To illuminate the Earth and rule the day In their vicissitude, and rule the night, And light from darkness to divide. God saw, Surveying his great work, that it was good: For of celestial bodies first the sun
A mighty sphere he fram'd, unlightsome first, Though of ethereal mould: then form'd the moon Globose, and every magnitude of stars,
And sow'd with stars the Heaven, thick as a field: Of light by far the greater part he took, Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and plac'd In the sun's orb, made porous to receive And drink the liquid light; firm to retain Her gather'd beams, great palace now of light. 7 Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, And hence the morning-planet gilds her horns; By tincture or reflection they augment Their small peculiar, though from human sight So far remote, with diminution seen.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, Regent of day, and all the horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through Heaven's high road; the
Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danc'd
Shedding sweet influence: Less bright the moon But opposite in levell'd west was set,
His mirrour, with full face borrowing her light From him; for other light she needed none In that aspect, and still that distance keeps Till night; then in the east her turn she shines, Revolv'd on Heaven's great axle; and her reign With thousand lesser lights dividual holds, With thousand thousand stars, that then appear'd Spangling the hemisphere: Then first adorn'd With their bright luminaries that set and rose, Glad evening and glad morn crown'd the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters generate Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul: And let fowl fly above the Earth, with wings Display'd on the open firmament of Heaven. And God created the great whales, and each Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously The waters generated by their kinds ; And every bird of wing after his kind;
And saw that it was good, and bless'd them, saying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,
And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill; And let the fowl be multiplied, on the Earth. Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales, Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft Bank the mid sea: part single, or with mate, Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves
Of coral stray; or, sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold; Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend
Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food In jointed armour watch: on smooth the sealy And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk Wallowing unwieldly, enormous in their gait, Tempest the ocean: there leviathan Hugest of living creatures, on the deep Stretch'd like a promontory sleeps or swims, And seems a moving land; and at his gills Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sèa. Mean while the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg that
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos'd
Their callow young; but feather'd soon and fledge They summ'd their pens; and soaring the air sub✩ lime,
With clang despis'd the ground, under a cloud In prospect; there the eagle and the stork On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build: Part loosely wing the region, part more wise In common, rang'd in figure, wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
Their aery caravan, high over seas
Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing
Easing their flight: so steers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air Floats as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes: From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solae'd the woods, and spread their painted wings Till even: nor then the solemn nightingale Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays: Others,, on silver lakes and rivers,, bath'd Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck, Between her white wings mantling proudly,, rows Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons tower The mid aëreal sky:: Others on ground:
Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds The silent hours, and the other whose gay train. Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl, Evening and morn solemniz'd the fifth day.
The sixth, and of creation last, arose
With evening harps and matin; when God said, Let the Earth bring forth soul living in her kind, Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the Earth, Each in their kind. The Earth obey'd, and straight Opening her fertile womb teem'd at a birth Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms, Limb'd and full grown: Out of the ground up rose, As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walk'd: The cattle in the fields and meadows green: Those rare and solitary, these in flocks Pasturing at once, and in broad herds up-sprung. The grassy clods now calv'd; now half appear'd The tawny lion, pawing to get free
His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce, The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw In hillocks: The swift stag from under ground Bore up his branching head: Scarce from his mould Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd
His vastness: Fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose, As plants: Ambiguous between sea and land The river-horse, and scaly crocodile.
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, Insect or worm: those wav'd their limber fans For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride
With spots of gold and purple, azure and green: These, as a line, their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all Minims of nature; some of serpent-kind, Wonderous in length and corpulence, involv'd Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept The parsimonious emmet, provident
Of future ; .in small room large heart enclos'd;
« AnteriorContinuar » |