Amorphous, rude, colossal things

Lolled on the ooze in lazy motion,

Armed with grim jaws or uncouth wings;

Helpless to lift their cumbering bulk

They lurch like some dismasted hulk.

And virgin forest, verdant plain,

The briny sea, the balmy air,

Each blade of grass and globe of rain,

And glimmering cave and gloomy lair

Began to swarm with beasts and birds,

With floating fish and fleet-foot herds.

The lust of life's delirious fires

Burned like a fever in their blood,

Now pricked them on with fierce desires,

Now drove them famishing for food,

[11]

To seize coy females in the fray,

Or hotly hunted hunt for prey.

And amorously urged them on

In wood or wild to court their mate,

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