When I last did bid farewell, I proposed the world to tell, Higher as the Deluge flow’d, How the frog and how the toad, With the lizard and the eft, All their holes and coverts left, And assembled on the height; Soon I ween appeared in sight All that’s wings beneath the sky, Bat and swallow, wasp and fly, Gnat and sparrow, and behind Comes the crow of carrion kind; Dove and pigeon are descried, And the raven fiery-eyed, With the beetle and the crane Flying on the hurricane: See they find no resting-place, For the world’s terrestrial space Is with water cover’d o’er, Soon they sink to rise no more: ‘To our father let us flee!’ Straight the ark-ship openeth he, And to everything that lives Kindly he admission gives. Of all kinds a single pair, And the members safely there Of his house he doth embark, Then at once he shuts the ark; Everything therein has pass’d, There he keeps them safe and fast. O’er the mountain’s topmost peak Now the raging waters break. Till full twenty days are o’er, ‘Midst the elemental roar, Up and down the ark forlorn, Like some evil thing is borne: O what grief it is to see Swimming on the enormous sea Human corses pale and white, More, alas! than I can write: O what grief, what grief profound, But to think the world is drown’d: True a scanty few are left, All are not of life bereft, So that, when the Lord ordain, They may procreate again, In a world entirely new, Better people and more true, To their Maker who shall bow; And I humbly beg you now, Ye in modern times who wend, That your lives ye do amend; For no wat’ry punishment, But a heavier shall be sent; For the blessed saints pretend That the latter world shall end To tremendous fire a prey, And to ashes sink away. To the Ark I now go back, Which pursues its dreary track, Lost and ‘wilder’d till the Lord In his mercy rest accord. Early of a morning tide They unclosed a window wide, Heaven’s beacon to descry, And a gentle dove let fly, Of the world to seek some trace, And in two short hours’ space It returns with eyes that glow, In its beak an olive bough. With a loud and mighty sound, They exclaim: ‘The world we’ve found.’ To a mountain nigh they drew, And when there themselves they view, Bound they swiftly on the shore, And their fervent thanks outpour, Lowly kneeling to their God; Then their way a couple trod, Man and woman, hand in hand, Bent to populate the land, To the Moorish region fair— And another two repair To the country of the Gaul; In this manner wend they all, And the seeds of nations lay. I beseech ye’ll credence pay, For our father, high and sage, Wrote the tale in sacred page, As a record to the world, Record sad of vengeance hurl’d. I, a low and humble wight, Beg permission now to write Unto all that in our land Tongue Egyptian understand. May our Virgin Mother mild Grant to me, her erring child, Plenteous grace in every way, And success. Amen I say.