Poem on Genesis, to Pope Leo

Contents

1. 1The poem opens with thanks to God the Father, eternal and uncreated, who before the creation was at work within the formless chaos.
2. 31God rouses the sluggish matter, sets heaven above and earth below, gathers the seas, and creates light, day, and night.
3. 61God sets the sun, moon, and stars in heaven, whose courses give order and knowledge to farmers and sailors.
4. 91God adorns the earth with plants, beasts, and birds, and then, speaking with his Son, makes man in his image and woman from his rib.
5. 121The poet praises man's upright form, reason, and speech, the breath of God breathed into him, and his appointment as lord of creation.
6. 151Adam's sin brings shame, weakness, and a progeny ever worse in crime, until the flood washes the earth; Noah's ark prefigures baptism and the Church.
7. 181After the flood the dove brings the olive leaf, and a purer race arises, from which come priests, the three youths, Daniel, kings, and prophets; but a trace of the ancient poison remains for Christ to wash away.