Classic Poem

They sung how God spoke out the worlds vast ball;
From Nothing, and from No where call'd forth All.
No Nature yet, or place for 't to possess,
But an unbottm'ed Gulf of Emptiness.
Full of Himself, th' Almighty sat, his own
Palace, and without Solitude Alone.
But he was Goodness whole, and all things will'd;
Which ere they were, his active word fulfill'd;
And their astonisht heads o' th' sudden rear'ed;
An unshap'ed kind of Something first appear'ed,
Confessing its new Being, and undrest
As if it stept in hast before the rest.
Yet buried in this Matters darksome womb,
Lay the rich Seeds of ev'ery thing to come.
From hence the chearful Flame leapt up so high;
Close at its heels the nimble Air did fly;
Dull Earth with his own weight did downwards pierce
To the fixt Navel of the Universe,
And was quite lost in waters: till God said
To the proud Sea, shrink in your ins'olent head,
See how the gaping Earth has made you place;
That durst not murmur, but shrunk in apace.
Since when his bounds are set, at which in vain
He foams, and rages, and turns back again.
With richer stuff he bad Heav'ens fabrick shine,
And from him a quick spring of Light divine
Swell'd up the Sun, from whence his cher'ishing flame
Fills the whole world, like Him from whom it came.
He smooth'd the rough-cast Moons imperfect mold,
And comb'ed her beamy locks with sacred gold;
Be thou (said he) Queen of the mournful night,
And as he spoke, she' arose clad o'er in Light,
With thousand stars attending on her train;
With her they rise, with her they set again.
Then Herbs peep'd forth, new Trees admiring stood,
And smelling Flow'ers painted the infant wood.
Then flocks of Birds through the glad ayr did flee,
Joyful, and safe before Mans Luxurie,
Teaching their Maker in their untaught lays:
Nay the mute Fish witness no less his praise.
For those he made, and cloath'd with silver scales;
From Minnows to those living Islands, Whales.
Beasts too were his command: what could be more?
Yes, Man he could, the bond of all before;
In him he all things with strange order hurl'd;
In him, that full Abridgment of the World.