Noah's Flood
Noah's Flood
Original Text
Michael Drayton. The muses Elizium. London: T. Harper for J. Waterson, 1630. STC 7210.
1Eternal and all-working God, which wast
2Before the world, whose frame by Thee was cast,
3And beautified with beamful lamps above,
4By thy great wisdom set how they should move
5To guide the seasons, equally to all,
6Which come and go as they do rise and fall.
7My mighty Maker, O do thou infuse
8Such life and spirit into my labouring Muse,
9That I may sing (what but from Noah thou hid'st)
10The greatest thing that ever yet thou didst
11Since the creation; that the world may see
12The Muse is heavenly and deriv'd from Thee.
13O let Thy glorious Angel which since kept
14That gorgeous Eden, where once Adam slept,
15When tempting Eve was taken from his side,
16Let him great God not only be my guide,
17But with his fiery faucheon still be nie,
18To keep affliction far from me, that I
19With a free soul thy wondrous works may show,
20Then like that deluge shall my numbers flow,
21Telling the state wherein the earth then stood,
22The giant race, the universal flood.
Publication Start Year
1630
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
2RP.1.212.