Before Aeons Came

Before the beginning of years

There came to the making of man

Time, with a gift of tears

Grief, with a glass that ranPleasure, with pain for leaven

Summer, with flowers that fell

Remembrance fallen from Heaven

And madness risen from HellStrength without hands to smite

Love that endures for a breath

Night the shadow of light

And life the shadow of deathAnd the high Gods took in hand

Fire and the falling of tears

And a measure of sliding sand

From under the feet of the yearsAnd froth, drift of the sea

And dust of the laboring earth

And bodies of things to be

In the houses of death and of birthAnd wrought with weeping and laughter

And fashioned with loathing and love

With life before and after

And death, beneath and above