Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/240

234 Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.— The dry land, Earth, and the great receptacle Of congregated waters he called Seas; And saw that it was good, and said:—'Let the earth Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed, And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind, Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.' He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned, Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad Her universal face with pleasant green; Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowered, Opening their various colors, and made gay Her bosom, smelling sweet; and, these scarce blown, Forth flourished thick the clustering vine, forth crept The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub, And bush with frizzled hair implicit: last Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemmed Their blossoms. With high woods the hills were crowned, With tufts the valleys and each fountain-side, With borders long the rivers; that Earth now