Some gripping lines from Book I of Paradise Lost, a epic poem published in 1667 by John Milton, as Satan speaks to Beëlzebub, another rebel angel, after their fall from Heaven (emphasis mine):
Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,
Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who now is sov’reign can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best
Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell happy fields
Where joy forever dwells: hail horrors, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new possessor: one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same?
And what should I be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? …
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n. (i 242-63)
Milton declares his purpose as to “justify the ways of God to men.” Yet at the same time, one of his greatest achievements (aside from absolutely exquisite language and meter!) is in creating a Satan with such incredible strength of character. Here he boldly declares God his equal in reason, and superior only in brute force. He surveys Hell with resolution, and his words echo with raw ambition even his failure and consequent fall from Heaven cannot quench. He summons the other rebel angels in the hopes of regrouping and launching another assault – “Awaken, arise, or be forever fall’n” (i 330).
Here’s another passage from Satan (the rhythm was just so beautiful I couldn’t resist …):
There rest, if any rest can harbour there,
And reassembling our afflicted powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,
How overcome this dire calamity,
What reinforcement we may gain from hope,
If not what resolution from despair. (i 185-91)
Where Words Leave Off 