The Labors of Dame Naamah
Renaissance painting of Noah’s wife cleaning the Ark,
surrounded by a variety of animals and birds (ImageFX).
Click to enlarge
6. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the ground,
9. there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah.
10. And it came to pass after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Genesis, ch. 7
When waters high did veil the earthly lands,
And tempest fierce did scour the sinful plains,
Within the Ark, Dame Naamah plied her hands,
Amidst the beastly brays and stormy rains.
She swept the stalls where lions restless lay,
And fed the doves their grains with tender care;
She bade the goats in gentle bounds to stay,
And soothed the restless bear with careful stare.
From dawn till dusk, she spun and stitched with skill,
Cloth to adorn her family and crew;
Her candle’s glow endured the evening chill,
While Noah dreamed of skies once clear and blue.
She hauled fresh water from the barrels deep,
And bathed each lamb that bleated in the night.
Her spirit strong, her gaze did never sleep,
Her heart ablaze to see the coming light.
Thus did she serve beneath the shadowed rain,
A faithful hand in tempest’s dark domain.
