RABBI NISSIM TO THE GOD OF FLOODS.
(1497.)
Once, in Earth's youth, Thy wrath, O God, struck man:
In countless shoals were heaped the floating dead;
While through the fog the sun's huge eye of lead
Loomed lidless, rayless, like a moon more wan,
And each attracting each, as dead drift can,
Drowned nations met, upon that livid bed,
Till all the million carrion fish had fed
Their fill at last, and Horror's ebb began.
Thou Lord of Floods, why dost Thou bide Thy time
With this incestuous Rome, where Lust is crowned
And mitred, and unwhisperable Crime?
Here, here is food, if Thou but look around,
For all the fish that feed on Ocean's slime,
And love the chilly dainties of the drowned.
