...difficult to assimilate. 'The void and formltss infinite In Paradite Lost, the poet John Milton wrote: The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. So much the rather thou, celestial Light, Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate,...

...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...from the void and formless infinite. Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing, Escap't the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd GOD In that obscure sojourn, while...

...dark air of the interior) "Sphear'd in a radiant Cloud." But in 3.10-1 1, we have been told that Light "as with a Mantle didst invest / The rising World of waters dark and deep"; and in that place World cannot be synonymous with Earth. When the poet commenced Book 3 he had not...

...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...and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite *. But to prove that they were not appropriated to the ritual of fire-worship, nay, that their history...

...mantles on our words because / The same wind, rising and rising": echoing Milton's creation story, ". . . at the voice of God, as with a mantle, didst invest / The rising world of water dark and deep" (PL III.9-1 1). Song of Fixed Accord Ibid.; CP 5 19-20, LOA 441. A charming evocation...