Classic Poem

I roamed the young, fair earth for happy hours,
When the first dawns upon its grace ascended,
Seeking its virgin secrets unattended,
Hailing the new-born flowers.

I was a tiller of the blooming ground,
The proud possessor of broad meadows vernal,
And in the doing of my task diurnal
My happiness was found.

I loved my liberal land where cattle teemed,
My sunny slopes, my fair and fecund valleys,
And through the rustle of my leafy alleys
I wandered and I dreamed.

My soul was warmed with song. I worked elate,
Glad of my noble toil and nothing fearing,
My God august religiously revering,
Conscious that He was great.

Nature was fresh as I in those new days,
And though my sire from Eden had been ejected,
I knew his sin, and God's decree respected,
And, knowing it, gave Him praise.

Life unto me was utter joy; the light
And splendor of my vast Creator filled me;
The magnitude of His omniscience thrilled me;
He was my day, my night.

Screened by His guarding hand, I lived secure,
I, the first flesh, born at the world's beginning,
For He had harmed me not for Adam's sinning,
But, pardoning, left me pure.

Abel, my brother, perfect and most blessed,
The chosen of my soul, was ever near me;
His fond, fraternal merriment would cheer me
When I was sore oppressed.

And wealth was mine in plenty, and I had
Wives, blonde as swaying wheat, content and duteous,
Caressing sisters, children fair and beauteous,
And all these made life glad.

And, when I left fatigued the furrowed sod
To seek my home and gain their joyous greeting,
My happiness by all their own completing,
I knelt and worshiped God.