Because Genesis 1 is exquisite poetry, does that somehow make it allegorical? Let me show you some amazing things about this passage.
Firstly, the passage is arranged in a chiasm. This is a Hebrew poetic device that gives it structure and form. The chiasm is arranged like this

A Day 1
           B Day 2                  Forming
                      C Day 3
                                       D
                     C’ day 6
         B’ Day 5                   Filling
A’ Day 4

In this arrangement D is the apex or focal statement. In the chiasm of Gen 1, A, B and C are the forming Days (Days 1-3,) where A is light B is water and sky and C is land and vegetation. The mirror of the chiasm is filling days (Days 4-6.) C’ which is animals and Man B’ Birds and fish, and A’ is Sun and moon. So, the chiasm has described the forming and filling days of creation. That is why on the surface the order of days does not seem logical e.g., Light is on Day one and the sun and moon is on day 4. The entire narrative is pointing to D which is the Sabbath. There are very few Hebrew scholars who would not acknowledge this. (Genesis 3 is in a chiasm as well.)

Throughout this account we see a literary technique designed to emphasis the position and to strengthen the significance of the 7th day. That is, the writer repeats the most important words, verbs, and expressions of the story 7 times or in multiples of 7. Firstly, the Hebrew verbs ‘to create’, ‘to see’, and ‘to make’ are used 7 times in the narrative. Also, the words having the same grammatical Hebrew root word for bird, to fly, to move, light and to give light are used 7 times. What’s more 7 repetitions occur in the following cases: water and day 14 times, heaven and earth 21 times and God (Elohim) 28 times. The first sentence of the narrative has 7 Hebrew words, the second clause has 14. The first paragraph has 35 words, presented in 5 propositions, each with 7 words. The original 7th, applied to the 7th day is repeated 3 times in contrast to all the other days, which occur but once in the narrative.

This technique enabled the Hebrews to understand that the whole narrative was pointing to the seventh day. For them, the figure 7 bears the idea of totality, of completeness, even perfection. The strong, repetitive, 7-fold pattern adds even greater emphasis to the significance and function of the 7th day.

Any argument that tries to say that these days could be long periods of time is destroyed by two facts. Firstly, “the evening and morning” of each day is clearly referring to the dark and light part of the day. Under the influence of having no clocks Hebrews kept days from sunset to sunset as instructed by God. Thus, the evening was the beginning of the new day.

Most importantly, God Himself declared that He created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. He did this by encapsulating the event into the fourth commandment of Exodus 20 which reads, 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 For six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your [a]resident who [b]stays with you. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11 NASB

So, God the Father, God the Son -Jesus and the Holy Spirit (who was also present at creation,) all believed in the historicity of the Genesis account of creation and the flood. Every other Bible author (prophet, priest, king, or apostle) all believed that Genesis 1-11 was history not allegory or anything else. So, whose company should we keep? 685