Of royal Petra and the Persian hills,^*
Clear in the long bright sunshine of the dawn.
The evening and the shores that glow beside
The setting sun are the west wind's abode.
To Scythia and the wastes beneath the Wain
The blustering north wind marched; far opposite,
Wrapped in continual clouds, the flooded fields
Lie sodden as the south wind brings the rain.
High over these he set the empyrean
Weightless, serene, with naught of earthly dross.

Scarce had he thus all things in finite bounds
Divided when the stars, in darkness blind
Long buried, over all the spangled sky
Began to gleam; and, that no part or place
Should lack fit forms of life, the firmament
He made the home of gods and goddesses
And the bright constellations; in the sea
He set the shining fish to swim; the land
Received the beasts, the gusty air the birds.
A holier creature, of a loftier mind,
Fit master of the rest, was lacking still.
Then man was made, perhaps from seed divine
Formed by the great Creator, so to found
A better world, perhaps* the new-made earth,
So lately parted from the ethereal heavens,
Kept still some essence of the kindred sky--
Earth that Prometheus moulded, mixed with water,
In likeness of the gods that govern the world--
And while the other creatures on all fours
Look downwards, man was made to hold his head
Erect in majesty and see the sky,
And raise his eyes to the bright stars above.
Thus earth, once crude and featureless, now changed
Put on the unknown form of humankind.

THE AGES OF MANKIND

Golden was that first age which unconstrained,
With heart and soul, obedient to no law,
Gave honour to good faith and righteousness.

-3-