415

Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land, and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea.
Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,
Their brood as numerous hatch from the egg, that soon
Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclosed

419

Their callow young; but feathered soon and fledge
They summed their pens, and soaring the air sublime
With clang despised the ground, under a cloud
In prospect; there the eagle and the stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build.
Part loosely wing the region, part more wise
In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their aery caravan, high over seas

Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing

425

430

Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Floats, as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes.
From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays.
Others on silver lakes and rivers bathed

Their downy breast; the swan, with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows

414. Stretched like a promon-
tory. See I. 200-208.
419. rupture,

the act of break

ing.
420. fledge, fledged.
421. summed their pens. This
is a term of falconry. Pens means
wing-feathers, and the whole
signifies had their feathers full-
grown.sublime, on high.

423. prospect, view; distant view. there, in such or these high places, the air sublime.

425. loosely, separately.
426. Birds of passage fly in

435

ranks arranged in the form of a wedge, one bird leading to cut the air. As this is fatiguing, the first bird soon falls back and another takes his place. Thus with mutual wing they ease their flight.

427. Intelligent of seasons. "Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming." Jeremiah viii. 7. 434. Solaced, cheered.

439. mantling. This also is a

Her state with oary feet; yet oft they qui
The dank, and rising on stiff pennons tow
The mid aerial sky. Others on ground
Walked firm; the crested cock whose clar
The silent hours, and the other whose gay
Adorns him, colored with the florid hue
Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters
With fish replenished, and the air with fo
Evening and morn solemnized the fifth da

"The sixth, and of creation last, arose With evening harps and matin; when Go 'Let the earth bring forth soul living in he Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of t Each in their kind.' The earth obeyed, an Opening her fertile womb teemed at a birt Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms, Limbed and full grown; out of the ground As from his lair, the wild beast where he w In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den; Among the trees in pairs they rose, they w The cattle in the fields and meadows green Those rare and solitary, these in flocks Pasturing at once and in broad herds up sp The grassy clods now calved; now half app The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts, then springs as broke from And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole Rising, the crumbled earth above them thre In hillocks; the swift stag from under grou

term of falconry, signifying that the wings are raised so as to form a sort of mantle for the back. In this line, the comma should perhaps be put after mantling rather than proudly.

440. state, stately pomp. 441. pennons. See II. 933.

444. the other, the the peacock.

450-498. See Genes 454. teemed, pour 457. wons, dwells; 461. Those -these 457, 460.

466. rampant, bou 467. libbard, leopa

Bore up his branching head; scarce from his mould
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved

His vastness; fleeced the flocks and bleating rose,
As plants; ambiguous between sea and land

The river horse and scaly crocodile.

480

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475
Insect or worm; those waved their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries decked of summer's pride
With spots of gold and purple, azure and green;
These as a line their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
Minims of Nature; some of serpent kind,
Wondrous in length and corpulence, involved
Their snaky folds and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet, provident

Of future, in small room large heart enclosed;
Pattern of just equality perhaps

Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty: swarming next appeared
The female bee, that feeds her husband drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stored. The rest are numberless,
And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st them

names,

Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,

471. Behemoth is here used as the name of the elephant, though in the book of Job (xl. 15-24) it is the hippopotamus or riverhorse of the Nile.

476. those, insects.-fans, not wings, because not feathered.

477. lineaments, outlines of the shape, as representing the body. See V. 278.

478. liveries, forms of dress or garb. decked, if connected with waved, agrees with those.

480. these. See worm, in line

485

490

495

in

482. Minims, smallest forms. 483. corpulence, bulk. volved, twisted; entangled. 484. added wings, as the dragon and other fabulous serpents. added is here a verb.

485. The parsimonious emmet. See Proverbs vi. 6-8.

493. gav'st them names. See Genesis ii. 19, 20. 495. subtlest beast. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord had made." Genesis iii. 1.

Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen ey And hairy mane terrific, though to thee Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

"Now heaven in all her glory shone, and Her motions, as the great first Mover's han First wheeled their course; earth in her ric Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, eart By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was SV walked

Frequent and of the sixth day yet remaine
There wanted yet the master work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature who, not prone
And brute as other creatures but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from then
Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart and voice and e
Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God supreme, who made him c
Of all his works: therefore the omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not he
Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake:

"Let us make now Man in our image, M In our similitude, and let them rule Over the fish and fowl of sea and air, Beast of the field, and over all the earth, And every creeping thing that creeps the gro This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O Ma Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath

504. Frequent, crowded; thronged.

506. prone, with the face downward.

511. Magnanimous, ly great of mind. 519-534. See Genesis 525. Dust of the grour

The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God
Express, and thou becam❜st a living soul.
Male he created thee, but thy consort

Female, for race; then blessed mankind, and said,

Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth;

Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air,

And every living thing that moves on the earth.'
Wherever thus created, for no place

Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know'st,
He brought thee into this delicious grove,
This garden, planted with the trees of God,
Delectable both to behold and taste;

And freely all their pleasant fruit for food

531

535

540

Gave thee; all sorts are here that all the earth yields, Variety without end; but of the tree,

Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil,

545

Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, thou diest;
Death is the penalty imposed; beware,
And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

"Here finished he, and all that he had made
Viewed, and behold, all was entirely good :
So even and morn accomplished the sixth day;
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up returned,
Up to the heaven of heavens, his high abode,

the Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living
soul." Genesis ii. 7.

528. Express, as a copy or likeness; the adjective agrees with image, as in Hebrews i. 3, "the express image."

535. Wherever, in what place soever thou wast.

550

538. This garden. See Genesis ii. 8.

539. Delectable. "Every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food." Genesis ii. 9.

544. Thou may'st not. See Genesis ii. 16, 17.

549. all was entirely good. "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Genesis i. 31.