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Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

The Cosmic Egg

Anonymous

UPON a rock yet uncreate,

Amid a chaos inchoate,

An uncreated being sate;

Beneath him, rock,

Above him, cloud.

And the cloud was rock,

And the rock was cloud.

The rock then growing soft and warm,

The cloud began to take a form,

A form chaotic, vast and vague,

Which issued in the cosmic egg.

Then the Being uncreate

On the egg did incubate,

And thus became the incubator;

And of the egg did allegate,

And thus became the alligator;

And the incubator was potentate,

But the alligator was potentator.