AN EPIC OF WOMEN.
I.
CREATION.
Nam non in hac ærumnosa miseriarum valle, in qua ad laborem ceteri mortales nascimur, producta est.
Boccaccio: De claris mulieribus.
AND God said, “Let us make a thing most fair,—
A Woman with gold hair, and eyes all blue:”
He took from the sun gold and made her hair,
And for her eyes He took His heaven’s own hue.
He sought in every precious place and store,
And gathered all sweet essences that are
In all the bodies: so He made one more
Her body, the most beautiful by far.
Pure coral with pure pearl engendering,
Bore Her the fairest flower of the sea;
And for the wonder of that new-made thing
God ceaséd then, and nothing more made He.
So the beginning of her was this way:
Full of sea savours, beautiful and good,
Made of sun, sky, and sea,—more fair than they—
On the green margin of the sea she stood.