66 Again God said, 'Let there be firmament "Amid the waters, and let it divide "The waters from the waters ;' and God made "In circuit to the uttermost convex "The earth was formed, but in the womb as yet "Of waters, embryon immature, involved, 66 Appeared not: over all the face of earth "Main ocean flowed, not idle; but, with warm 66 66 So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low "Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad, and deep Capacious bed of waters: thither they "Hasted with glad precipitance, uprolled, "As drops on dust conglobing from the dry; "Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct, "For haste; such flight the great command impressed "On the swift floods: as armies, at the call "Of trumpets (for of armies thou hast heard), 66 66 Troop to their standard; so the watery throng, Wave rolling after wave, where way they found, "If steep, with torrent rapture; if through plain, "Soft ebbing: nor withstood them rock or hill; 270 280 290 300 "But they, or under ground, or circuit wide "And saw that it was good: and said, 'Let the Earth "He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then "Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad "Her universal face with pleasant green; "Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowered, "Opening their various colours, and made gay 310 "Her bosom, smelling sweet: and, these scarce blown, "Forth flourished thick the clustering vine; forth crept 320 "The swelling gourd; up stood the corny reed "Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub, "And bush with frizzled hair implicit: last, 66 Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread "Their branches, hung with copious fruit, or gemmed "Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were crowned, "With tufts the valleys, and each fountain-side; "With borders long the rivers: that Earth now "Seemed like to Heaven, a seat where Gods might dwell, "Or wander with delight, and love to haunt "Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rained 66 Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground "None was; but from the Earth a dewy mist Again the Almighty spake, 'Let there be lights "High in the expanse of Heaven, to divide 330 340 "The day from night; and let them be for signs, 66 God saw, Surveying his great work, that it was good: "For of celestial bodies first the Sun, "A mighty sphere, he framed, unlightsome first, 66 Though of ethereal mould: then formed the Moon "Globose, and every magnitude of stars; "And sowed with stars the Heaven, thick as a field: 66 Of light by far the greater part he took, Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed "In the Sun's orb, made porous to receive 66 66 Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, "And hence the morning planet gilds her horns. 66 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, 66 Regent of day, and all the horizon round "Invested with bright rays, jocund to run "His longitude through Heaven's high road; the gray "Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced, 66 Shedding sweet influence: less bright the Moon, "But opposite in levelled West was set— "His mirror, with full face borrowing her light 66 From him; for other light she needed none "In that aspéct; and still that distance keeps 350 360 370 380 "Revolved on Heaven's great axle, and her reign "And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying, "And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill: "Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves "Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold; 66 'Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend "Moist nutriment; or, under rocks, their food "In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal “And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk, 66 Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, "Tempest the ocean: there leviathan, "Hugest of living creatures, on the deep "Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims, "And seems a moving land; and at his gills "Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea. "Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, 390 400 410 "Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg that, soon Bursting with kindly rapture, forth disclosed 66 "Their callow young; but feathered soon and fledge 420 66 They summed their pens; and, soaring the air sublime, "With clang despised 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, ranged in figure, wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth 66 "Their airy caravan, high over seas "Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing 66 Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane "Walked firm; the crested cock, whose clarion sounds "Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus "With fish replenished, and the air with fowl, 'Evening and morn solémnized 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, 66 Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked: 430 440 450 460 |