To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;     So thick a drop serene hath quencht thir Orbs,     Or dim suffusion veild. Yet not the more     Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt     Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill,     Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief     Thee Sion and the flowrie Brooks beneath     That wash thy hallowd feet, and warbling flow,     Nightly I visit: nor somtimes forget     Those other two equal'd with me in Fate,     So were I equal'd with them in renown.     Blind Thamyris and blind Maeonides,     And Tiresias and Phineus Prophets old.     Then feed on thoughts, that voluntarie move     Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful Bird     Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid     Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year     Seasons return, but not to me returns     Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn,     Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose,     Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;     But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark     Surrounds me, from the chearful waies of men     Cut off, and for the Book of knowledg fair     Presented with a Universal blanc     Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd,     And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out.     So much the rather thou Celestial light     Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers     Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence     Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell     Of things invisible to mortal sight.