Classic Poem

OW ATER , element sublime,
Alone unchang'd since Eden time!
For earth and atmosphere no more
Are what they were before;
And all Creation moans its hapless fate,
Fallen with fallen man from its primeval state.
But thou still pure dost rise,
As when the guilty world thou didst baptise;
As when first welling from th' untainted sod,
Where Adam sinless trod,
Fourfold thou flowedst through the Paradise of God!