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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Light

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

II. Light: Day: Night

Light

John Milton (1608–1674)

From “Paradise Lost,” Book VII.

“LET there be light,” God said; and forthwith Light

Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,

Sprung from the deep; and from her native east

To journey through the aery gloom began,

Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the Sun

Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle

Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good;

And light from darkness by the hemisphere

Divided: light the Day, and darkness Night,

He named.