63
When bloody flooding killed the human race
And brand-new oceans put man in his place,
Except for those who carried mankind’s seed,
I, first of creatures, snubbed what law decreed,
While I mocked yielding to the Lord’s command,
For which, I think, a poet would declare,
“The sin revealed on sea was cleansed on land.”
Now I won’t fill my brood with banquet fare
Until I see plumes blacken on their skin.
Remove a letter, I will lack my kin.
64
When God’s seas punished vile abomination
And water cleansed our sin’s contamination,
I would fulfill, first, Father’s proclamation,
Marking with fruit the start of Earth’s salvation.
I always bear a heart, thus, that’s serene
And stay a joyous bird without dark spleen.
81
I always come before clear light with light,
And, brilliant sign of sun, which makes things bright,
I am deflected angling through air.
I love the East, for brilliance starts out where
India’s lands discern an early glow.
O yielding to God’s law was once delightful!
Alas! Proud, I then fell while feeling spiteful,
And so revenge undid a deadly foe,
And thus six friends and I ascend the skies;
Books can reveal them when a reader’s wise.
(Answers: 63, Raven; 64, Dove; 81, Lucifer/Morning Star)
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Forget Odysseus. Aeneas Is the True American Hero.
Who is our Odysseus? Or more precisely, who is the most Odyssean hero of American film? Matt…
Meet the Post-Religious Right
There have been many books written about the online right and the Trump movement, most by people…
Candace Owens and the Sin of Anti-Semitism
According to the online Encyclopedia Britannica, Sir Moses Montefiore (1784–1885) was “an Italian-born businessman who was noted…
