by PenultimateManStanding » Wed 03 Aug 2005, 22:52:15
This isn't haiku, but its poetry:
# 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,
# Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.
# At once, as far as Angels ken, he views
# The dismal situation waste and wild.
# A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,
# As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
# No light; but rather darkness visible
# Served only to discover sights of woe,
# Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
# And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
# That comes to all, but torture without end
# Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
# With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.
# Such place Eternal Justice has prepared
# For those rebellious; here their prison ordained
# In utter darkness, and their portion set,
# As far removed from God and light of Heaven
# As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole.
# There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed
# With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
# He soon discerns; and, weltering by his side,
# One next himself in power, and next in crime,
# Long after known in Palestine, and named
# Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,
# And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words
# Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:--
# "If thou beest he--but O how fallen! how changed
# From him who, in the happy realms of light
# Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
# Myriads, though bright!--if he whom mutual league,
# United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
# And hazard in the glorious enterprise
# Joined with me once, now misery hath joined
# In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest
# From what height fallen: so much the stronger proved
# He with his thunder; and till then who knew
# The force of those dire arms?
