Earth Goddess

I am that which began;
Out of me the years roll;
Out of me God and Man;
I am equal and whole;
God changes, and Man, and the form of them bodily; I am the Soul.

Before ever land was,
Before ever the sea,
Or soft hair of the grass,
Or fair limbs of the tree,
Or the fresh-coloured fruit of my branches, I was, and thy soul was in me.

First life on my sources
First drifted and swam;
Out of me are the forces
That save it or damn;
Out of me man and woman, and wild-beast and bird; before God was, I am.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

This is only the first three verses. (There are forty-odd more, but these are the only verses that i have by heart; don't ask). Hertha was (is?) the Earth Goddess, Germanic version (it's an obviously Germanic word). And of course Hertha is a Goddess; in every language known to me that has genders, Sky is a masculine noun and Earth is a feminine noun.

`I am that which began...''. Of course on the face of it it's the Goddess speaking, but it's also the poem speaking, or rather the first line of the poem: ``I am that which began'' is, indeed, that which began...

I encountered this in the appendix (i think) of something written by E.M.W. Tillyard. I cannot now remember what it was or how i came to be reading it—a volume of literary criticism for heavan's sake! Tillyard was the grandfather of my colleague Greg Sankaran but that was not why i was reading it, long before i knew Greg.

Swinburne is fatally easy to parody—in the first instance all you need is the sense of rhythm—but some (not many) of the parodies are very memorable indeed. But this is a noble piece that makes all the parodies look unworthy.

But i'll leave you with the first few verses of Owen Seaman's wonderful parody .......

In the days of my season of salad,
When the down was as dew on my cheek,
And for French I was bred on the ballad,
For Greek on the writers of Greek, —
Then I sang of the rose that is ruddy,
Of 'pleasure that winces and stings,'
Of white women and wine that is bloody,
And similar things.

Of Delight that is dear as Desi-er,
And Desire that is dear as Delight ;
Of the fangs of the flame that is fi-er,
Of the bruises of kisses that bite ;
Of embraces that clasp and that sever,
Of blushes that flutter and flee
Round the limbs of Dolores, whoever
Dolores may be.

I sang of false faith that is fleeting
As froth of the swallowing seas,
Time's curse that is fatal as Keating
Is fatal to amorous fleas ;
Of the wanness of woe that is whelp of
The lust that is blind as a bat —
By the help of my Muse and the help of
The relative that.

[snip]

Keating's powder was a victorian preparation which was supposed to kill fleas.
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