Paradise Lost, Book 1 Opening

¹Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit

²Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste

³Brought death into the World, and all our woe,

⁴With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

⁵Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,

⁶Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top

⁷Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

⁸That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed

⁹In the beginning how the heavens and earth

¹⁰Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill

¹¹Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed

¹²Fast by the oracle of God, I thence

¹³Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,

¹⁴That with no middle flight intends to soar

¹⁵Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues

¹⁶Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

¹⁷And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer

¹⁸Before all temples the upright heart and pure,

¹⁹Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first

²⁰Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,

²¹Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss,

²²And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark

²³Illumine, what is low raise and support;

²⁴That, to the height of this great argument,

²⁵I may assert Eternal Providence,

²⁶And justify the ways of God to men.