1796 JOSEPH VAILL. Noah's Flood. A Poem in Two Parts. Rare Early American Moral Verse.

A very scarce series of works in verse by Connecticut divine, Rev. Joseph Vaill. The first, one of the most ambitious poetic works of the late 18th century in America, contains a virtual early Old Testamant history in verse, 

In the beginning, from chaotic night,
God by his powerful voice, call'd forth the light, . . . 

. . . They pluck'd, they ate, they disobeying fell, 
Which op'd the dreadful gates to death and hell! . . . 

. . . Polluted children soon receiv'd their birth
And men deprav'd were multiplied on earth; . . . 

Then the second part makes moral improvement. Both the first and second parts contain academic and interpretive notes for the original text. The second, though in verse, containing footnotes referencing Jonathan Edwards' work on the Covenants, etc., 

But O! what vastly different scene awaits, 
Ungodly ones and painted hypocrites!
Their numerous crimes conceal'd from human sight,
Will by the Omniscient Judge, be bro't to light.
Now thoughtless of their end or day of doom,
Amus'd with fancied happiness to come . . . 

. . . The world once drown'd, is now reserv'd in store,
To be destroy'd by God's consuming power;
Redemption finish'd, and his church complete,
The elements shall melt with fervent heat;
Dread lightenings flash, and peals of thunder roll,
And rock the burning world from pole to pole,
Creation welter in a mass of fire,
When days and time, and nature shall expire!
When God shall pour his vengeance from on high,
Where will poor infidels for covert fly?
No Ark to screen them from the fiery flood,
The powers of darkness, or the wrath of God.,
No hiding-place for safety can be found,
In dark retreats of caverns of the ground; 
No one to guard them from the burning flam,
Or fiercest wrath of the incensed Lamb!
The sensual and impure, the scoffing soul,
From whose vain lips blasphemous speeches roll,
The boasting sinner, who with heart profane,
Has spurn'd at heaven and call'd religion vain;
The disbeliever, hypocrite, and liar, 
Shall feel the vengeance of eternal fire!

The poem on vice is divided by particular sins, i.e. Pride, Intemperance, Profaneness, Lying, etc. concluding, 

Would you escape the fatal road,
That leads from happiness and God;
His word regard, his laws revere,
Be chaste, be virtuous, be sincere,
The Gospel love, the Savior prize, 
Be humble, penitent, and wise:
Your maker's name with reverence fear,
And seek his grace by daily prayer;
His fear will vicious habits cure,
No antidote like this so sure.

Joseph Vaill. Pastor of the Third Church in East-Haddam. Noah's Flood: A Poem. In Two Parts. Part I. Contains an Historical Account of the Deluge, Taken from the Bible; Interspersed with Conjectural Observations. Part II. Is Designed as a Moral Improvement of the Subject. To which are added, the Following Pieces in Poetry, viz. Youth Cautioned against Vice. On Happiness. A New-Year's Hymn.  New-Haven. Printed by Samuel Green, 1796. 28pp.

Otis' 1909 American Verse, 1625-1807 describes it as being "marked by a quaint simplicity and a picturesqueness of detail which go far toward making the poem more readable." He continues, "The first of the two books narrates in general the history of man up to the time of the deluge, and concludes with the building of the Ark, a description of the Deluge itself, and the destruction of the wicked and escape of the righteous. In Book II the poet applies the moral to the preceding story. See also Wegelin's Early American Poetry, #558 in Stoddard and Whitesell's Bibliographic Description of Books and Pamphlets of American Verse. Evans 31481. 

A copy exists in the Harris Collection of American Poetry. No copies on the market, extremely scarce in the trade. 

Textually complete and good; removed from a larger sammelband with the attending residue on spine and abrasion to inner margin at the first and last leaf. Some light toning and foxing.