Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name If rightly thou art call'd, whose Voice divine Following, above th' Olympian Hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing. The meaning, not the Name, I call: for thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'st; but, Heavenlie borne, Before the Hills appeared, or Fountain flowed, Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse, Wisdom thy Sister, and with her didst play In presence of th' Almighty Father, pleas'd With thy Celestial Song. Up led by thee Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, An Earthlie Guest, and drawn Empyreal Air, Thy tempring: with like safetie guided down Return me to my Native Element: Lest from this flying Steed unrein'd, (as once Bellerophon, though from a lower Clime,) Dismounted, on th' Aleian Field I fall, Erroneous there to wander, and forlorne. Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound Within the visible Diurnal Spheare; Standing on Earth, not rapt above the Pole, More safe I Sing with mortal voice, unchanged To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues; In darkness, and with dangers compast round, And solitude; yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers Nightly, or when Morn Purples the East: still govern thou my Song, Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
—John Milton, from Paradise Lost, Book VII, ll. 1-31, in The Riverside Milton, pp. 537-538