The Fall of the Angels (fragmento)

Through infinite, eternal space 'twas night
And darkness: scarcely the blue lightning shone,
As, flashing idly thro' its harmless flight,
It lit discordant elements alone.
Oblivion spread its vast long limbs, with sullen pride,
Midst the loved, changeless shades, that everything could hide:
No speck of beauty, sparkling there on high,
As some meek flower, that breaks the snow to shine,
No sun sail'd, like a ship, across the sky,
A startling show of pomp and power divine.


Then sounds alone, like Etna's breathings, broke
Upon the wilder'd ear of Seraphin,
And seem'd as if the presence they bespoke
Of one who mock'd at God and scoff'd at him.
For element 'gainst element was loudly warring,
And latent flames, and waves, and rocks, were broken jarring;
Then were unknown fair music's magic power,
The still soft sounding of the speaking wave,
The rolling crash of clouds, that proudly lower
As if the Almighty used the voice they gave.

Yet all was barren; nothing but a stream
Of splendent suns and stars attracts the sight:
Mingling, they deckt each other with a gleam,
Each caught its beauty from its brother's light.

But, by the grateful sight of seraph's joy beguiled,
Jehovah, pleased, look'd on his vast work and smiled:
Then suddenly they see the planets move,
They see, upon the barren glittering earth,
The bending corn, the forests, nodding grove,
And worlds and oceans teeming one great birth.

John William Polidori

The Fall of the Angles: A Sacred Poem

1821

pintura de Giulio Cesare Procaccini