At once obedient, Ceadmon rose, and sang; And help was with him from great thoughts of old Yearly within his silent nature stored, That swelled, collecting like a flood which bursts In spring its icy bar. The Lord of all He sang; that God beneath whose hand eterne, Then when He willed forth-stretched athwart the abyss, Creation like a fiery chariot ran, Forth-borne on wheels of ever-living stars: Him first he sang. The builder, here below, From fair foundations rears at last the roof; But Song, a child of heaven, begins with heaven, The archetype divine, and end of all; More late descends to earth. He sang that hymn, 'Let there be light, and there was light;' and lo! On the void deep came down the seal of God And stamped immortal form. Clear laughed the skies; From circumambient deeps the strong earth brake, Both continent and isle; while downward rolled The sea-surge summoned to his home remote. Then came a second vision to the man There standing 'mid his oxen. Darkness sweet, He sang, of pleasant frondage clothed the vales, And purple glooms ambrosial cast from hills Now by the sun deserted, which the moon, A glory new-created in her place, Silvered with virgin beam, while sang the bird Her first of love-songs on the branch first-flower'd-- Not yet the lion stalked. And Ceadmon sang O'er-awed, the Father of all humankind Standing in garden planted by God's hand, And girt by murmurs of the rivers four, Between the trees of Knowledge and of Life, With eastward face. In worship mute of God, Eden's Contemplative he stood that hour, Not her Ascetic, since, where sin is none, No need for spirit severe. And Ceadmon sang God's Daughter, Adam's Sister, Child, and Bride, Our Mother Eve. Lit by the matin star, That nearer drew to earth and brighter flashed To meet her gaze, that snowy Innocence Stood up with queenly port: she turned; she saw Earth's King, mankind's great Father: taught by God, Immaculate, unastonished, undismayed, In love and reverence to her Lord she drew, And, kneeling, kissed his hand: and Adam laid That hand, made holier, on that kneeler's head, And spake; 'For this shall man his parents leave, And to his wife cleave fast.' When Ceadmon ceased, Thus spake the Man Divine: 'At break of day Seek out some prudent man, and say that God Hath loosed thy tongue; nor hide henceforth thy gift.' Then Ceadmon turned, and slept among his kine Dreamless. Ere dawn he stood upon the shore In doubt: but when at last o'er eastern seas The sun, long wished for, like a god upsprang, Once more he found God's song upon his mouth Murmuring high joy; and sought an ancient friend, And told him all the vision. At the word