Classic Poem

Then from a globe of curling clouds, which brake
Into a radiant flame, Jehovah spake:
" What mortal thus through ignorance profanes
My darken'd counsels? of his God complains?
Come, buckle on thy armour; let us end
This controverse, since thou wilt needs contend.
Tell, if thou canst, where wert thou when I made
The foodful earth, and her foundation laid?
Who those exact dimensions did design,
Who on her superficies stretch'd his line?
Or fix'd as centre to the world? upon
What basis built? who laid the corner-stone?
Where wert thou when the stars My praises sung?
When Heav'n with shouts of joyful angels rung?
Or who shut up the seas with doors, when they,
As from the tortur'd womb, enforc'd their way?
By Me invested with a veil of clouds,
And swaddled, as new-born, in sable shrouds.
For these a receptacle I design'd,
And with inviolable bars confin'd.
Then said, " Thus far your empire shall extend,
Nor shall your prouder waves these bounds transcend."
Hast thou appointed where the moon should rise,
And with her purple light adorn the skies?
Scor'd out the bounded sun's obliquer ways,
That he on all might spread his equal rays,
And by the clear extension of his light
Chase from the earth the impious sons of night?
Whose beams the various forms of things display,
Like multitudes of figures wrought in clay;
By which the beauty of the earth appears,
The divers-colour'd mantle which she wears;
Conceal'd offenders by their lustre found,
Attach'd, and in death's dark prison bound?
Say, hast thou div'd into the deeps below,
And trod those bottom sands where fountains flow?
Or boldly broken up the seals of hell,
And seen the shadows which in darkness dwell?
Tell, if thou canst, how far the earth extends?
Hast thou discover'd her remotest ends?
Beheld the chambers of the springing light,
Or travell'd through the regions of the night?
To their abodes canst thou reveal the way,
And their alternate rule to men display?
Wert thou then born? hast thou these secrets known
Through length of time? Art thou so aged grown?
Hast thou survey'd the magazines of snow,
Seen where the melting drops to hailstones grow?
With these I punish; these the weapons are,
By Me prepar'd against the day of war.
Why breaks the lightning from the troubled skies,
While eastern winds in horrid tempests rise?
Who deluges from heav'n in torrents pours,
Or gives a passage to the roaring show'rs,
That they on deserts uninhabited
By mortals may their fruitful moisture shed?
Hence vegetives receive their fragrant birth,
And clothe the naked bosom of the earth.
What, hath the rain a father? tell me who
Begot the shining drops of morning dew?
Whose womb produc'd the glassy ice? who bred
The hoary frosts that fall on winter's head?
The waters then in crystal are conceal'd,
And the smooth visage of the sea congeal'd.
Canst thou the pleasant influence restrain
Of Pleiades, which bathes the spring with rain?
Or boisterous Orion's chains unbind,
Who draws along the bitter eastern wind?
In summer, scorching Mazaroth display?
Or teach Arcturus and his sons their way?
Canst thou the motions of the heav'ns direct,
Or make their virtue on the earth reflect?
Will the condensed clouds, at thy command,
Descend in show'rs upon the thirsty land,
Or in their roaring strife asunder part,
And at thy foes their fearful lightning dart?
With wisdom who renowns the nobler parts?
Who understanding gives to human hearts?
Whose wisdom clears the sapphires of the skies,
Or who the swelling clouds in bladders ties,
To mollify the stubborn clods with rain,
And scatter'd dust incorporate again? "