Part loosely wing the region, part more wise

In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their aery caravan high over seas

Flying, and over lands with mutual wing
Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Flotes, as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes:
From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till even, nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays ::
Others on silver lakes and rivers bath'd.

Their downy breast; the swan with arched neck.
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows.
Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
The dank, and rising on stiff penions, tower
The mid aerial sky: Others on ground

Walk'd firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds
The silent hours, and the other whose gay train
Adorns him, colour'd with the florid hue
Of rainbows and starry' eyes. The waters thus
With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,

Evening and morn solemniz'd the fifth day.

The sixth, and of creation last arose

With evening harps and matin, when God said,
Let the earth bring forth fowl living in her kind,
Gattel and creeping things, and beast of the earth,
Each in their kind. The earth obey'd, and strait
Opening her fertil womb teem'd at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,

Limb'd and full grown out of the ground up rose
As from his lair the wild beast where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;

Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walk'd:
The cattel in the fields and meadows green :
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks

Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.
The grassy clods now calv'd, now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds,
And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce,
The libbard, and the tyger, as the mole

Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw

In hillocs; the swift stag from under ground
Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mold

Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd

His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose,
As plants: ambiguous between sea and land
The river horse and scaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
Insect or worm; those wav'd their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries deck'd 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, involv'd
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet, provident

Of future, in small room large heart enclos'd,
Pattern of just equality perhaps

Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes

Of commonalty: swarming next appear'd

The female bee that feeds her husband drone

Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

With honey stor'd: 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,
Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

Now Heaven in all her glory shone, and roll'd
Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand
First wheel'd their course; Earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smil'd; air, water, earth,

By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd,
Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain'd;
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 thence
Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God supreme, who made him chief
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, Man

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 ground.

This said, he form'd thee, Adam, thee O Man Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath'd 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 bless'd 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;