 | A Lost Epic and Other Poems |  |
And now, when after sixteen hundred years,
Beneath the whole wide heaven men's blood and tears
Cried out to God; and God the Lord looked forth
And saw the violence that filled the earth,
The bloody worship and lascivious glee
Around the boulder and beneath the tree,
And all men's wickedness, it grieved the Lord
That He had made man's image. He abhorred
All flesh on earth, both man and creeping thing,
And every beast, and bird of every wing.
And God prepared the vengeance of His rain
To slay them, that all evil might be slain
And utterly destroyed before His face.
Beneath the whole wide heaven men's blood and tears
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And saw the violence that filled the earth,
The bloody worship and lascivious glee
Around the boulder and beneath the tree,
And all men's wickedness, it grieved the Lord
That He had made man's image. He abhorred
All flesh on earth, both man and creeping thing,
And every beast, and bird of every wing.
And God prepared the vengeance of His rain
To slay them, that all evil might be slain
And utterly destroyed before His face.
But Noah, who had walked with God, found grace—
Both Noah and his house.
Both Noah and his house.
And Noah hewed
Great trees within the forest, gopher-wood;
And mighty oxen travailed through the years
To draw the timber home.
Great trees within the forest, gopher-wood;
And mighty oxen travailed through the years
To draw the timber home.
In all men's ears
The fame of this and Noah's name made mirth.
The fame of this and Noah's name made mirth.
But lo! an ancient of the morn o' the earth—
Hoary as winter, imperishable as stone,
O'ershadowing as a cloud which all alone
Glooms half a realm for half a summer day—
Leaned on his spear, and watched his grandson lay
The Ark's foundations.
Hoary as winter, imperishable as stone,
O'ershadowing as a cloud which all alone
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Leaned on his spear, and watched his grandson lay
The Ark's foundations.
This was that sublime
Presentment of humanity and time,
Methuselah—the living man, whose eyes
Had seen the living Adam. Centuries
And nations near the figure of his life
Were dwarfed to pigmy images.
Presentment of humanity and time,
Methuselah—the living man, whose eyes
Had seen the living Adam. Centuries
And nations near the figure of his life
Were dwarfed to pigmy images.
A strife
Of wrath and sorrow raged within his mind.
Of wrath and sorrow raged within his mind.
| A Lost Epic and Other Poems | |