Two Creation Passages in Paradise Lost

John Milton:

Creation Water?
As Conceived by
Terrance Lindall

Paradise Lost has two creation passages, both of which I'll post here for easy reference.

Here's the first creation passage in PL:

PL 1:17-26

And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread [ 20 ]
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence, [ 25 ]
And justifie the wayes of God to men.

Here is the second creation passage in PL:

7:232-242

Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound
Cover'd th' Abyss: but on the watrie calme
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspred, [ 235 ]
And vital vertue infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid Mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold Infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the rest to several place [ 240 ]
Disparted, and between spun out the Air,
And Earth self ballanc't on her Center hung.

There is much to say about these two passages, and of special interest to me are the lines with the term "brooding." Readers interested in this term can find an article of mine where much is said, even going back to antiquity.