A thin circumference of land appears, And earth, but not at once, her visage rears, And peeps upon the seas from upper grounds; The streams, but just contain’d within their bounds, By slow degrees into their channels crawl, And earth increases as the waters fall; In longer time the tops of trees appear, Which mud on their dishonour’d branches bear.

At length the world was all restored to view, But desolate, and of a sickly hue; Nature beheld herself, and stood aghast, A dismal desert and a silent waste.