The Turnings of the Fire

The Turnings of the Fire

And so the burning mass passed

Through all its turnings:

One half of fire became sea, 

One half of sea became earth, 

One half of earth became air,

And one half of air – the finer part – 

Became the creator who did shape

Those elements into a sphere.

And the sphere hung suspended 

In a wide circuit 

Of stars and celestial bodies 

Split off from the primal fire, 

Now clustered 

Around the globe like a host of radiant gods, 

Casting their rays into the minds 

Of sages of Ancient Greece.

Awakened from a sleep

Of three thousands years,

The sages of Ancient Greece

Looked to the heavens and wept,

Some had been forgotten,

Others misremembered,

Yet all desired to return

To the dread bones of Hades,

There, to sleep once more,

There, where memory

Must be allowed its silence,

Free from the magniloquent fancies

Of the moderns.