Classic Poem

“T HE M ETAMORPHOSES .”

 Of bodies chang'd to other shapes I sing.
Assist, you Gods (from you these changes spring)
And, from the Worlds first fabrick to these times,
Deduce my never-discontinued Rymes.
The Sea, the Earth, all covering Heaven vnfram'd,
One face had Nature, which they Chaos nam'd:
An vndigested lump, a barren load,
Where jarring seeds of things ill-joyn'd aboad.
No Titan yet the world with light adornes;
Nor waxing Phœbe fill'd her wained hornes:
Nor hung the self-poiz'd Earth in thin Ayre plac'd;
Nor Amphitrite the vast shore imbrac'd.
With Earth was Ayre and Sea: the Earth vnstable,
The Ayre was darke, the Sea vn-navigable:
No certaine forme to any one assign'd.
This, that resists. For, in one body joyn'd,
The Cold and Hot, the Drie and Humid fight;
The Soft and Hard, the Heavie with the Light.
But God, the better Nature, this decides:
Who Earth from Heaven, the Sea from Earth divides:
And purer Heaven extracts from grosser Ayre.
All which vnfolded by his prudent care
From that blind Masse; the happily dis-joyn'd
With strifelesse peace He to their seats confin'd.
Forth-with vp-sprung the quick and waightlesse Fire,
Whose flames vnto the highest Arch aspire:
The next, in levitie and place, is Ayre:
Grosse Elements to thicker Earth repayre
Selfe-clog'd with waight: the Waters flowing round,
Possesse the last, and solid Tellus bound.
 What God soeuer this division wrought,
And every part to due proportion brought;
First, least the Earth vnequall should appeare,
He turn'd it round, in figure of a Spheare;
Then, Seas diffus'd; commanding them to roare
With ruffling Winds, and giue the Land a shore.
To those he addeth Springs, Ponds, Lakes immense;
And Riuers, whom their winding borders fence:
Of these, now few Earth's thirsty jawes devoure:
The rest, the streames into the Ocean poure;
When in that liquid Plaine, with freer waue,
The foamie Cliffes, in stead of Banks, they laue:
Bids Trees increase to Woods, the Plaines extend,
The rocky Mountaynes rise, and Vales descend.
Two equall Zones, on either side, dispose
The measur'd Heauens; a fifth, more hot then those.
As many Lines th' included Globe divide:
I' th' midst vnsufferable beams reside;
Snow clothes the other two: the temperate hold
'Twixt these their seats, the Heat well mixt with Cold.
As Earth, as Water, vpper Ayre out-waighs;
So much doth Ayre Fire's lighter balance raise.
 There, He commands the changing Clouds to stray;
There, thundering terrors mortall mindes dismay;
And with the Lightning, Winds ingendring Snow:
Yet not permitted every way to blow;
Who hardly now to teare the World refraine
(So Brothers jarre!) though they divided raigne,
To Persis and Sabbœa, Eurus flies;
Whose gums perfume the blushing Mornes vp-rise:
Next to the Evening, and the Coast that glowes
With setting Phœbus , flowrie Zeph'rus blowes:
In Scythia horrid Boreas holds his raigne,
Beneath Boötes and the frozen Waine:
The Land to this oppos'd, doth Auster steepe
With fruitfull showres, and clouds which ever weepe.
Aboue all these He plac't the liquid Skies;
Which, void of earthly dregs, did highest rise.
 Scarce had He all thus orderly dispos'd;
When as the Starres their radiant heads disclos'd
(Long hid in Night) and shone through all the skie.
Then that no place should vnpossessed lie
Bright Constellations, and faire figured Gods,
In heauenly Mansions fixt their blest abodes:
The glittering Fishes to the Floods repayre;
The Beasts to Earth, the Birds resort to Ayre.
 The nobler Creature, with a mind possest,
Was wanting yet, that should command the rest.
That Maker, the best World's originall,
Either Him fram'd of seed Cælestiall;
Or Earth, which late he did from Heauen diuide,
Some sacred seeds retain'd, to Heauen ally'd:
Which with the liuing streame Prometheus mixt;
And in that artificiall structure fixt
The forme of all th' all-ruling Deities.
And whereas others see with down-caste eyes,
He with a loftie looke did Man indue,
And bade him heauens transcendent glories view.
So, that rude Clay, which had no forme afore,
Thus chang'd, of Man the vnknowne figure bore.