Classic Poem

Then the Lord God spoke and said unto Noah:
" With a great flood I will destroy this folk
And every kind of living creature
That fill the sky and swim the sea,
Birds of air, and beasts of the field.
But thou shalt be saved, and thy sons also,
When the dark waters, the destroying deep,
Shall swallow the hosts of sinful men.
" Begin to build thee a ship, a mighty wave-house;
Make room for many and a rightful place
For every creature, each after its kind.
Build floors in the ark's bosom;
Fashion it well fifty ells wide,
Thirty ells high, three hundred ells long,
And fasten it firm against the flood.
Within it lead offspring of all that live,
Seed of all flesh, and the ark shall hold them. " . . .
After many winters All-Wielding God
Saw the greatest of sea-houses towering high,
Noah's vessel well fastened within and without,
And preserved with pitch against the flood.
It was best of all ships, a special kind
Growing more safe as the breaking seas
And black sea-streams beat up against it. . . .
And Noah embarked boarding the wave-ship
As God gave bidding, leading his sons
And their wives with them; and all God willed
To preserve for seed went into the ark
As the Almighty had given command.
There behind them the Warden of heaven,
The Lord of victory, locked the door
Of the ocean-house with His own hands,
And with His blessing the Lord God blessed
All in the ark. Now the son of Lamech,
Old and wise, had six hundred winters
When he boarded the ark with dear ones and sons.
Then the Lord unloosed the rain from the heavens,
Let roaring torrents and rushing streams
From every channel overflow the world.
Over the shore's barrier the sea surged up;
Strong was He and stern Who ruled the waters!
The dark flood covered the children of evil,
Laid waste their realm and their native land.
God visited their sins on the sons of men!
For forty days and forty nights
The sea laid hold on that fated folk.
Fierce the affliction and deadly to men;
The stormy surges of the King of glory
Snatched life from body of those sinful men.
The raging flood, heaving beneath the heavens
Covered high hills throughout the wide world,
On its bosom uplifted the ark from the earth
And all living things which the Lord had blessed
When He locked behind them the door of the ship.
Then over the deep, under the heavens,
That best of dwellings and the burden it bore
Were driven afar. No watery terror
Could touch those sailors for Holy God
Saved them and ferried them. Fifteen ells deep
Over the hills lay the heaving flood.
'Twas a fearful fate! . . .
Then after long days the son of Lamech
From the ark let fly a black-feathered raven
Over the steep flood. Noah counted it sure,
If in its flight it could find no land,
The raven would return unto the ark
Over the wide waters. But Noah's hope failed!
The foul one perched on the floating corpses;
The dusky-feathered would not return.
Then seven days after the dark raven,
He let a gray dove over the deep
Fly from the ark to try if the flood
Had ebbed from the ground of the green earth.
Widely she sought her desire circling afar
But nowhere found rest. Because of the flood
She could find no land with her feet,
Nor light on a leaf of any tree
Because of the sea-streams. The steep hills
Were covered with water. The wild bird
Flew back at evening over the dusky waves
Unto the ark settling weary,
And hungry, into the hand of that holy man.
And again after seven days a second wild dove
Was sent from the ark. She flew afar,
Exulting in flight, till she found a perch
And resting place in a tree. She was happy-hearted
That weary of wing she could sit on the shining boughs.
She shook her feathers and flew back with her gift,
To Noah's hand bringing a twig of an olive tree,
With leaves growing green. The lord of the shipmen knew
That comfort at last was come, requital for danger and toil.
And after a third week Noah sent out a dove;
But she flew not back to the ark. She found dry land,
And came to green forests. Never again
Would she rest glad-hearted under the ark's dark roof.
Nor was there need!