Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,

That with no middle flight intends to soar

Above th’ Aonian mount, while it pursues

Things unattempted yet, in prose or rhyme.

And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer

Before all temples, th’ upright heart and pure,

Instruct me, for Thou know’st: Thou, from the first

Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,

Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast abyss,

And mad’st it pregnant. What in me is dark