_From the heavens_ now I fly, And those happy climes that lie Where day never shuts his eye, Up in the broad _field_ of the sky. There I suck the liquid air All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his daughters three That sing about the golden tree. There eternal summer dwells, And west winds, with musky wing, About the cedarn alleys fling Nard and cassia's balmy smells. Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can show, _Yellow, watchet, green, and blue_, And drenches oft with _Manna_ dew Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where _many a cherub soft_ reposes. Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the mask. 976. ~To the ocean~, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the _Tempest_, v. 1. 88-94, has been frequently pointed out: "Where the bee sucks, there suck I," etc. Compare also the song of Johphiel in _The Fortunate Isles_ (Ben Jonson): "Like a lightning from the sky," etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll. 1012-1023) may also be compared with the epilogue of the _Tempest_: "Now my charms are all o'erthrown," etc. 977. ~happy climes~. Comp. _Odyssey_, iv. 566: "The deathless gods will convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end ... where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain; but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill west to blow cool on men": see also l. 14. 'Clime,' radically the same as _climate_, is still used in its literal sense = a region of the earth; while 'climate' has the secondary meaning of 'atmospheric conditions.' Comp. _Son._ viii. 8: "Whatever _clime_ the sun's bright circle warms." 978. ~day ... eye~. Comp. _Son._ i. 5: "the _eye_ of day"; and _Lyc._ 26: "the opening _eyelids_ of the Morn." 979. ~broad fields of the sky~. Comp. Virgil's "_Aëris in campis latis_," _Aen._ vi. 888. 980. ~suck the liquid air~, inhale the pure air. 'Liquid' (lit. flowing) is used figuratively and generally in the sense of pure and sweet: comp. _Son._ i. 5, "thy liquid notes." 981. ~All amidst~. For this adverbial use of _all_ (here modifying the following prepositional phrase), compare _Il Pens._ 33, "_all_ in a robe of darkest grain." 982. ~Hesperus~: see note, l. 393. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had three daughters--Aegle, Cynthia, and Hesperia. They were famed for their sweet song. In Milton's MS. _Hesperus_ is written over _Atlas_: Spenser makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_.