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NO MORE OF TALK.....DEATH’S HARBINGER (LINES 1-13)
The opening lines of Book IX of Paradise Lost forewarn the reader of the tragedy that is to befall Man. The Paradisiac existence of man’s first parents is now about to come to an end. The poet wistfully recalls the time when Adam used to live on terms of equality with heavenly beings. God or angels like Raphael used to sit in the company of man as his guests and friends. They shared with him the simple hospitality of Paradise and partook of the rural food he could provide them over cordial talks and blameless discourse. Adam often had talks with Raphael regarding the movement of heavenly bodies and such other things. All that is now a thing of the past and the poet must now change his tone from pastoral and idyllic to tragic, and narrate the story of the Fall of Man.
Milton then, hints clearly at the theme of Book IX. At the instance of Satan in the form of the infernal serpent, Man is soon to become guilty of the foulest disloyalty and betrayal towards God by disobeying his command not to taste the forbidden fruit. Like Satan, mankind is also to revolt against good, and God on his part will withdraw his favors from man, no longer looking on them with an eye of unmixed benevolence. Man’s sin will receive due punishment and Man and God are to be alienated. God’s wrath is to fall on mankind and they are to be deprived of the blissful scat of heaven and instead become prey to Misery, Death and Sorrow.