13

Appendix 13

Some say, he bid his angels turn askance

The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and more

From the sun’s axle, they with labour pushed

Oblique the centric globe: some say, the sun

Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road . . .

. . . else had the spring

Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers

Equal in days and nights, except to those

Beyond the polar circles; to them day

Had unbenighted shone; while the low Sun

To recompense his distance, in their sight

Had rounded still the horizon, and not known

Of east or west; which had forbid the snow

From cold Estotiland, and south as far

Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit

The sun, as from Thyestean banquet, turn’d

His course intended; else how had the world

Inhabited, though sinless, more than now

Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?

MILTON, Paradise Lost, 10