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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 |
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