...not; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake, My tongue obeyed and readily could name Wnate'er I saw. Thou sun, said I, fair light, And thou enlightened...that live and move, fair creatures, tell, Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here? Not of myself; by some great maker then, In goodness and in power...

...important source of his own birth. In a sweeping gesture he enlists "thou enlightened earth . . . / Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains, / And ye that live and move"—in short, all the "fair creatures"—to tell him "how came I thus, how here?" (274-77), thinking...

...I turned And gazed a while the ample sky, till raised By quick instinctive motion up I sprung . . . "Thou Sun," said I, "fair light, And thou enlightened...that live and move, fair creatures, tell, Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here? 10 Not of myself: by some great Maker, then, In goodness and in...

...supernatural illumination. Adam's apostrophe to the sun, Thou Sun, said I, fair Light, And thou enlight'n'd Earth, so fresh and gay, Ye Hills and Dales, ye Rivers,...that live and move, fair Creatures, tell, Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here? Not of myself; by some great Maker then, In goodness and in power...

...tried to talk to the first interlocutor he found: Thou Sun, said I, faire Light, And thou enlight'nd Earth, so fresh and gay, Ye Hills and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plaines, And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell. Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here?...