Excerpt
THEFirst BookOF THEMETAMORPHOSESOFOVID.
From bodies various form'd, mutative shapesMy Muse would sing:—Celestial powers give aid!From you those changes sprung,—inspire my pen;Connect each period of my venturous songUnsever'd, from old Chaös' rude misrule,Till now the world beneath Augustus smiles.
While yet nor earth nor sea their place possest,Nor that cerulean canopy which hangsO'ershadowing all, each undistinguish'd lay,And one dead form all Nature's features bore;Unshapely, rude, and Chaos justly nam'd.Together struggling laid, each elementConfusion strange begat:—Sol had not yetWhirl'd through the blue expanse his burning car:Nor Luna yet had lighted forth her lamp,Nor fed her waning light with borrowed rays.No globous earth pois'd inly by its weight,Hung pendent in the circumambient sky:The sky was not:—Nor Amphitrité hadClasp'd round the land her wide-encircling arms.Unfirm the earth, with water mix'd and air;Opaque the air; unfluid were the waves.Together clash'd the elements confus'd:Cold strove with heat, and moisture drought oppos'd;Light, heavy, hard, and soft, in combat join'd.
Uprose the world's great Lord,—the strife dissolv'd,The firm earth from the blue sky plac'd apart;Roll'd back the waves from off the land, and fixtWhere pure ethereal joins with foggy air.Defin'd each element, and from the massChaötic, rang'd select, in concord firmHe bound, and all agreed. On high upsprungThe fiery ether to the utmost heaven:The atmospheric air, in lightness next,Upfloated:—dense the solid earth dragg'd downThe heavier mass; and girt on every sideBy waves circumfluent, seiz'd her place below.
This done, the mass this deity unknownDivides;—each part dispos'd in order lays:First earth he rounds, in form a sphere immense,Equal on every side: then bids the seas,Pent in by banks, spread their rude waves abroad,By strong winds vext; and clasp within their armsThe tortuous shores: and marshes wide he adds,Pure springs and lakes:—he bounds with shelving banksThe streams smooth gliding;—slowly creeping, someThe arid earth absorbs; furious some rush,And in the watery plain their waves disgorge;Their narrow bounds escap'd, to billows rise,And lash the sandy shores. He bade the plainsExtend;—the vallies sink;—the groves to bloom;—And rocky hills to lift their heads aloft.And as two zones the northern heaven restrain,The southern two, and one the hotter midst,With five the Godhead girt th' inclosed earth,And climates five upon its face imprest.The midst from heat inhabitable: snowsEternal cover two: 'twixt these extremesTwo temperate regions lie, where heat and coldMeet in due mixture; 'bove the whole light airWas hung:—as water floats above the land,So fire 'bove air ascends. Here he bade lodge,Thick clouds and vapors; thunders bellowing loudTerrific to mankind, and winds; which mixtSharp cold beget. But these to range at largeThe air throughout, his care forbade. E'en nowTheir force is scarce withstood; but oft they threatWild ruin to the universe, though eachIn separate regions rules his potent blasts.Such is fraternal strife! Far to the eastWhere Persian mountains greet the rising sunEurus withdrew. Where sinking Phœbus' raysGlow on the western shores mild Zephyr fled.Terrific Boreas frozen Scythia seiz'd,Beneath the icy bear. On southern climesFrom constant clouds the showery Auster rains.The liquid ether high above he spread,Light, calm, and undefil'd by dregs terrene....