When morn breaks upon our sight,
    Hymns, O Lord, to Thee shall ring: 
  Thee, when streams the midday light,
    Thee, when shadows of the night
  Bid us sup, our voices sing.

  For my body’s vital heat,
    For my heart-blood’s pulsing vein,
  For my tongue and speech complete
    Unto Thee, Most High, ’tis meet
  That I raise my grateful strain.

  ’Twas, O Holy One, Thy care
    Wrought us from the plastic clay,
  Made us Thine own image bear,
    And for our perfection fair
  Did Thy Breath to man convey.

  On the twain Thou didst bestow
    Leafy bowers in pleasaunce fair: 
  Where spring’s scents for aye did blow,
    And four stately streams did flow
  O’er meads pied with blossoms rare.

  “All this realm ye now shall sway:” 
    (Saidst Thou) “use it at your will,
  Yet ’tis death your hands to lay
    On the Tree, whose verdant sway
  Doth the midmost garden fill.”

  Then the Serpent’s guileful hate
    Would not innocency spare: 
  Bade the maiden urge her mate
    With the fruit his lips to sate,
  Nor ’scaped she the self-same snare.

  Each their nakedness perceives
    When the feast they once partook: 
  Smit with shame their conscience grieves: 
    Wove they coverings of leaves
  Shielding from lascivious look.

  Far they both in terror fled
    Thrust from dwelling of the pure: 
  She who erst had dwelt unwed
    Subject to her spouse was led,
  Bidden Hymen’s bonds endure.

  On the Serpent, too, His seal
    God hath set, Who guile abhorred,
  Doomed in triple neck to feel
    Impress of the woman’s heel,
  Fearing her, who feared her lord.

  Thus sin in our parents sown
    Brought forth ruin for the race;
  Good and evil having grown
    From that primal root alone,
  Nought but death could guilt efface.

  But the Second Man behold
    Come to re-create our kin: 
  Not formed after common mould
    But our God (O Love untold!)
  Made in flesh that knows not sin.

  Word of God incarnated,
    By His awful power conceived,
  Whom a maiden yet unwed,
    Innocent of marriage-bed,
  In her virgin womb received.

  Now we see the Serpent lewd
    ’Neath the woman’s heel downtrod: 
  Whence there sprang the deadly feud,
    Strife for ages unsubdued,
  ’Twixt mankind and foe of God.

  Yet God’s mother, Maid adored,
    Robbed sin’s poison of its bane,
  And the Snake, his green coils lowered,
    Writhing on the sod, outpoured
  Harmless now his venom’s stain.

  What fierce brute that doth not flee
    Lambs of Christ, white-robed and clean? 
  ’Midst the flock from fear set free,
    Slinks the drear wolf sullenly,
  Checked his maw and tamed his mien.