Metamorphoses (Books I-XIV)
The Creation of the World
1:1 Of bodies chang'd to various forms, I sing:
1:2 Ye Gods, from whom these miracles did spring,
1:3 Inspire my numbers with coelestial heat;
1:4 'Till I my long laborious work compleat:
1:5 And add perpetual tenour to my rhimes,
1:6 Deduc'd from Nature's birth, to Caesar's times.
1:7 Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
1:8 And Heav'n's high canopy, that covers all,
1:9 One was the face of Nature; if a face:
1:10 Rather a rude and indigested mass:
1:11 A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd,
1:12 Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos nam'd.
1:13 No sun was lighted up, the world to view;
1:14 No moon did yet her blunted horns renew:
1:15 Nor yet was Earth suspended in the sky,
1:16 Nor pois'd, did on her own foundations lye:
1:17 Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown;
1:18 But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
1:19 Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,
1:20 And water's dark abyss unnavigable.
1:21 No certain form on any was imprest;
1:22 All were confus'd, and each disturb'd the rest.
1:23 For hot and cold were in one body fixt;
1:24 And soft with hard, and light with heavy mixt.
1:25 But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,
1:26 To these intestine discords put an end:
1:27 Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv'n,
1:28 And grosser air sunk from aetherial Heav'n.
1:29 Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place;
1:30 The next of kin, contiguously embrace;
1:31 And foes are sunder'd, by a larger space.
1:32 The force of fire ascended first on high,
1:33 And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky:
1:34 Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire;
1:35 Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.
1:36 Earth sinks beneath, and draws a num'rous throng
1:37 Of pondrous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.
1:38 About her coasts, unruly waters roar;
1:39 And rising, on a ridge, insult the shore.
Metamorphoses (Books I-XIV)
The Creation of the World
1:1 Of bodies chang'd to various forms, I sing:
1:2 Ye Gods, from whom these miracles did spring,
1:3 Inspire my numbers with coelestial heat;
1:4 'Till I my long laborious work compleat:
1:5 And add perpetual tenour to my rhimes,
1:6 Deduc'd from Nature's birth, to Caesar's times.
1:7 Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
1:8 And Heav'n's high canopy, that covers all,
1:9 One was the face of Nature; if a face:
1:10 Rather a rude and indigested mass:
1:11 A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd,
1:12 Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos nam'd.
1:13 No sun was lighted up, the world to view;
1:14 No moon did yet her blunted horns renew:
1:15 Nor yet was Earth suspended in the sky,
1:16 Nor pois'd, did on her own foundations lye:
1:17 Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown;
1:18 But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
1:19 Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,
1:20 And water's dark abyss unnavigable.
1:21 No certain form on any was imprest;
1:22 All were confus'd, and each disturb'd the rest.
1:23 For hot and cold were in one body fixt;
1:24 And soft with hard, and light with heavy mixt.
1:25 But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,
1:26 To these intestine discords put an end:
1:27 Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv'n,
1:28 And grosser air sunk from aetherial Heav'n.
1:29 Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place;
1:30 The next of kin, contiguously embrace;
1:31 And foes are sunder'd, by a larger space.
1:32 The force of fire ascended first on high,
1:33 And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky:
1:34 Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire;
1:35 Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.
1:36 Earth sinks beneath, and draws a num'rous throng
1:37 Of pondrous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.
1:38 About her coasts, unruly waters roar;
1:39 And rising, on a ridge, insult the shore.