John Milton Night Quotations

When night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine

The sun to me is dark / And silent as the moon, / When she deserts the night / Hid in her vacant, interlunar cave.

Sweet the coming on / Of grateful evening mild; then silent night / With this her solemn bird and this fair moon, / And these the gems of heaven, her starry train.

Darkness now rose, as daylight sunk, and brought in low'ring Night her shadowy offspring.

Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still To give us only good; and if the night Have gathered aught of evil or concealed, Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.

Day and night, Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost Shall hold their course, till fire purge all things new.

And that must end us, that must be our cure: To be no more. Sad cure! For who would lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual being, Those thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish, rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night Devoid of sense and motion?

I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night, Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to reascend...

O shame to men! Devil with devil damned Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational, though under hope Of heavenly grace: and God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Wasting the earth, each other to destroy: As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enough besides, That day and night for his destruction wait.

And, when night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

Some say no evil thing that walks by night, In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine, Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.

Where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand; For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mast'ry.

How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence through the empty-vaulted night, At every fall smoothing the raven down Of darkness till it smiled!

The sun to me is dark And silent as the moon, When she deserts the night Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.

But oh! as to embrace me she inclin'd, I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.

By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes.

A crown Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns, Bring dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights To him who wears the regal diadem

But peaceful was the night Wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began.

The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, For each seem'd either,--black it stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand.

Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, If better thou belong not to the dawn.

Sable-vested Night, eldest of things.

God has set labor and rest, as day and night to men successive.

A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond / Frightened the reign of Chaos and old Night.

To hear the lark begin his flight, And singing startle the dull Night, From his watch-tower in the skies, Till the dappled dawn doth rise.

Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

By night the Glass Of Galileo ... observes Imagin'd Land and Regions in the Moon.

All but the wakeful nightingale; / She all night long her amorous descant sung.

A boundless continent, Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of night Starless expos'd.

And God made two great lights, great for their use To man, the greater to have rule by day, The less by night...

What hath night to do with sleep?