Classic Poem

His comforting to Nature Genius gave,
Exhorting her, so far as in her lay,
To banish all her grief; for, as he said,
In dole and sorrow one no conquests makes —
Unprofitable wounds are won by woe.
When he had had his will in speech, he sat
Upon a settle near the altar placed,
Remitting longer prayer. Upon her knees
Before the parson Nature humbly knelt.
To tell the truth, she could not yet forget
Her dolefulness; nor did he strive anew
To free her from it, for he clearly saw
His pains were wasted — all his efforts lost.
Instead, he listened silent to the dame,
Who most devoutly, hindered by her tears,
Recited this confession, which I quote
As she pronounced it to him, word for word:
" When God, who in all beauties so abounds,
First made so beautiful this lovely earth,
Whose foreseen form of fairness in His mind
He had before He gave it outward shape,
Thence taking His design and whatsoe'er
To its fulfillment was expedient
(For, had He elsewhere sought, He had not found,
In heaven or beneath, a single thing
That could have aided His accomplishment,
Since naught outside Himself existence had,
And He, who could not fail in anything,
From nothing could make all things come to birth)
No other thought urged Him to this employ —
Unenvious, benign, and generous —
Save His good will, the wellspring of all life.
" In the beginning Chaos He ordained,
Which had but mass, and in whose every part
Confused disorder — indistinction — reigned.
He separated then the elements,
Which never since have been anatomized,
And numbered all of them and knew their sum,
And limits set to every firmament
In reasonable measure, and decreed
That each, in order to include the more
And move the better, should be round in shape,
According to the purposes of all.
Each one He stationed in its proper place
As He perceived that all should be arranged:
The lighter rose aloft; the heavy sank
Down to the center — medials between.
In time and space He rightly each ordained.
" When He, according to his fixed design,
Had thus His other creatures all disposed,
With His own grace God honored me so much —
Held me so dear — that He established me
As chamberlain of all, to serve Him thus
Permitting me, as e'er He will permit
While it shall be His will. No other right
Claim I to such a bounty, but I thank
Him for His love of such unworthy maid
And for His prizing me so much that He,
Great lord of such a vast and fair estate,
Appointed me His constable — indeed,
His steward and His vicar-general —
A dignity which little I deserved
Except through His benign benevolence.
" God honors me so much that in my ward
He leaves the lovely golden chain that binds
The elements, which bow before my face.
To me He has entrusted everything
Within those rings of gold, and all their forms
It is my duty to perpetuate.
His will it is that all should me obey
And to my rules conform — forget no laws,
But keep and guard them everlastingly.
In truth, this commonly is done with care
By all His creatures, saving one alone.
" It is not of the sky that I complain.
Forever, without fault, it turns and turns
And with it in its shining circle bears
The twinkling stars, whose virtuosity
Is of more worth than any precious stone.
As it pursues its course from east to west,
And never stops or turns the other way,
O'ercoming all the orbits that impede
And would arrest its movement if they could,
It furnishes delight to all the world.
No retardation can a man perceive
That will prevent the starry firmament,
After a space of thrice twelve thousand years,
From circling back precisely to that point
At which it was when first it was create,
Having accomplished its entire course —
Its pathway's length around the zodiac,
That mighty circle which it wheels upon.
So perfectly the sky revolves above
That in its track no error can be found.
" Aplanos," for this reason, it is called
By those who've found it not to deviate;
For this Greek signifies, in modern tongue,
A thing that's errorless. Man has not seen
The other heavens I might name to you,
But their existence is by reason proved
By those who demonstrate by evidence.
" Nor of the seven planets do I make
Complaint, for each throughout its course shines bright,
Spotless, and clear. 'Tis true, the moon may seem
Less purely white — obscure in certain parts —
But 'tis the double nature of that orb
To show some troubled features on its face —
In one part shining, in another dark —
At once possessing and devoid of light.
Transparencies upon the lunar globe
Cannot reflect the shining of the sun,
But in these portions are its rays absorbed;
Thus is the brilliance of such parts destroyed.
But all the thicker portions of the moon,
Which offer more resistance to the rays
And conquer them, throw off a shining glow.
To make this easier to understand,
I may, instead of further glossing, give
A brief example to explain my text.
Transparent glass through which the light can shine
When nothing thick on either side is placed
To throw it back cannot reflect the face
Because the rays of light that meet the eye
Strike nothing that will make them back rebound;
But coat the glass with lead or something else
As dense as that, which intercepts the rays,
And straightway in the glass your face appears —
For if they are opaque or can be backed,
All polished surfaces reflect the light —
So the transparent surface of the moon,
Which may be likened to a crystal sphere,
Does not retard the rays, which enter it
And can, therefore, no bright reflection make;
But denser parts, which no rays penetrate,
Strongly reflect them back and make that orb
Seem brighter in those portions than it is
In other parts which seem the more obscure.
" The figure of a creature marvelous
Is formed by darker patches on the moon.
It is a dragon that inclines its head
A little toward the west, and toward the east
Couches its tail; upon its back it bears
A towering tree, whose branches eastward stretch,
But upside down. These topsy-turvy limbs
Support a man, who, hanging by his arms,
Kicks toward the west with both his legs and feet.
Thus are the semblances interpreted.
" Good works perform the planets: each of them
So labors that all seven never stop.
Through all degrees of their twelve hours they wheel,
Resting in each but the appointed time,
And, as is meet to do their duty well,
Their motion is contrariwise to that
Of all the heavens; so each day they win
To new positions which their portions are
Of the tremendous circles they complete.
Then without pause they recommence their round,
Opposing contrary motions to the stars
To guard the elements, which could not live
Beneath a sky that circled unrestrained.
" The glorious sun, the fountainhead of light,
Which gives the day its being, like a king
Sits in the center crowned with flaming beams.
Most reasonable 'tis that in the midst
He have his home, since God, so fair and wise
And strong, has willed that there he have his place,
For if he nearer came the earth would burn —
If farther strayed, the frost would doom to death.
From thence the sun dispenses common light
To moon and planets — makes them shine so fair
That Night as candles lights them every eve
That she before her husband, Acheron,
Setting her table, may less dreadful seem,
Because of which his heart knows bitterness,
For rather would he be without a light
In union with his inky-featured spouse,
As first they lay together long ago
When Night conceived, through their fond interplay,
The Furies three, fierce ministers of Hell,
Felonious whores. But ne'ertheless Night thinks,
When she within her closet scans her glass,
Or in her cellar or her cave, that she
Would be too colorless and hideous
If shining down through the tenebrous air
No joyful light she had from flaming stars
Which in their spheres revolve as God Himself
Established them. Sweet harmonies they make,
Which are the source of all the melodies
And divers tunes that we in concord set
In all our sorts of song. There is no thing
That would not chant in unison with them.
" The planets by their influence control
The accidents and substances of all
The things existing 'neath the moon on earth;
And by their communal divergencies
They sometimes darken the clear element
And then in turn the darkness clarify.
Cold and hot and moist and dry through them,
As in a coffer, in each body meet
To hold the parts together closely joined,
Howe'er contrary their propensities.
Among four enemies they bring accord,
When to complexion reasonable reduced
By suitable attempering, to form
In worthiest shape the things that I create;
Or, if it happens that they are not good,
It is the fault of their material.
" But one who will examine well may know
That heat the sap of life will ceaselessly,
How good so ever the accord may be,
Suck and devour and waste from day to day
Till death, which is their due, shall come to all
By my most just decree, if it, indeed,
Come not in other ways, hastened by chance,
Ere spent is all the sap; for no one can,
By any medicine that he may take
Or any ointment that he may apply,
Lengthen the body's life, though easily
Each one may much abridge and shorten it;
For some by noose or drowning end their days
Before the sap has failed, or undertake
Some perilous exploit in which they burn
Or are interred alive ere they can flee,
Or meet destruction by some foolish act,
Or undeservedly by enemies
With false and cruel hearts are doomed to die
By stroke of sword or draft of poison cup,
Or by an unwise regimen of life —
By too much sleep or waking, work or rest;
Eating or drinking; joyfulness or grief;
Getting too fat or losing too much flesh
(For sin in any one of these may lie);
By too long fasts; by joining in delights
Too much; by suffering too much misease;
By too much change of state, as oft appears
When one with sudden heat o'erwhelms himself,
Or sudden cold, which he repents too late;
By changing clothes too often, which brings death
To some whose bodies can't accommodate
Themselves to sudden shifts, while others fall
In sickness from a change that Nature hates —
So that they make me vainly force myself
To lead them toward a natural decease.
But, howsoever much men may misdo
When they procure such deaths in my despite,
I ne'ertheless am much disturbed when they
Halt on life's road like wretches recreant,
Vanquished by ill-starred death, who easily
Had held their way unto the very end
Had they been willing to restrain themselves
From folly and excess which clipped their lives
Ere they attained the good I had in store for them. "