Distended, as the brow of God appeased?
Or serve they, as a flowery verge to bind
The fluid skirts of that same watery cloud,
Lest it again dissolve, and shower the earth?
To whom the Archangel: Dexterously thou aim’st;
So willingly doth God remit his ire—
That he relents, not to blot out mankind;
And makes a covenant never to destroy
The earth again by flood; nor let the sea
Surpass its bounds; nor rain to drown the world,