Poem 7

Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously The waters generated by their kinds, And every bird of wing after his kind; And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas, And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill; And let the fowl be multiplied on the Earth!’ Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals Of fish that with their fins and shining scales Glide under the green wave in sculls that oft Bank the mid-sea. Part, single or with mate, Graze the sea-weed, their pasture, and through groves Of coral stray, or, sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold; Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food In jointed armour watch; on smooth the seal And bended dolphins play; part, huge of bulk, Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, Tempest the ocean. There leviathan, Hugest of living creatures, on the deep Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims, And seems a moving land, and at his gills Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea. Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, Their brood as numerous hatch from the egg, that soon, Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclosed Their callow young; but feathered soon and fledge They summed their pens, and, soaring the air sublime, With clang despised the ground, under a cloud In prospect. There the eagle and the stork On cliffs and cedar-tops their eyries build. Part loosely wing the region; part more wise, In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth Their aery caravan, high over seas Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes. From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings, Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays. Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed Their downy breast; the swan, with arched neck Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower