![]() |
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PRIMITIVE MAN, by MOSCHION Poet's Biography First Line: First I shall trace and show in argument Last Line: Left visible of older sin of feast. Subject(s): Primitive Man; Cavemen | |||
FIRST I shall trace and show in argument The origin and tenure of man's life. A generation once upon a time There lived of men like-mannered with the beasts, Their homes making in caverns of the hills, In chasms where the sun spared visitation, With never yet a roof on house, nor wide City built strong and the stone towers thereof; Nor ever down black earth the twisted plough Went cutting clods that give rich grain for harvest. No iron worked upon exuberant rows Of vines -- the reveller's glory -- carefully pruned; The womb of Earth was barren of livelihood. For food men ate the flesh of mutual slaughter, -- This gave them feasting. Law was nothing worth; Might reigned coequal on the throne with Zeus. Then was the aspect of man's life reversed By Time all things engendering, nurse of all; Whether Prometheus toiled for man, or whether Necessity fore-doomed, or Time and Use Made Nature's own book clear for all to read. Then first by skill of careful husbandry In gift of grain was pure Demeter known; Then Bacchus first, in the grape's luscious flow; And Earth, unsown before, was furrowed now With harnessed oxen; now their towns men towered, Their houses walled for shelter, savagery Converting to a milder way of life. So custom first appointed for dead men A place of burial, and their due meed of dust To give unburied bodies, with no relic Left visible of older sin of feast. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CRO-MAGNONS by LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI THE TOLLUND MAN by SEAMUS HEANEY CAVE TALK by JOSEPH WARREN BEACH MIRWA & RANDOLPH by RICHARD SOLOMON GEDNEY DOUBLE BALLADE OF PRIMITIVE MAN by ANDREW LANG SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: PENNIWIT, THE ARTIST by EDGAR LEE MASTERS DIRGE FOR THE LATE JAMES CURRIE, M.D., OF LIVERPOOL by LUCY AIKEN THE ROSE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH RHAPSODY by MARTIN DONISTHORPE ARMSTRONG TO MISS F. B. ON ASKING FOR MRS. BARBAULD'S LOVE AND TIME by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |
|