Explore "Homer's Hymn to the Earth: Mother of All" by Percy Bysshe Shelley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O universal Mother, who dost keep / From everlasting thy foundations deep, / Eldest of things, Great Earth, I sing of thee! / All shapes that have their dwelling in the sea, / All things that fly, or on the ground divine / Live, move, and there are nourished-these are thine; / These from thy wealth thou dost sustain; from thee / Fair babes are born, and fruits on every tree / Hang ripe and large, revered Divinity!
The life of mortal men beneath thy sway / Is held; thy power both gives and takes away! / Happy are they whom thy mild favours nourish; / All things unstinted round them grow and flourish. / For them, endures the life-sustaining field / Its load of harvest, and their cattle yield / Large increase, and their house with wealth is filled. / Such honoured dwell in cities fair and free, / The homes of lovely women, prosperously; / Their sons exult in youth's new budding gladness, / And their fresh daughters free from care or sadness, / With bloom-inwoven dance and happy song, / On the soft flowers the meadow-grass among, / Leap round them sporting-such delights by thee / Are given, rich Power, revered Divinity.