And as our God the beasts had given in charge

And as our God the beasts had given in charge
To take the ark, themselves so to imbarge,
He bids the fowl: the eagle in his flight
Cleaving the thin air, on the deck doth light;
Nor are his eyes so piercing to control
His lowly subjects, the far lesser fowl,
But the Almighty who all creatures framed,
And them by Adam in the garden named,
Had given courage, fast by him to sit,
Nor at his sharp sight are amazed one whit;
The swan by his great Maker taught this good,
T'avoid the fury of the falling flood,
His boat-like breast, his wings raised for his sail,
And oar-like feet, him nothing to avail
Against the rain which likely was to fall,
Each drop so great that like a ponderous mall
Might sink him under water and might drown
Him in the deluge, with the crane comes down,
Whose voice the trumpet is that through the air
Doth summon all the other to repair
To the new Ark: when with his moonid train
The strutting peacock, yawling 'gainst the rain,
Flutters into the Ark, by his shrill cry
Telling the rest the tempest to be nigh;
The iron-eating ostrich, whose bare thighs
Resembling man's, fearing the low'ring skies,
Walks to the great boat; when the crownid cock,
That to the village lately was the clock,
Comes to roost by him, with his hen, foreshowing
The shower should quickly fall, that then was brewing;
The swift-winged swallow feeding as it flies,
With the fleet martlet thrilling through the skies,
As at their pastime sportively they were,
Feeling th'unusual moisture of the air,
Their feathers flag, into the Ark they come
As to some rock or building, their own home;
The airy lark, his halleluiah sung,
Finding a slackness seize upon his tongue
By the much moisture, and the welkin dark,
Drops with his female down into the Ark;
The soaring kite there scantled his large wings,
And to the Ark the hovering kestrel brings;
The raven comes, and croaking, in doth call
The carrion crow, and she again doth brall,
Foretelling rain; by these there likewise sat
The careful stork, since Adam wond'red at
For thankfulness, to those where he doth breed,
That his ag'd parents naturally doth feed,
In filial duty as instructing man;
By them there sat the loving pelican,
Whose young ones pois'ned by the serpent's sting,
With her own blood to life again doth bring;
The constant turtle up her lodging took
By these good birds; and in a little nook
The nightingale with her melodious tongue
Sadly there sits, as she had never sung;
The merle and mavis on the highest spray,
Who with their music waked the early day,
From the proud cedars to the Ark come down,
As though forewarned that God the world would drown;
The prating parrot comes to them aboard,
And is not heard to counterfeit a word;
The falcon and the dove sit there together,
And th'one of them doth prune the other's feather;
The goshawk and the pheasant there do twin,
And in the Ark are percht upon one pin;
The partridge on the sparhawk there doth tend,
Who entertains her as a loving friend;
The ravenous vulture feels the small birds sit
Upon his back, and is not moved a whit;
Amongst the thickest of these several fowl,
With open eyes still sat the broad-faced owl,
And not a small bird, as they wonted were,
Either pursued or wond'red at her there.
No wayless desert, heath, nor fen, nor moor,
But in by couples sent some of their store;
The osprey and the cormorant forbear
To fish, and thither with the rest repair;
The heron leaves watching at the river's brim,
And brings the snite and plover in with him.
There came the halcyon, whom the sea obeys
When she her nest upon the water lays;
The goose which doth for watchfulness excel
Came for the rest to be the sentinel.
The charitable robinet in came,
Whose nature taught the others to be tame:
All feathered things yet ever known to men,
From the huge roc unto the little wren;
From forests, fields, from rivers, and from ponds,
All that have webs, or cloven-footed ones,
To the grand Ark together friendly came,
Whose several species were too long to name.
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