Songs of Creation
1.
First of all God made the sun,
Then the stars that nightly shine;
By the sweat of His own brow,
Fashioned next the gentle kine.
Then He made the savage beasts —
Lions with their claws so grim,
And, in likeness of the lion,
Formed the kitten soft and slim.
Next, the wilderness to people,
He from dust created man,
And the interesting monkey,
Fashioned on the same good plan.
" How He copies His own work, "
Jeered the Devil with a laugh;
" In the likeness of the oxen
He will make, in time, the calf! "
2.
To the Devil spake the Lord thus:
Answered Satan and his laugh:
" True, the stars the sun resemble;
From the ox I made the calf;
" Like the lions, maned and clawed,
Are the kittens, dainty-pawed;
After man I formed the ape;
But there's nothing you can shape.
3.
" The lions, the oxen, man, and the sun,
I made to glorify my might.
But the stars, calves, kittens, apes, each one,
I fashioned for my own delight.
4.
" When the work of Creation I began,
In seven days it was concluded;
But over the shaping of the plan
A thousand aeons I had brooded.
" The work itself is merely motion:
Short time it takes to make or miss;
The plan's the crux — the original notion —
That shows you who the artist is.
" Three centuries passed before I saw
How fashioned for the best might be
The learned doctor of the law,
Yea, even the humble little flea. "
5.
On the sixth day said the Lord,
" Now my labour is complete.
Vast and fair, the whole Creation
Is accomplished as was meet.
" See the sun, how red and golden
On the ocean falls his sheen!
And the trees, how bright their verdure! —
Almost like a painted scene.
" Are the lambkins on the meadow
Not as white as alabaster?
When so natural is Nature,
Does it not proclaim the Master?
" Now fulfilled are, with my glory,
Earth and heaven, moon and sun;
Man shall magnify and praise me
While the endless ages run!
6.
" You find not the stuff whereof poems are wrought
By sucking the finger merely;
Neither God nor singer can fashion from naught
His world, his poem, clearly.
" From the ancient mud of aeons dim
Was man in pride created:
Out of the rib I took from him,
With lovely woman mated.
" I shaped the heavens from the earth,
Angels from women moulded;
'Tis the form that gives the substance worth,
By the artist's hand unfolded.
7.
" The reason why I made at all
This world so glorious, would you learn?
Within my soul there seemed to burn
A flaming and resistless call.
" 'Twas sickness at the last which lured
My hand to the stupendous deed.
Creation satisfied my need;
Creation ended, I was cured. "
First of all God made the sun,
Then the stars that nightly shine;
By the sweat of His own brow,
Fashioned next the gentle kine.
Then He made the savage beasts —
Lions with their claws so grim,
And, in likeness of the lion,
Formed the kitten soft and slim.
Next, the wilderness to people,
He from dust created man,
And the interesting monkey,
Fashioned on the same good plan.
" How He copies His own work, "
Jeered the Devil with a laugh;
" In the likeness of the oxen
He will make, in time, the calf! "
2.
To the Devil spake the Lord thus:
Answered Satan and his laugh:
" True, the stars the sun resemble;
From the ox I made the calf;
" Like the lions, maned and clawed,
Are the kittens, dainty-pawed;
After man I formed the ape;
But there's nothing you can shape.
3.
" The lions, the oxen, man, and the sun,
I made to glorify my might.
But the stars, calves, kittens, apes, each one,
I fashioned for my own delight.
4.
" When the work of Creation I began,
In seven days it was concluded;
But over the shaping of the plan
A thousand aeons I had brooded.
" The work itself is merely motion:
Short time it takes to make or miss;
The plan's the crux — the original notion —
That shows you who the artist is.
" Three centuries passed before I saw
How fashioned for the best might be
The learned doctor of the law,
Yea, even the humble little flea. "
5.
On the sixth day said the Lord,
" Now my labour is complete.
Vast and fair, the whole Creation
Is accomplished as was meet.
" See the sun, how red and golden
On the ocean falls his sheen!
And the trees, how bright their verdure! —
Almost like a painted scene.
" Are the lambkins on the meadow
Not as white as alabaster?
When so natural is Nature,
Does it not proclaim the Master?
" Now fulfilled are, with my glory,
Earth and heaven, moon and sun;
Man shall magnify and praise me
While the endless ages run!
6.
" You find not the stuff whereof poems are wrought
By sucking the finger merely;
Neither God nor singer can fashion from naught
His world, his poem, clearly.
" From the ancient mud of aeons dim
Was man in pride created:
Out of the rib I took from him,
With lovely woman mated.
" I shaped the heavens from the earth,
Angels from women moulded;
'Tis the form that gives the substance worth,
By the artist's hand unfolded.
7.
" The reason why I made at all
This world so glorious, would you learn?
Within my soul there seemed to burn
A flaming and resistless call.
" 'Twas sickness at the last which lured
My hand to the stupendous deed.
Creation satisfied my need;
Creation ended, I was cured. "
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