New Deluge

Old mariners marveled

at the main above them;

Seasoned sailors stared

at the skies beneath them.

The hyaline rose

To heights unrecorded;

the main descended

in a mighty crash.

The green ground groaned

as if the globe were ruptured;

 the oceans roared

from their innermost depths.

The flowing winds shrieked

with the fury of a cyclone;

A dazzling radiance

dimmed the stars.

One instant, the ocean

seemed emptied of its waters,

Then flooded in the next

with a foaming surge.

Foam and froth

filled the vales;

The mere overbore

the mountaintops.

It washed the valleys

from West to East;

It soaked the summits

from South to North:

Spilling, rushing,

splashing, gushing,

Until creeks were o’erborne

and continents buried.

The flow filled the valleys

and flooded the rain-clouds

Clearer than crystal,

it closed every crevasse;

As mighty as Fate,

it mounted to Heaven.

The mere had o’ertaken

the Mane of the Field;

The land was concealed

by the Lord of the Rivers.

The Waverer filled

with a watery scent;

Fresh was the whistler

with fumes of the froth.

One looked in vain

for the land all around;

One sought without hope

for a sight of the shore.