He then addresses him thus:—
O thou that with surpassing glory crowned,
Look’st from thy sole dominion like the god
Of this new World—at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads—to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.—iv. 32-39.
On another occasion:—
The golden Sun in splendour likest Heaven
Allured his eye.—iii. 572-73.
In describing the different periods of the day, Milton seldom fails to associate the Sun with these times, and rightly so, since they are brought about by the apparent diurnal journey of the orb across the heavens. Commencing with morning, he says:—
Meanwhile,
To re-salute the world with sacred light,
Leucothea waked, and with fresh dews embalmed
The Earth.—xi. 133-36.
Soon as they forth were come to open sight
Of day-spring, and the Sun—who, scarce up-risen,
With wheels yet hovering o’er the ocean-brim,
Shot parallel to the Earth his dewy ray,
Discovering in wide landskip all the east
Of Paradise and Eden’s happy plains.—v. 138-43
or some renowned metropolis
With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,
Which now the rising Sun gilds with his beams.—iii. 549-51.
while now the mounted Sun
Shot down direct his fervid rays, to warm
Earth’s inmost womb.—v. 300-302.
for scarce the Sun
Hath finished half his journey, and scarce begins
His other half in the great zone of Heaven.—v. 558-60.