Explanation:
“Thrice he assayed and thrice in spite of scorn,
Tears such as angels weep burst forth; at last
Words interwove with sighs found out their way.”
(Lines 619-621)

Answer: These lines have been taken from Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ Book-I, the great epic in English literature. The poet, here, describes how Satan makes three attempts to deliver a speech before the fallen angels but each time he has an emotional outburst of words intermingled with tears and sighs.

The fallen angels have gathered in a semi-circle to listen to their great leader Satan at whose call their spirits have revived. No sooner does Satan stand up to speak to them than they become mute with reverence. Satan surveys his fallen comrades three times successively and is touched with a feeling of sympathy for them. Their ruined condition fills his heart with pity. He is a stout-hearted and arrogant spirit, yet his eyes are welled up with tears, and in spite of disliking such an expression on his face, he gives way to angelic weeping. He starts his speech but his words get intermingled with sighs.

These lines indicate that the hardening of Satan’s heart is not yet complete. Satan’s pity for the misery he has brought on his followers is one of the most touching in Milton’s presentation of him as a tragic character. It recalls some of Macbeth’s reactions to his own guilt. The tears which he now sheds crown the passage, bringing in the association of pure compassion that heavenly beings were imagined to feel for human beings.