Careful Words

chaos (n.)

Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds:

At which the universal host up sent

A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond

Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 540.

For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,

And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Venus and Adonis. Line 1019.

Where eldest Night

And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold

Eternal anarchy amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand;

For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,

Strive here for mast'ry.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 894.

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,

But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,

Chaos is come again.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Religion blushing, veils her sacred fires,

And unawares Morality expires.

Nor public flame nor private dares to shine;

Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!

Lo! thy dread empire Chaos is restor'd,

Light dies before thy uncreating word;

Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall,

And universal darkness buries all.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Dunciad. Book iv. Line 649.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;

Still by himself abused or disabused;

Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,—

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 13.

Not chaos-like together crush'd and bruis'd,

But as the world, harmoniously confus'd,

Where order in variety we see,

And where, though all things differ, all agree.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Windsor Forest. Line 13.