Saturday, June 02, 2007
(reading) from John Milton's Paradise Lost --actually, putting on, playing, the part of what Milton's first readers must have done, skimming for the very most scandalous, juicy parts : ) *
. . . To satisfy the sharp desire I had Of tasting those fair apples, I resolved Not to defer: hunger and thirst at once, Powerful persuaders, quickened at the scent Of that alluring fruit, urged me so keen. About the mossy trunk I wound me soon, For high from ground, the branches would require Thy utmost reach, or Adam's: round the tree All other beasts that saw, with like desire Longing and envying stood, but could not reach. Amid the tree now got, where plenty hung Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill I spared not; for such pleasure till that hour At feed or fountain never had I found. Sated at length ere long I might perceive Strange alteration in me, to degree Of reason in my inward powers, and speech Wanted not long, though to this shape retained.
(Book 9, 584-601)
* in Norton Anth of Poetry, ed. Margaret Ferguson et al (New York, 2005) 438.
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