Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy And rapture so oft beheld? Those Heavenly shapes Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze Insufferably bright. Oh, might I here In solitude live savage, in some glade Obscured, where highest winds, impenetrable To star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad, And brown as evening! Cover me, ye pines! Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs Hide me, where I may never see them more!"
Then they cower in the woods, and clothe themselves with leaves.
Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind They sat them down to weep.
But passion also took possession of them, and they began to taunt each other with recriminations. Adam, with estranged look, exclaimed:
"Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and stayed With me, as I besought thee, when that strange Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn, I know not whence possessed thee! We had then Remained still happy!"
Eve retorts:
"Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me."
Then Adam:
"What could I more? I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold The danger, and the lurking enemy That lay in wait; beyond this had been force."
Thus they in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning; And of their vain contest appeared no end.