Classic Poem

" WRITINGS that emphasize degeneracy
Prove that in our first parents' early days
Loyal and true was love — not mercenary.
Most precious was that glorious Golden Age!
Men were not greedy for fine clothes or food.
They gathered acorns in the woods for bread;
In place of fish and flesh, they searched the glades,
Thickets, hills, and plains for fruits and nuts:
Apples and pears, chestnuts and mulberries,
Sloes and the seed pods of the eglantine,
Red strawberries, and blackberries and haws.
As vegetables, peas and beans and herbs
And roots they had. They gathered heads of grain.
The grapes that grew upon the fields they picked,
Nor put them in the wine press or the vat.
Abundantly on honey they could feast;
It fairly dripped from stores within the oaks.
No claret or spiced honey wine they drank
Nor any mixture — only water pure.
" No plowing was then needed by the soil,
But by God's care it foisoned by itself,
Providing all the comforts that men wished.
They ate no pike or salmon; and they wore
But shaggy skins, or made their clothes of wool
Just as it came from off the backs of sheep.
Nor did they dye it scarlet, green, or blue.
The cottages grouped in their villages
Were roofed with broom or branches, or with leaves;
Or else they made their homes in earthly caves.
Sometimes they refuge took among the rocks
Or in the hollow trunks of mighty trees,
When tempests made them fear the stormy blasts
And warned them that for safety they must flee.
At evening when they wished to go to sleep
In place of beds they brought into their homes
Great heaps of moss or leaves, or sheaves of grass.
" Whene'er as if 'twere everlasting spring
The wind had been appeased, and soft and sweet
The weather had become, with pleasant breeze,
So that each morning every bird essayed
In his own language to salute the dawn,
All this inspired their hearts with joyous love.
" Then Zephyrus and Flora, his fair wife,
The goddess and the lady of the flowers,
Enlarged the little buds of opening blooms
Which such new splendor gave to springing grass
In every field and wood that you had thought
That earth had into competition gone
With heaven to see which should be better starred,
So proud it seemed to be of all its flowers.
'Tis from these two the blossoms take their birth;
They recognize no other parentage,
For he and she together sow the seeds
Throughout the earth, and give the flowers form
And all the hues with which they are made fair —
The blossoms prized by maidens and young men
Delighting in fair chaplets made for love —
And very fine and great their true love is.
" Upon such beds as I've described to you,
Free from all thought of harlotry or rape,
Those who were pleased to play the game of love
With kisses and embraces would unite.
In groves the verdant trees stretched out their limbs,
Protecting thus the lovers from the sun
With curtains and pavilions made of leaves.
There carried on their play and caroling
And lazy pleasantries this folk secure,
Void of all care except to lead their lives
In frank and joyous amiability.
Not yet had king or prince brought despotism
To pinch and rob the folk. All equals were.
Not yet for private property they strove.
Well did they know this saying is no lie
Or foolishness: " There's no companionship
'Twixt Love and Seignory." Whom Love unites
Either's supremacy will quickly separate. "