Poet Voices passing.O we live, O we live—And this life that we conceiveIs a noble thing and high,Which we climb up loftilyTo view God without a stain;Till, recoiling where the shade is,We retread our steps again,And descend the gloomy HadesTo resume man's mortal pain.Shall it be climbed in vain?Infant Voices passing.Rock us softly,Lest it be all in vain.Love Voices passing.O we live, O we live—And this life we would retrieve,Is a faithful thing apartWhich we love in, heart to heart,Until one heart fitteth twain."Wilt thou be one with me?""I will be one with thee.""Ha, ha!—we love and live!"Alas! ye love and die.Shriek—who shall reply?For is it not loved in vain?Infant Voices passing.Rock us softly,Though it be all in vain.Aged Voices passing.O we live, O we live—And this life we would survive,Is a gloomy thing and brief,Which, consummated in grief,Leaveth ashes for all gain.Is it notallin vain?Infant Voices passing.Rock us softly,Though it beallin vain.
Poet Voices passing.O we live, O we live—And this life that we conceiveIs a noble thing and high,Which we climb up loftilyTo view God without a stain;Till, recoiling where the shade is,We retread our steps again,And descend the gloomy HadesTo resume man's mortal pain.Shall it be climbed in vain?
Infant Voices passing.Rock us softly,Lest it be all in vain.
Love Voices passing.O we live, O we live—And this life we would retrieve,Is a faithful thing apartWhich we love in, heart to heart,Until one heart fitteth twain."Wilt thou be one with me?""I will be one with thee.""Ha, ha!—we love and live!"Alas! ye love and die.Shriek—who shall reply?For is it not loved in vain?
Infant Voices passing.Rock us softly,Though it be all in vain.
Aged Voices passing.O we live, O we live—And this life we would survive,Is a gloomy thing and brief,Which, consummated in grief,Leaveth ashes for all gain.Is it notallin vain?
Infant Voices passing.Rock us softly,Though it beallin vain.
[Voices die away.
Earth Spirits.And bringer of the curse upon all these.Eve.The voices of foreshown HumanityDie off;—so let me die.Adam.So let us die,When God's will soundeth the right hour of death.Earth Spirits.And bringer of the curse upon all these.Eve.O Spirits! by the gentleness ye useIn winds at night, and floating clouds at noon,In gliding waters under lily-leaves,In chirp of crickets, and the settling hushA bird makes in her nest with feet and wings,—Fulfil your natures now!Earth Spirits.Agreed, allowed!We gather out our natures like a cloud,And thus fulfil their lightnings! Thus, and thus!Hearken, oh hearken to us!First Spirit.As the storm-wind blows bleakly from the norland,As the snow-wind beats blindly on the moorland,As the simoom drives hot across the desert,As the thunder roars deep in the Unmeasured.As the torrent tears the ocean-world to atoms,As the whirlpool grinds it fathoms below fathoms,Thus,—and thus!Second Spirit.As the yellow toad, that spits its poison chilly,As the tiger, in the jungle crouching stilly,As the wild boar, with ragged tusks of anger,As the wolf-dog, with teeth of glittering clangour,As the vultures, that scream against the thunder,As the owlets, that sit and moan asunder,Thus,—and thus!Eve.Adam! God!Adam.Cruel, unrelenting Spirits!By the power in me of the sovran soulWhose thoughts keep pace yet with the angel's march,I charge you into silence—trample youDown to obedience. I am king of you!Earth Spirits.Ha, ha! thou art king!With a sin for a crown,And a soul undone!Thou, the antagonized,Tortured and agonized,Held in the ringOf the zodiac!Now, king, beware!We are many and strongWhom thou standest among,—And we press on the air,And we stifle thee back,And we multiply whereThou wouldst trample us downFrom rights of our ownTo an utter wrong—And, from under the feet of thy scorn,O forlorn,We shall spring up like corn,And our stubble be strong.Adam.God, there is power in thee! I make appealUnto thy kingship.Eve.There is pity inThee,O sinned against, great God!—My seed, my seed,There is hope set onThee—I cry to thee,Thou mystic Seed that shalt be!—leave us notIn agony beyond what we can bear,Fallen in debasement below thunder-mark,A mark for scorning—taunted and perplextBy all these creatures we ruled yesterday,Whom thou, Lord, rulest alway! O my Seed,Through the tempestuous years that rain so thickBetwixt my ghostly vision and thy face,Let me have token! for my soul is bruisedBefore the serpent's head is.
Earth Spirits.And bringer of the curse upon all these.
Eve.The voices of foreshown HumanityDie off;—so let me die.
Adam.So let us die,When God's will soundeth the right hour of death.
Earth Spirits.And bringer of the curse upon all these.
Eve.O Spirits! by the gentleness ye useIn winds at night, and floating clouds at noon,In gliding waters under lily-leaves,In chirp of crickets, and the settling hushA bird makes in her nest with feet and wings,—Fulfil your natures now!
Earth Spirits.Agreed, allowed!We gather out our natures like a cloud,And thus fulfil their lightnings! Thus, and thus!Hearken, oh hearken to us!
First Spirit.As the storm-wind blows bleakly from the norland,As the snow-wind beats blindly on the moorland,As the simoom drives hot across the desert,As the thunder roars deep in the Unmeasured.As the torrent tears the ocean-world to atoms,As the whirlpool grinds it fathoms below fathoms,Thus,—and thus!
Second Spirit.As the yellow toad, that spits its poison chilly,As the tiger, in the jungle crouching stilly,As the wild boar, with ragged tusks of anger,As the wolf-dog, with teeth of glittering clangour,As the vultures, that scream against the thunder,As the owlets, that sit and moan asunder,Thus,—and thus!
Eve.Adam! God!
Adam.Cruel, unrelenting Spirits!By the power in me of the sovran soulWhose thoughts keep pace yet with the angel's march,I charge you into silence—trample youDown to obedience. I am king of you!
Earth Spirits.Ha, ha! thou art king!With a sin for a crown,And a soul undone!Thou, the antagonized,Tortured and agonized,Held in the ringOf the zodiac!Now, king, beware!We are many and strongWhom thou standest among,—And we press on the air,And we stifle thee back,And we multiply whereThou wouldst trample us downFrom rights of our ownTo an utter wrong—And, from under the feet of thy scorn,O forlorn,We shall spring up like corn,And our stubble be strong.
Adam.God, there is power in thee! I make appealUnto thy kingship.
Eve.There is pity inThee,O sinned against, great God!—My seed, my seed,There is hope set onThee—I cry to thee,Thou mystic Seed that shalt be!—leave us notIn agony beyond what we can bear,Fallen in debasement below thunder-mark,A mark for scorning—taunted and perplextBy all these creatures we ruled yesterday,Whom thou, Lord, rulest alway! O my Seed,Through the tempestuous years that rain so thickBetwixt my ghostly vision and thy face,Let me have token! for my soul is bruisedBefore the serpent's head is.
[A vision ofChristappears in the midst of the Zodiac, which pales before the heavenly light. The Earth Spirits grow greyer and fainter.
Christ.I am here!Adam.This is God!—Curse us not, God, any more!Eve.But gazing so—so—with omnific eyes,Lift my soul upward till it touch thy feet!Or lift it only,—not to seem too proud,—To the low height of some good angel's feet,For such to tread on when he walketh straightAnd thy lips praise him!Christ.Spirits of the earth,I meet you with rebuke for the reproachAnd cruel and unmitigated blameYe cast upon your masters. True, they have sinned;And true their sin is reckoned into lossFor you the sinless. Yet, your innocenceWhich of you praises? since God made your actsInherent in your lives, and bound your handsWith instincts and imperious sanctitiesFrom self-defacement. Which of you disdainsThese sinners who in falling proved their heightAbove you by their liberty to fall?And which of you complains of loss by them,For whose delight and use ye have your lifeAnd honour in creation? Ponder it!This regent and sublime Humanity,Though fallen, exceeds you! this shall film your sun,Shall hunt your lightning to its lair of cloud,Turn back your rivers, footpath all your seas,Lay flat your forests, master with a lookYour lion at his fasting, and fetch downYour eagle flying. Nay, without this lawOf mandom, ye would perish,—beast by beastDevouring,—tree by tree, with strangling rootsAnd trunks set tuskwise. Ye would gaze on GodWith imperceptive blankness up the stars,And mutter, "Why, God, hast thou made us thus?"And pining to a sallow idiocyStagger up blindly against the ends of life,Then stagnate into rottenness and dropHeavily—poor, dead matter—piecemeal downThe abysmal spaces—like a little stoneLet fall to chaos. Therefore over youReceive man's sceptre!—therefore be contentTo minister with voluntary graceAnd melancholy pardon, every riteAnd function in you, to the human hand!Be ye to man as angels are to God,Servants in pleasure, singers of delight,Suggesters to his soul of higher thingsThan any of your highest! So at last,He shall look round on you with lids too straightTo hold the grateful tears, and thank you well,And bless you when he prays his secret prayers,And praise you when he sings his open songsFor the clear song-note he has learnt in youOf purifying sweetness, and extendAcross your head his golden fantasiesWhich glorify you into soul from sense.Go, serve him for such price! That not in vainNor yet ignobly ye shall serve, I placeMy word here for an oath, mine oath for actTo be hereafter. In the name of whichPerfect redemption and perpetual grace,I bless you through the hope and through the peaceWhich are mine,—to the Love, which is myself.Eve.Speak on still, Christ! Albeit thou bless me notIn set words, I am blessed in hearkening thee—Speak, Christ!Christ.Speak, Adam! Bless the woman, man!It is thine office.Adam.Mother of the world,Take heart before this Presence! Lo, my voice,Which, naming erst the creatures, did express(God breathing through my breath) the attributesAnd instincts of each creature in its name,Floats to the same afflatus,—floats and heavesLike a water-weed that opens to a wave,—A full leaved prophecy affecting thee,Out fairly and wide. Henceforward, arise, aspireTo all the calms and magnanimities,The lofty uses and the noble ends,The sanctified devotion and full work,To which thou art elect for evermore,First woman, wife, and mother!Eve.And first in sin.Adam.And also the sole bearer of the SeedWhereby sin dieth. Raise the majestiesOf thy disconsolate brows, O well-beloved,And front with level eyelids the To-come,And all the dark o' the world! Rise, woman, riseTo thy peculiar and best altitudesOf doing good and of enduring ill,Of comforting for ill, and teaching good,And reconciling all that ill and goodUnto the patience of a constant hope,—Rise with thy daughters! If sin came by thee,And by sin, death,—the ransom-righteousness,The heavenly life and compensative restShall come by means of thee. If woe by theeHad issue to the world, thou shalt go forthAn angel of the woe thou didst achieve,Found acceptable to the world insteadOf others of that name, of whose bright stepsThy deed stripped bare the hills. Be satisfied;Something thou hast to bear through womanhood,Peculiar suffering answering to the sin,—Some pang paid down for each new human life,Some weariness in guarding such a life,Some coldness from the guarded, some mistrustFrom those thou hast too well served, from those belovedToo loyally some treason; feeblenessWithin thy heart, and cruelty without,And pressures of an alien tyrannyWith its dynastic reasons of larger bonesAnd stronger sinews. But, go to! thy loveShall chant itself its own beatitudesAfter its own life-working. A child's kissSet on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad;A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich;A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;Thou shalt be served thyself by every senseOf service which thou renderest. Such a crownI set upon thy head,—Christ witnessingWith looks of prompting love—to keep thee clearOf all reproach against the sin forgone,From all the generations which succeed.Thy hand which plucked the apple I clasp close,Thy lips which spake wrong counsel I kiss close,I bless thee in the name of ParadiseAnd by the memory of Edenic joysForfeit and lost,—by that last cypress tree,Green at the gate, which thrilled as we came out,And by the blessed nightingale which threwIts melancholy music after us,—And by the flowers, whose spirits full of smellsDid follow softly, plucking us behindBack to the gradual banks and vernal bowersAnd fourfold river-courses.—By all these,I bless thee to the contraries of these,I bless thee to the desert and the thorns,To the elemental change and turbulence,And to the roar of the estranged beasts,And to the solemn dignities of grief,—To each one of these ends,—and to theirendOf Death and the hereafter.Eve.I acceptFor me and for my daughters this high partWhich lowly shall be counted. Noble workShall hold me in the place of garden-rest,And in the place of Eden's lost delightWorthy endurance of permitted pain;While on my longest patience there shall waitDeath's speechless angel, smiling in the east,Whence cometh the cold wind. I bow myselfHumbly henceforward on the ill I did,That humbleness may keep it in the shade.Shall it be so? shall I smile, saying so?O Seed! O King! O God, whoshaltbe seed,—What shall I say? As Eden's fountains swelledBrightly betwixt their banks, so swells my soulBetwixt thy love and power!And, sweetest thoughtsOf forgone Eden! now, for the first timeSince God said "Adam," walking through the trees,I dare to pluck you as I plucked erewhileThe lily or pink, the rose or heliotropeSo pluck I you—so largely—with both hands,And throw you forward on the outer earth,Wherein we are cast out, to sweeten it.Adam.As thou, Christ, to illume it, holdest HeavenBroadly over our heads.
Christ.I am here!
Adam.This is God!—Curse us not, God, any more!
Eve.But gazing so—so—with omnific eyes,Lift my soul upward till it touch thy feet!Or lift it only,—not to seem too proud,—To the low height of some good angel's feet,For such to tread on when he walketh straightAnd thy lips praise him!
Christ.Spirits of the earth,I meet you with rebuke for the reproachAnd cruel and unmitigated blameYe cast upon your masters. True, they have sinned;And true their sin is reckoned into lossFor you the sinless. Yet, your innocenceWhich of you praises? since God made your actsInherent in your lives, and bound your handsWith instincts and imperious sanctitiesFrom self-defacement. Which of you disdainsThese sinners who in falling proved their heightAbove you by their liberty to fall?And which of you complains of loss by them,For whose delight and use ye have your lifeAnd honour in creation? Ponder it!This regent and sublime Humanity,Though fallen, exceeds you! this shall film your sun,Shall hunt your lightning to its lair of cloud,Turn back your rivers, footpath all your seas,Lay flat your forests, master with a lookYour lion at his fasting, and fetch downYour eagle flying. Nay, without this lawOf mandom, ye would perish,—beast by beastDevouring,—tree by tree, with strangling rootsAnd trunks set tuskwise. Ye would gaze on GodWith imperceptive blankness up the stars,And mutter, "Why, God, hast thou made us thus?"And pining to a sallow idiocyStagger up blindly against the ends of life,Then stagnate into rottenness and dropHeavily—poor, dead matter—piecemeal downThe abysmal spaces—like a little stoneLet fall to chaos. Therefore over youReceive man's sceptre!—therefore be contentTo minister with voluntary graceAnd melancholy pardon, every riteAnd function in you, to the human hand!Be ye to man as angels are to God,Servants in pleasure, singers of delight,Suggesters to his soul of higher thingsThan any of your highest! So at last,He shall look round on you with lids too straightTo hold the grateful tears, and thank you well,And bless you when he prays his secret prayers,And praise you when he sings his open songsFor the clear song-note he has learnt in youOf purifying sweetness, and extendAcross your head his golden fantasiesWhich glorify you into soul from sense.Go, serve him for such price! That not in vainNor yet ignobly ye shall serve, I placeMy word here for an oath, mine oath for actTo be hereafter. In the name of whichPerfect redemption and perpetual grace,I bless you through the hope and through the peaceWhich are mine,—to the Love, which is myself.
Eve.Speak on still, Christ! Albeit thou bless me notIn set words, I am blessed in hearkening thee—Speak, Christ!
Christ.Speak, Adam! Bless the woman, man!It is thine office.
Adam.Mother of the world,Take heart before this Presence! Lo, my voice,Which, naming erst the creatures, did express(God breathing through my breath) the attributesAnd instincts of each creature in its name,Floats to the same afflatus,—floats and heavesLike a water-weed that opens to a wave,—A full leaved prophecy affecting thee,Out fairly and wide. Henceforward, arise, aspireTo all the calms and magnanimities,The lofty uses and the noble ends,The sanctified devotion and full work,To which thou art elect for evermore,First woman, wife, and mother!
Eve.And first in sin.
Adam.And also the sole bearer of the SeedWhereby sin dieth. Raise the majestiesOf thy disconsolate brows, O well-beloved,And front with level eyelids the To-come,And all the dark o' the world! Rise, woman, riseTo thy peculiar and best altitudesOf doing good and of enduring ill,Of comforting for ill, and teaching good,And reconciling all that ill and goodUnto the patience of a constant hope,—Rise with thy daughters! If sin came by thee,And by sin, death,—the ransom-righteousness,The heavenly life and compensative restShall come by means of thee. If woe by theeHad issue to the world, thou shalt go forthAn angel of the woe thou didst achieve,Found acceptable to the world insteadOf others of that name, of whose bright stepsThy deed stripped bare the hills. Be satisfied;Something thou hast to bear through womanhood,Peculiar suffering answering to the sin,—Some pang paid down for each new human life,Some weariness in guarding such a life,Some coldness from the guarded, some mistrustFrom those thou hast too well served, from those belovedToo loyally some treason; feeblenessWithin thy heart, and cruelty without,And pressures of an alien tyrannyWith its dynastic reasons of larger bonesAnd stronger sinews. But, go to! thy loveShall chant itself its own beatitudesAfter its own life-working. A child's kissSet on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad;A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich;A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;Thou shalt be served thyself by every senseOf service which thou renderest. Such a crownI set upon thy head,—Christ witnessingWith looks of prompting love—to keep thee clearOf all reproach against the sin forgone,From all the generations which succeed.Thy hand which plucked the apple I clasp close,Thy lips which spake wrong counsel I kiss close,I bless thee in the name of ParadiseAnd by the memory of Edenic joysForfeit and lost,—by that last cypress tree,Green at the gate, which thrilled as we came out,And by the blessed nightingale which threwIts melancholy music after us,—And by the flowers, whose spirits full of smellsDid follow softly, plucking us behindBack to the gradual banks and vernal bowersAnd fourfold river-courses.—By all these,I bless thee to the contraries of these,I bless thee to the desert and the thorns,To the elemental change and turbulence,And to the roar of the estranged beasts,And to the solemn dignities of grief,—To each one of these ends,—and to theirendOf Death and the hereafter.
Eve.I acceptFor me and for my daughters this high partWhich lowly shall be counted. Noble workShall hold me in the place of garden-rest,And in the place of Eden's lost delightWorthy endurance of permitted pain;While on my longest patience there shall waitDeath's speechless angel, smiling in the east,Whence cometh the cold wind. I bow myselfHumbly henceforward on the ill I did,That humbleness may keep it in the shade.Shall it be so? shall I smile, saying so?O Seed! O King! O God, whoshaltbe seed,—What shall I say? As Eden's fountains swelledBrightly betwixt their banks, so swells my soulBetwixt thy love and power!And, sweetest thoughtsOf forgone Eden! now, for the first timeSince God said "Adam," walking through the trees,I dare to pluck you as I plucked erewhileThe lily or pink, the rose or heliotropeSo pluck I you—so largely—with both hands,And throw you forward on the outer earth,Wherein we are cast out, to sweeten it.
Adam.As thou, Christ, to illume it, holdest HeavenBroadly over our heads.
[TheChristis gradually transfigured, during the following phrases of dialogue, into humanity and suffering.
Eve.O Saviour Christ,Thou standest mute in glory, like the sun!Adam.We worship in Thy silence, Saviour Christ!Eve.Thy brows grow grander with a forecast woe,—Diviner, with the possible of death.We worship in Thy sorrow, Saviour Christ!Adam.How do Thy clear, still eyes transpierce our souls,As gazingthroughthem toward the Father-throneIn a pathetical, full Deity,Serenely as the stars gaze through the airStraight on each other!Eve.O pathetic Christ,Thou standest mute in glory, like the moon!Christ.Eternity stands alway fronting God;A stern colossal image, with blind eyesAnd grand dim lips that murmur evermoreGod, God, God! while the rush of life and death,The roar of act and thought, of evil and good,The avalanches of the ruining worldsTolling down space,—the new worlds' genesisBudding in fire,—the gradual humming growthOf the ancient atoms and first forms of earth,The slow procession of the swathing seasAnd firmamental waters,—and the noiseOf the broad, fluent strata of pure airs,—All these flow onward in the intervalsOf that reiterated sound of—God!Whichwordinnumerous angels straightway liftWide on celestial altitudes of songAnd choral adoration, and then dropThe burden softly, shutting the last notesIn silver wings. Howbeit in the noon of timeEternity shall wax as dumb as Death,While a new voice beneath the spheres shall cry,"God! why hast thou forsaken me, my God?"And not a voice in Heaven shall answer it.
Eve.O Saviour Christ,Thou standest mute in glory, like the sun!
Adam.We worship in Thy silence, Saviour Christ!
Eve.Thy brows grow grander with a forecast woe,—Diviner, with the possible of death.We worship in Thy sorrow, Saviour Christ!
Adam.How do Thy clear, still eyes transpierce our souls,As gazingthroughthem toward the Father-throneIn a pathetical, full Deity,Serenely as the stars gaze through the airStraight on each other!
Eve.O pathetic Christ,Thou standest mute in glory, like the moon!
Christ.Eternity stands alway fronting God;A stern colossal image, with blind eyesAnd grand dim lips that murmur evermoreGod, God, God! while the rush of life and death,The roar of act and thought, of evil and good,The avalanches of the ruining worldsTolling down space,—the new worlds' genesisBudding in fire,—the gradual humming growthOf the ancient atoms and first forms of earth,The slow procession of the swathing seasAnd firmamental waters,—and the noiseOf the broad, fluent strata of pure airs,—All these flow onward in the intervalsOf that reiterated sound of—God!Whichwordinnumerous angels straightway liftWide on celestial altitudes of songAnd choral adoration, and then dropThe burden softly, shutting the last notesIn silver wings. Howbeit in the noon of timeEternity shall wax as dumb as Death,While a new voice beneath the spheres shall cry,"God! why hast thou forsaken me, my God?"And not a voice in Heaven shall answer it.
[The transfiguration is complete in sadness.
Adam.Thy speech is of the Heavenlies, yet, O Christ,Awfully human are thy voice and face!Eve.My nature overcomes me from thine eyes.Christ.In the set noon of time shall one from Heaven,An angel fresh from looking upon God,Descend before a woman, blessing herWith perfect benediction of pure love,For all the world in all its elements,For all the creatures of earth, air, and sea,For all men in the body and in the soul,Unto all ends of glory and sanctity.Eve.O pale, pathetic Christ—I worship thee!I thank thee for that woman!Christ.Then, at last,I, wrapping round me your humanity,Which, being sustained, shall neither break nor burnBeneath the fire of Godhead, will tread earth,And ransom you and it, and set strong peaceBetwixt you and its creatures. With my pangsI will confront your sins; and since those sinsHave sunken to all Nature's heart from yours,The tears of my clean soul shall follow themAnd set a holy passion to work clearAbsolute consecration. In my browOf kingly whiteness shall be crowned anewYour discrowned human nature. Look on me!As I shall be uplifted on a crossIn darkness of eclipse and anguish dread,So shall I lift up in my piercèd hands,Not into dark, but light—not unto death,But life,—beyond the reach of guilt and grief,The whole creation. Henceforth in my nameTake courage, O thou woman,—man, take hope!Your grave shall be as smooth as Eden's sward,Beneath the steps of your prospective thoughts,And, one step past it, a new Eden-gateShall open on a hinge of harmonyAnd let you through to mercy. Ye shall fallNo more, within that Eden, nor pass outAny more from it. In which hope, move on,First sinners and first mourners! Live and love,—Doing both nobly because lowlily!Live and work, strongly because patiently!And, for the deed of death, trust it to GodThat it be well done, unrepented of,And not to loss! And thence, with constant prayers,Fasten your souls so high, that constantlyThe smile of your heroic cheer may floatAbove all floods of earthly agonies,Purification being the joy of pain!
Adam.Thy speech is of the Heavenlies, yet, O Christ,Awfully human are thy voice and face!
Eve.My nature overcomes me from thine eyes.
Christ.In the set noon of time shall one from Heaven,An angel fresh from looking upon God,Descend before a woman, blessing herWith perfect benediction of pure love,For all the world in all its elements,For all the creatures of earth, air, and sea,For all men in the body and in the soul,Unto all ends of glory and sanctity.
Eve.O pale, pathetic Christ—I worship thee!I thank thee for that woman!
Christ.Then, at last,I, wrapping round me your humanity,Which, being sustained, shall neither break nor burnBeneath the fire of Godhead, will tread earth,And ransom you and it, and set strong peaceBetwixt you and its creatures. With my pangsI will confront your sins; and since those sinsHave sunken to all Nature's heart from yours,The tears of my clean soul shall follow themAnd set a holy passion to work clearAbsolute consecration. In my browOf kingly whiteness shall be crowned anewYour discrowned human nature. Look on me!As I shall be uplifted on a crossIn darkness of eclipse and anguish dread,So shall I lift up in my piercèd hands,Not into dark, but light—not unto death,But life,—beyond the reach of guilt and grief,The whole creation. Henceforth in my nameTake courage, O thou woman,—man, take hope!Your grave shall be as smooth as Eden's sward,Beneath the steps of your prospective thoughts,And, one step past it, a new Eden-gateShall open on a hinge of harmonyAnd let you through to mercy. Ye shall fallNo more, within that Eden, nor pass outAny more from it. In which hope, move on,First sinners and first mourners! Live and love,—Doing both nobly because lowlily!Live and work, strongly because patiently!And, for the deed of death, trust it to GodThat it be well done, unrepented of,And not to loss! And thence, with constant prayers,Fasten your souls so high, that constantlyThe smile of your heroic cheer may floatAbove all floods of earthly agonies,Purification being the joy of pain!
[The vision ofChristvanishes.AdamandEvestand in an ecstasy. The Earth-zodiac pales away shade by shade, as the stars, star by star, shine out in the sky; and the following chant from the twoEarth Spirits(as they sweep back into the Zodiac and disappear with it) accompanies the process of change.
Earth Spirits.By the mighty word thus spokenBoth for living and for dying,We our homage-oath, once broken,Fasten back again in sighing,And the creatures and the elements renew their covenanting.Here, forgive us all our scorning;Here, we promise milder duty:And the evening and the morningShall re-organize in beautyA sabbath day of sabbath joy, for universal chanting.And if, still, this melancholyMay be strong to overcome us,If this mortal and unholyWe still fail to cast out from us,If we turn upon you, unaware, your own dark influences,—If ye tremble when surroundedBy our forest pine and palm trees,If we cannot cure the woundedWith our gum trees and our balm trees,And if your souls all mournfully sit down among your senses,—Yet, O mortals, do not fear us!We are gentle in our languor;Much more good ye shall have near usThan any pain or anger,And our God's refracted blessing in our blessing shall be given.By the desert's endless vigilWe will solemnize your passions,By the wheel of the black eagleWe will teach you exaltations,When he sails against the wind, to the white spot up in heaven.Ye shall find us tender nursesTo your weariness of nature,And our hands shall stroke the curse'sDreary furrows from the creature,Till your bodies shall lie smooth in death and straight and slumberful.Then, a couch we will provide youWhere no summer heats shall dazzle,Strewing on you and beside youThyme and rosemary and basil,And the yew-tree shall grow overhead to keep all safe and cool.Till the Holy Blood awaitedShall be chrism around us running,Whereby, newly-consecrated,We shall leap up in God's sunning,To join the spheric company which purer worlds assemble:While, renewed by new evangels,Soul-consummated, made glorious,Ye shall brighten past the angels,Ye shall kneel to Christ victorious,And the rays around his feet beneath your sobbing lips shall tremble.
Earth Spirits.By the mighty word thus spokenBoth for living and for dying,We our homage-oath, once broken,Fasten back again in sighing,And the creatures and the elements renew their covenanting.
Here, forgive us all our scorning;Here, we promise milder duty:And the evening and the morningShall re-organize in beautyA sabbath day of sabbath joy, for universal chanting.
And if, still, this melancholyMay be strong to overcome us,If this mortal and unholyWe still fail to cast out from us,If we turn upon you, unaware, your own dark influences,—
If ye tremble when surroundedBy our forest pine and palm trees,If we cannot cure the woundedWith our gum trees and our balm trees,And if your souls all mournfully sit down among your senses,—
Yet, O mortals, do not fear us!We are gentle in our languor;Much more good ye shall have near usThan any pain or anger,And our God's refracted blessing in our blessing shall be given.
By the desert's endless vigilWe will solemnize your passions,By the wheel of the black eagleWe will teach you exaltations,When he sails against the wind, to the white spot up in heaven.
Ye shall find us tender nursesTo your weariness of nature,And our hands shall stroke the curse'sDreary furrows from the creature,Till your bodies shall lie smooth in death and straight and slumberful.
Then, a couch we will provide youWhere no summer heats shall dazzle,Strewing on you and beside youThyme and rosemary and basil,And the yew-tree shall grow overhead to keep all safe and cool.
Till the Holy Blood awaitedShall be chrism around us running,Whereby, newly-consecrated,We shall leap up in God's sunning,To join the spheric company which purer worlds assemble:
While, renewed by new evangels,Soul-consummated, made glorious,Ye shall brighten past the angels,Ye shall kneel to Christ victorious,And the rays around his feet beneath your sobbing lips shall tremble.
[The phantastic Vision has all passed; the Earth-zodiac has broken like a belt, and is dissolved from the Desert. TheEarth Spiritsvanish, and the stars shine out above.
CHORUS OF INVISIBLE ANGELS,
whileAdamandEveadvance into the Desert, hand in hand.
Hear our heavenly promiseThrough your mortal passion!Love, ye shall have from us,In a pure relation.As a fish or birdSwims or flies, if moving,We unseen are heardTo live on by loving.Far above the glancesOf your eager eyes,Listen! we are loving.Listen, through man's ignorances—Listen, through God's mysteries—Listen down the heart of things,Ye shall hear our mystic wingsMurmurous with loving.Through the opal doorListen evermoreHow we live by loving!First Semichorus.When your bodies thereforeReach the grave their goal,Softly will we care forEach enfranchised soul.Softly and unlothlyThrough the door of opalToward the heavenly people,Floated on a minor fineInto the full chant divine,We will draw you smoothly,—While the human in the minorMakes the harmony diviner.Listen to our loving!Second Semichorus.There, a sough of gloryShall breathe on you as you come,Ruffling round the doorwayAll the light of angeldom.From the empyrean centreHeavenly voices shall repeat,"Souls redeemed and pardoned, enter,For the chrism on you is sweet!"And every angel in the placeLowlily shall bow his face,Folded fair on softened sounds,Because upon your hands and feetHe images his Master's wounds.Listen to our loving!First Semichorus.So, in the universe'sConsummated undoing,Our seraphs of white merciesShall hover round the ruin.Their wings shall stream upon the flameAs if incorporate of the sameIn elemental fusion;And calm their faces shall burn outWith a pale and mastering thought,And a steadfast looking of desireFrom out between the clefts of fire,—While they cry, in the Holy's name,To the final Restitution.Listen to our loving!Second Semichorus.So, when the day of God isTo the thick graves accompted,Awaking the dead bodies,The angel of the trumpetShall split and shatter the earthTo the roots of the grave—Which never before were slackened—And quicken the charnel birthWith his blast so clear and braveThat the Dead shall start and stand erect,And every face of the burial-placeShall the awful, single look reflectWherewith he them awakened.Listen to our loving!First Semichorus.But wild is the horse of Death!He will leap up wild at the clamourAbove and beneath.And where is his TamerOn that last day,When he crieth Ha, ha!To the trumpet's blare,And paweth the earth's Aceldama?When he tosseth his head,The drear-white steed,And ghastlily champeth the last moon-ray—What angel thereCan lead him away,That the living may rule for the Dead?Second Semichorus.Yet aTamershall be found!One more bright than seraph crowned,And more strong than cherub bold,Elder, too, than angel old,By his grey eternities.He shall master and surpriseThe steed of Death.For He is strong, and He is fain.He shall quell him with a breath,And shall lead him where He will,With a whisper in the ear,Full of fear,And a hand upon the mane,Grand and still.First Semichorus.Through the flats of Hades where the souls assembleHe will guide the Death-steed calm between their ranks,While, like beaten dogs, they a little moan and trembleTo see the darkness curdle from the horse's glittering flanks.Through the flats of Hades where the dreary shade is,Up the steep of heaven will the Tamer guide the steed,—Up the spheric circles, circle above circle,We who count the ages shall count the tolling tread—Every hoof-fall striking a blinder blanker sparkleFrom the stony orbs, which shall show as they were dead.Second Semichorus.All the way the Death-steed with tolling hoofs shall travel,Ashen-grey the planets shall be motionless as stones,Loosely shall the systems eject their parts coæval,Stagnant in the spaces shall float the pallid moons:Suns that touch their apogees, reeling from their level,Shall run back on their axles, in wild low broken tunes.Chorus.Up against the arches of the crystal ceiling,From the horse's nostrils shall steam the blurting breath:Up between the angels pale with silent feelingWill the Tamer calmly lead the horse of Death.Semichorus.Cleaving all that silence, cleaving all that glory,Will the Tamer lead him straightway to the Throne:"Look out, O Jehovah, to this I bring before Thee,With a hand nail-piercèd, I who am thy Son."Then the Eye Divinest, from the Deepest, flaming,On the mystic courser shall look out in fire:Blind the beast shall stagger where It overcame him,Meek as lamb at pasture, bloodless in desire.Down the beast shall shiver,—slain amid the taming,—And, by Life essential, the phantasm Death expire.Chorus.Listen, man, through life and death,Through the dust and through the breath,Listen down the heart of things!Ye shall hear our mystic wingsMurmurous with loving.A Voice from below.Gabriel, thou Gabriel!A Voice from above.What wouldstthouwith me?First Voice.I heard thy voice sound in the angels' song,And I would give thee question.Second Voice.Question me!First Voice.Why have I called thrice to my Morning StarAnd had no answer? All the stars are out,And answer in their places. Only in vainI cast my voice against the outer raysOfmyStar shut in light behind the sun.No more reply than from a breaking string,Breaking when touched. Or is shenotmy star?Whereismy Star—my Star? Have ye cast downHer glory like my glory? Has she waxedMortal, like Adam? Has she learnt to hateLike any angel?Second Voice.She is sad for thee.All things grow sadder to thee, one by one.Angel Chorus.Live, work on, O Earthy!By the Actual's tension,Speed the arrow worthyOf a pure ascension!From the low earth round you,Reach the heights above you:From the stripes that wound you,Seek the loves that love you!God's divinest burneth plainThrough the crystal diaphaneOf our loves that love you.First Voice.Gabriel, O Gabriel!Second Voice.What wouldstthouwith me?First Voice.Is it true, O thou Gabriel, that the crownOf sorrow which I claimed, another claims?ThatHeclaimsthattoo?Second Voice.Lost one, it is true.First Voice.ThatHewill be an exile from his heaven,To lead those exiles homeward?Second Voice.It is true.First Voice.ThatHewill be an exile by his will,As I by mine election?Second Voice.It is true.First Voice.ThatIshall stand sole exile finally,—Made desolate for fruition?Second Voice.It is true.First Voice.Gabriel!Second Voice.I hearken.First Voice.Is it true besides—Aright true—that mine orient Star will giveHer name of "Bright and Morning-Star" toHim,—And take the fairness of his virtue backTo cover loss and sadness?Second Voice.It is true.First Voice.Untrue,Untrue! O Morning Star, OMine,Who sittest secret in a veil of lightFar up the starry spaces, say—Untrue!Speak but so loud as doth a wasted moonTo Tyrrhene waters. I am Lucifer.
Hear our heavenly promiseThrough your mortal passion!Love, ye shall have from us,In a pure relation.As a fish or birdSwims or flies, if moving,We unseen are heardTo live on by loving.Far above the glancesOf your eager eyes,Listen! we are loving.Listen, through man's ignorances—Listen, through God's mysteries—Listen down the heart of things,Ye shall hear our mystic wingsMurmurous with loving.Through the opal doorListen evermoreHow we live by loving!
First Semichorus.When your bodies thereforeReach the grave their goal,Softly will we care forEach enfranchised soul.Softly and unlothlyThrough the door of opalToward the heavenly people,Floated on a minor fineInto the full chant divine,We will draw you smoothly,—While the human in the minorMakes the harmony diviner.Listen to our loving!
Second Semichorus.There, a sough of gloryShall breathe on you as you come,Ruffling round the doorwayAll the light of angeldom.From the empyrean centreHeavenly voices shall repeat,"Souls redeemed and pardoned, enter,For the chrism on you is sweet!"And every angel in the placeLowlily shall bow his face,Folded fair on softened sounds,Because upon your hands and feetHe images his Master's wounds.Listen to our loving!
First Semichorus.So, in the universe'sConsummated undoing,Our seraphs of white merciesShall hover round the ruin.Their wings shall stream upon the flameAs if incorporate of the sameIn elemental fusion;And calm their faces shall burn outWith a pale and mastering thought,And a steadfast looking of desireFrom out between the clefts of fire,—While they cry, in the Holy's name,To the final Restitution.Listen to our loving!
Second Semichorus.So, when the day of God isTo the thick graves accompted,Awaking the dead bodies,The angel of the trumpetShall split and shatter the earthTo the roots of the grave—Which never before were slackened—And quicken the charnel birthWith his blast so clear and braveThat the Dead shall start and stand erect,And every face of the burial-placeShall the awful, single look reflectWherewith he them awakened.Listen to our loving!
First Semichorus.But wild is the horse of Death!He will leap up wild at the clamourAbove and beneath.And where is his TamerOn that last day,When he crieth Ha, ha!To the trumpet's blare,And paweth the earth's Aceldama?When he tosseth his head,The drear-white steed,And ghastlily champeth the last moon-ray—What angel thereCan lead him away,That the living may rule for the Dead?
Second Semichorus.Yet aTamershall be found!One more bright than seraph crowned,And more strong than cherub bold,Elder, too, than angel old,By his grey eternities.He shall master and surpriseThe steed of Death.For He is strong, and He is fain.He shall quell him with a breath,And shall lead him where He will,With a whisper in the ear,Full of fear,And a hand upon the mane,Grand and still.
First Semichorus.Through the flats of Hades where the souls assembleHe will guide the Death-steed calm between their ranks,While, like beaten dogs, they a little moan and trembleTo see the darkness curdle from the horse's glittering flanks.Through the flats of Hades where the dreary shade is,Up the steep of heaven will the Tamer guide the steed,—Up the spheric circles, circle above circle,We who count the ages shall count the tolling tread—Every hoof-fall striking a blinder blanker sparkleFrom the stony orbs, which shall show as they were dead.
Second Semichorus.All the way the Death-steed with tolling hoofs shall travel,Ashen-grey the planets shall be motionless as stones,Loosely shall the systems eject their parts coæval,Stagnant in the spaces shall float the pallid moons:Suns that touch their apogees, reeling from their level,Shall run back on their axles, in wild low broken tunes.
Chorus.Up against the arches of the crystal ceiling,From the horse's nostrils shall steam the blurting breath:Up between the angels pale with silent feelingWill the Tamer calmly lead the horse of Death.
Semichorus.Cleaving all that silence, cleaving all that glory,Will the Tamer lead him straightway to the Throne:"Look out, O Jehovah, to this I bring before Thee,With a hand nail-piercèd, I who am thy Son."Then the Eye Divinest, from the Deepest, flaming,On the mystic courser shall look out in fire:Blind the beast shall stagger where It overcame him,Meek as lamb at pasture, bloodless in desire.Down the beast shall shiver,—slain amid the taming,—And, by Life essential, the phantasm Death expire.
Chorus.Listen, man, through life and death,Through the dust and through the breath,Listen down the heart of things!Ye shall hear our mystic wingsMurmurous with loving.
A Voice from below.Gabriel, thou Gabriel!
A Voice from above.What wouldstthouwith me?
First Voice.I heard thy voice sound in the angels' song,And I would give thee question.
Second Voice.Question me!
First Voice.Why have I called thrice to my Morning StarAnd had no answer? All the stars are out,And answer in their places. Only in vainI cast my voice against the outer raysOfmyStar shut in light behind the sun.No more reply than from a breaking string,Breaking when touched. Or is shenotmy star?Whereismy Star—my Star? Have ye cast downHer glory like my glory? Has she waxedMortal, like Adam? Has she learnt to hateLike any angel?
Second Voice.She is sad for thee.All things grow sadder to thee, one by one.
Angel Chorus.Live, work on, O Earthy!By the Actual's tension,Speed the arrow worthyOf a pure ascension!From the low earth round you,Reach the heights above you:From the stripes that wound you,Seek the loves that love you!God's divinest burneth plainThrough the crystal diaphaneOf our loves that love you.
First Voice.Gabriel, O Gabriel!
Second Voice.What wouldstthouwith me?
First Voice.Is it true, O thou Gabriel, that the crownOf sorrow which I claimed, another claims?ThatHeclaimsthattoo?
Second Voice.Lost one, it is true.
First Voice.ThatHewill be an exile from his heaven,To lead those exiles homeward?
Second Voice.It is true.
First Voice.ThatHewill be an exile by his will,As I by mine election?
Second Voice.It is true.
First Voice.ThatIshall stand sole exile finally,—Made desolate for fruition?
Second Voice.It is true.
First Voice.Gabriel!
Second Voice.I hearken.
First Voice.Is it true besides—Aright true—that mine orient Star will giveHer name of "Bright and Morning-Star" toHim,—And take the fairness of his virtue backTo cover loss and sadness?
Second Voice.It is true.
First Voice.Untrue,Untrue! O Morning Star, OMine,Who sittest secret in a veil of lightFar up the starry spaces, say—Untrue!Speak but so loud as doth a wasted moonTo Tyrrhene waters. I am Lucifer.
[A pause. Silence in the stars.
All things grow sadder to me, one by one.Angel Chorus.Exiled human creatures,Let your hope grow larger!Larger grows the visionOf the new delight.From this chain of Nature'sGod is the Discharger,And the Actual's prisonOpens to your sight.Semichorus.Calm the stars and goldenIn a light exceeding:What their rays have measuredLet your feet fulfil!These are stars beholdenBy your eyes in Eden,Yet, across the desert,See them shining still!Chorus.Future joy and far lightWorking such relations,Hear us singing gentlyExiled is not lost!God, above the starlight,God, above the patience,Shall at last present yeGuerdons worth the cost.Patiently enduring,Painfully surrounded,Listen how we love you,Hope the uttermost!Waiting for that curingWhich exalts the wounded,Hear us sing above you—Exiled, but not Lost!
All things grow sadder to me, one by one.
Angel Chorus.Exiled human creatures,Let your hope grow larger!Larger grows the visionOf the new delight.From this chain of Nature'sGod is the Discharger,And the Actual's prisonOpens to your sight.
Semichorus.Calm the stars and goldenIn a light exceeding:What their rays have measuredLet your feet fulfil!These are stars beholdenBy your eyes in Eden,Yet, across the desert,See them shining still!
Chorus.Future joy and far lightWorking such relations,Hear us singing gentlyExiled is not lost!God, above the starlight,God, above the patience,Shall at last present yeGuerdons worth the cost.Patiently enduring,Painfully surrounded,Listen how we love you,Hope the uttermost!Waiting for that curingWhich exalts the wounded,Hear us sing above you—Exiled, but not Lost!
[The stars shine on brightly whileAdamandEvepursue their way into the far wilderness. There is a sound through the silence, as of the falling tears of an angel.
I look for Angels' songs, and hear Him cry.
Giles Fletcher.
[It is the time of the Crucifixion; and the Angels of Heaven have departed towards the Earth, except the two Seraphim,Adorthe StrongandZerahthe Bright One.The place is the outer side of the shut Heavenly Gate.]