"Let There be Light"

Night, stern, eternal, and alone,
  Girded with solemn silence round,
Majestic on his starless throne,
Sat brooding o’er the vast profound—
    And there unbroken darkness lay,
  Deeper than that which veils the tomb,
    While circling Ages wheeled away
   Unnoted ’mid the voiceless gloom.

Then moved upon the waveless deep
The quickening SPIRIT of the LORD,
      And broken was its pulseless sleep
Before the EVERLASTING WORD !
     “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” and listening Earth,
 With tree and plant and flowery sod,
     ‘In the beginning’ sprang to birth,
        Obedient to the voice of God.