Legend of the Centuries, The

The dawn appeared; what dawning? an abyss
Of splendor, vast, unfathomable, sublime,
An ardent glow of goodness & of peace
‘Twas earth’s new morning & the glory shone
Serene across the inaccessible heavens,
With all that God might show of visible.
All gleamed, the shadow and the dusky mist,
Golden lavanges crumbled down the blue
The day in flame, to ravished Earth’s foundation
Kindled the splendid distances of life
Horizons full of shade and shaggy rocks
Of frightful woods no more beheld by man,
Shimmered like dreams, as a dizzy whirl,
In deeps of lightning and of prodigy.
     Naked & modest Eden softly woke;
Warbled the birds a hymn so charming, sweet,
Graceful and tender, angels stooped to hear it.
More mellow rose the tigers lovely roar,
Fields where the lambkin pastured with the wolves.
Seas where the hydra loved the lacyon, plains
Where bears and fallow-deer their breathes commingle
Paused, in the choir of concerts infinite,
Between the lair-cry and the ?? of the nests
The very light seemed interfused with prayer
And on this Nature yet immaculate
Which kept the accent of the Eternal Word,
This world angelic, heavenly, innocent,