DESCEND from Heav'n Urania, by that name

If rightly thou art call'd, whose Voice divine

Following, above th' Olympian Hill I soare,

Above the flight of Pegasean wing.

The meaning, not the Name I call: for thou

Nor the Muses nine, nor on top

Of old Olympus dwell'st, but Heav'nlie borne,

Before the Hills appeared, or Fountain flow'd,

Thou with Eternal wisdom didst converse,

Wisdom thy Sister, and with her didst play

In presence of th' Almightie Father, pleas'd

With thy Celestial Song. Up led by thee

Into Heav'n of Heav'ns I have presum'd,

An Earthlie Guest, and drawn Empyreal Aire,

Thy tempring; with like safetie guided down

Return me to my Native Element:

Least from this flying Steed unrein'd, (as once

Bellerophon, though from a lower Clime)

Dismounted, on the Aleian Field I fall

Erroneous, there to wander and forelorn.

Half yet remaines unsung, but narrower bound

Within the visible Diurnal Spheare;

Standing on Earth, not rapt above the Pole,

More safe I Sing with mortal voice, unchang'd

To hoarce or mute, though fall'n on evil tongues;

In darkness, and with dangers compast round,

And solitude, yet not alone, while thou

Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when Morn

Purples in the East: still govern thou my Song,

Urania, and fit audience find, though few.

But drive farr off the barbarous dissonance

of Bacchus and his Revellers, the Race

Of that wilde Rout that tore the Thracian Bard

In Rhodope, where the Weeds and Rocks had Eares

To rapture, till the savage clamor dround

Both Harp and Voice; nor could the Muse defend

Her Son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:

For thou art Heav'nlie, shee an empty dreame.

-Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VII