John Milton
From “Paradise Lost”
So farewell hope, and with hope
farewell fear,
Farewell remorse; all good to me is lost.
Evil, be thou my good.
The mind is its own place, and
in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a
hell of heav'n.
For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.
O fairest of creation! last and best
Of all God's works! creature in whom excelled
Whatever can to sight or thought be formed,
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!
How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,
Defaced, deflowered, and now to Death devote?
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.