Newman, John Henry 
 The dream of Cerontius 
 

LOYOLA ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 The 
 
 Dream of Gerontius 
 
 BY CARDINAL NEWMAN 
 
 Edited for School Use 
 BY JOHN J. CLIFFORD, S. J, 
 
 Loyola University Press 
 CHICAGO 
 
LOYOLA ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
LOYOLA ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 The Dream of Gerontius 
 
 By 
 
 Cardinal Newman 
 
 EDITED FOR SCHOOL USE 
 WITH INTRODUCTION, QUESTIONS AND 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 By John J. Clifford, S. J. 
 
 
 Loyola University Press 
 
 Chicago 
 
iDfcl 
 
 Copyright, 1917 
 
 BY 
 
 Loyola University Press 
 
 127218 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 V 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL LIFE 
 
 1801 John Henry Newman was born in the city of London on 
 the twenty-first day of February. 
 
 1820 Was graduated from Trinity College, Oxford. 
 
 1824 Took orders in the Anglican Church. 
 
 1833 Participated as one of the leaders in the Oxford Move- 
 ment. 
 
 1845 Entered the Catholic Church, and a year later went to 
 Rome to study for the priesthood. 
 
 1847 Returned to England as a Catholic priest to found the 
 Community of the Oratory. 
 
 1854 Became Rector of the Irish University at Dublin. 
 
 1864 Published the Apologia pro Vita Sua. 
 
 1865 Published The Dream of Gerontius. 
 
 1879 Was elevated to the cardinalate. 
 
 1890 Died at the Oratory, Birmingham, England, on the eleventh 
 day of May. 
 
 *• i 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 VII 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The mention of Newman naturally calls up the relation of 
 literature to religion, for the simple reason that religion and 
 literature are, in Newman, correlated. The question in its 
 entirety is, of course, over-large for a foreword to The Dream 
 of Gerontius; but in a sub-question under the larger one may 
 very well serve the purpose of this introduction. Let us thus 
 phrase it: Is a Catholic able to become a great literary man? 
 
 But why — a thought that may come to anyone — put such a 
 question at all? First, for the sake of the answer: The peer 
 
 of English prose writers was a Catholic. Secondly, to contrast 
 Newman’s position in the matter with the superior attitude 
 assumed by some at the expense of religion. 
 
 A superior attitude towards religion seems to mark the present 
 vogue in literary style. For the times are so onward that they 
 are said by not a few to have outrun religion. Hence the notion 
 is abroad amongst certain classes of students that spirituality is 
 a restraint on progress in literary ways, while morality arrests 
 life’s full realization. So we find but few of to-day’s literary 
 heroes who are not contravening conventions. From the taint of 
 even this literary heresy we should forfend our Catholic student 
 body, and one method of so doing may be the study of religion 
 and literature in Newman and his Dream of Gerontius. 
 
 Religion and literature are not foes, but friends. A man’s 
 literary foundations are stronger as his piety is more intense. 
 All critics voice this intense piety of Newman. “To my mind,” 
 said Richard H. Hutton, “The Dream of Gerontius is the poem 
 of a man to whom the vision of the Christian revelation has at 
 all times been more real, more potent to influence action, and 
 more powerful to preoccupy the imagination than all worldly 
 interests put together.” And Professor Shairp says : “All 
 
 through life it would seem that the sense of his own soul, of 
 his spiritual nature, and of the existence of God, was more 
 present to him than the material world which surrounded him. 
 And it is a thought of his, always deeply felt, that the unseen 
 
VIII 
 
 THE LOYOLA CLASSICS 
 
 world is close to us and ever ready as it were to break through 
 the shell and manifest itself.” The “unseen world” is a world 
 seen by the children of faith; a world of love; a world of 
 beauty, sleeping dreamless years, waiting literary knights to 
 vision its loveliness to a visionless humanity. Such a writer may 
 the Catholic student become in whom the wells of faith are deep; 
 such a writer has Newman been, in whom the vision of faith 
 flashed on the inward eye — the deathless beauty of the world 
 undying. 
 
 This vision was the very center of Newman’s life; yet it made 
 him no mere visionary. Visionaries .are not the product of 
 deep spirituality, nor are the children of piety impracticable. 
 There is a school that thinks piety and literature have no 
 common factor— and yet Newman seemed to find one; there 
 is a school that thinks that literature is a plus, and piety a 
 minus energy, and their sum is inertia — yet . Newman’s result 
 differs from their answer book. Why? Because his was the 
 piety of rugged conviction; not a dainty creation to glide into 
 on the Lord’s Day and let hang in moth-proof on the six days 
 of other gods, but the armor of faith that saw service on days 
 pagan as well as on days holy. 
 
 Hence the power that flowed out from him. “It is hardly 
 too much to say,” remarks Professor Shairp, “that they 
 ( Parochial Sermons ) have elevated the thought and purified 
 the style of every able Oxford man who has written since, even 
 of those who had least sympathy with the sentiments they 
 express.” This religious power of his sprung from a concrete 
 grasp of the abstract. How well this is exemplified, those who 
 run may read in The Dream of Gerontius. Newman had said: 
 “Revealed religion should be especially poetic, and it is so in 
 fact. It presents us with those ideal forms of excellence in 
 which a poetical mind delights, and with which all grace and 
 harmony are associated. It brings us into a new world — a world 
 of overpowering interest, of the sublimest views and the ten- 
 derest and purest feeling.” 
 
 Here, in The Dream of Gerontius, Newman has taken the 
 elements of Christian revelation — God, Christ, the Church, the 
 soul, the angels, the demons — brooded over them lovingly, till 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 IX 
 
 piety took fire and welded them into a masterpiece, a work as 
 beautiful as it is sublime. The poem is full of the fire of pas- 
 sion; not the passion of mere flesh and blood, but the spiritual 
 passion of the soul aflame for her God. True, the young student 
 may fail to find The Dream of Gerontius a masterpiece; to him 
 it may prove a disappointment, for its surface beauty is meager. 
 But let him remember that “the full appreciation of the work 
 of a master mind comes to no one without effort. The reward 
 of a student of literature is great, but his labor also is great.” 
 
 It is with this view in mind that question lists have been 
 appended in the hope that some of the qualities that make The 
 Dream of Gerontius the masterpiece it is may be brought home 
 to our young students. 
 

 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 I 
 
 Gerontius 
 
 Jesu, Maria— I am near to death, 
 
 And Thou art calling me; I know it now — 
 
 Not by the token of this faltering breath, 
 
 This chill at heart, this dampness on my brow, — 
 (Jesu, have mercy! Mary, pray for me!) 
 
 ’Tis this new feeling, never felt before, 
 
 (Be with me, Lord, in my extremity!) 
 
 That I am going, that I am no more. 
 
 ’Tis this strange innermost abandonment, 
 
 (Lover of souls! great God! I look to Thee,) 10 
 This emptying out of each constituent 
 And natural force, by which I come to be. 
 
 Pray for me, 0 my friends; a visitant 
 Is knocking his dire summons at my door, 
 
 The like of whom, to scare me and to daunt, 
 
 Has never, never come to me before; 
 
 ’Tis death, — 0 loving friends, your prayers! — ’tis 
 he! 
 
 As though my very being had given way, 
 
2 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 As though I was no more a substance now, 
 
 And could fall back on nought to be my stay, 20 
 (Help, loving Lord! Thou my sole Refuge, Thou,) 
 And turn no whither, but must needs decay 
 And drop from out the universal frame 
 Into that shapeless, scopeless, blank abyss, 
 
 That utter nothingness, of which I came; 
 
 This is it that has come to pass in me; 
 
 Oh, horror! this it is, my dearest, this; 
 
 So pray for me, my friends, who have not strength 
 to pray. 
 
 Assistants 
 
 Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison. 
 
 Holy Mary, pray for him. 30 
 
 All holy Angels, pray for him. 
 
 Choirs of the righteous, pray for him. 
 
 Holy Abraham, pray for him. 
 
 St. John Baptist, St. Joseph, pray for him. 
 
 St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Andrew, St. John, 
 
 All Apostles, all Evangelists, pray for him. 
 
 All holy Disciples of the Lord, pray for him. 
 
 All holy Innocents, pray for him. 
 
 All holy Martyrs, all holy Confessors, 
 
 All holy Hermits, all holy Virgins, 40 
 
 All ye saints of God, pray for him. 
 
 Gerontius 
 
 Rouse thee, my fainting soul, and play the man; 
 
 And through such waning span 
 Of life and thought as still has to be trod, 
 
 Prepare to meet thy God. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 3 
 
 And while the storm of that bewilderment 
 Is for a season spent, 
 
 And ere afresh the ruin on me fall, 
 
 Use well the interval. 
 
 Assistants 
 
 Be merciful, be gracious; spare him, Lord. 50 
 Be merciful, be gracious; Lord, deliver him. 
 
 From the sins that are past; 
 
 From Thy frown and Thine ire; 
 
 From the perils of dying; 
 
 From any complying 
 With sin, or denying 
 His God, or relying 
 On self, at the last; 
 
 From the nethermost fire; 
 
 From all that is evil; 60 
 
 From the power of the devil; 
 
 Thy servant deliver, 
 
 For once and for ever. 
 
 By Thy birth, and by Thy Cross, 
 
 Rescue him from endless loss; 
 
 By Thy death and burial, 
 
 Save him from a final fall; 
 
 By Thy rising from the tomb, 
 
 By Thy mounting up above, 
 
 By the Spirit's gracious love, 
 
 Save him in the day of doom. 
 
 70 
 
4 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Gerontius 
 
 Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, 
 
 De profundis oro te, 
 
 Miserere, Judex meus, 
 
 Parce mihi, Domine. 
 
 Firmly I believe and truly 
 
 God is Three, and God is One; 
 
 And I next acknowledge duly 
 Manhood taken by the Son. 
 
 And I trust and hope most fully 80 
 
 In that Manhood crucified; 
 
 And each thought and deed unruly 
 Do to death, as He has died. 
 
 Simply to His grace and wholly 
 
 Light and life and strength belong, 
 
 And I love, supremely, solely, 
 
 Him the holy, Him the strong. 
 
 Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, 
 
 De profundis oro te, 
 
 Miserere, Judex meus, 90 
 
 Parce mihi, Domine. 
 
 And I hold in veneration, 
 
 For the love of Him alone, 
 
 Holy Church, as His creation, 
 
 And her teachings, as His own. 
 
 And I take with joy whatever 
 Now besets me, pain or fear, 
 
 And with a strong will I sever 
 
 All the ties which bind me here. 
 Adoration aye be given, 100 
 
 With and through the angelic host, 
 
 To the God of earth and Heaven, 
 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 5 
 
 Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, 
 
 De profundis oro te, 
 
 Miserere, Judex meus, 
 
 Mortis in discrimine. 
 
 I can no more; for now it comes again, 
 
 That sense of ruin, which is worse than pain; 
 That masterful negation and collapse 110 
 
 Of all that makes me man; as though I bent 
 Over the dizzy brink 
 Of some sheer infinite descent; 
 
 Or worse, as though 
 
 Down, down for ever I was falling through 
 The solid framework of created things, 
 
 And needs must sink and sink 
 Into the vast abyss. And, crueller still, 
 
 A fierce and restless fright begins to fill 
 The mansion of my soul. And, worse and worse, 
 Some bodily form of ill 121 
 
 Floats on the wind, with many a loathsome curse 
 Tainting the hallowed air, and laughs, and flaps 
 Its hideous wings, 
 
 And makes me wild with horror and dismay. 
 
 0 Jesu, help! Pray for me, Mary, pray! 
 
 Some angel, Jesu! such as came to Thee 
 
 In Thine own agony 
 
 Mary, pray for me. Joseph, pray for me. Mary, 
 pray for me. 130 
 
 Assistants 
 
 Rescue him, 0 Lord, in this his evil hour, 
 
 As of old so many by Thy gracious power: — 
 (Amen.) 
 
6 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Enoch and Elias from the common doom; (Amen.) 
 Noe from the waters in a saving home; (Amen.) 
 Abraham from th’ abounding guilt of Heathen- 
 esse! (Amen.) 
 
 Job from all his multiform and fell distress; 
 (Amen.) 
 
 Isaac, when his father’s knife was raised to slay; 
 (Amen.) 
 
 Lot from burning Sodom on its judgment-day; 
 (Amen. ) 
 
 Moses from the land of bondage and despair; 
 (Amen.) 
 
 Daniel from the hungry lions in their lair; (Amen.) 
 And the Children Three amid the furnace-flame; 
 
 (Amen.) 141 
 
 Chaste Susanna from the slander and the shame; 
 (Amen.) 
 
 David from Golia and the wrath of Saul; (Amen.) 
 And the two Apostles from their prison-thrall; 
 (Amen.) 
 
 Thecla from her torments; (Amen.) 
 
 — so, to show Thy Power, 
 
 Rescue this Thy servant in his evil hour. 
 
 Gerontius 
 
 Novissima hora est; and I fain would sleep. 
 
 The pain has wearied me. . . . Into Thy hands, 
 
 0 Lord, into Thy hands . . . 
 
 The Priest 
 
 Proficiscere, anima Christiana, de hoc mundo! 150 
 Goforth upon thy journey, Christian soul! 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 7 
 
 Go from this world! Go, in the name of God 
 The omnipotent Father, who created thee! 
 
 Go, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, 
 
 Son of the living God, who bled for thee! 
 
 Go, in the name of the Holy Spirit, who 
 Hath been poured out on thee! Go, in the name 
 Of Angels and Archangels; in the name 
 Of Thrones and Dominations; in the name 
 Of Princedoms and of Powers; and in the name 
 Of Cherubim and Seraphim, go forth! 161 
 
 Go, in the name of Patriarchs and Prophets 
 And of Apostles and Evangelists, 
 
 Of Martyrs and Confessors; in the name 
 Of holy Monks and Hermits; in the name 
 Of holy Virgins: and all Saints of God, 
 
 Both men and women, go! Go on thy course; 
 
 And may thy place to-day be found in peace, 
 
 And may thy dwelling be the Holy Mount 
 Of Sion:— in the name of Christ our Lord. 170 
 
 II 
 
 Soul of Gerontius 
 
 I went to sleep; and now I am refreshed. 
 
 A strange refreshment: for I feel in me 
 An inexpressive lightness, and a sense 
 Of freedom, as I were at length myself, 
 
 And ne'er had been before. How still it is! 
 
 I hear no more the busy beat of time, 
 
 No, nor my fluttering breath, nor struggling pulse; 
 
8 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Nor does one moment differ from the next. 
 
 I had a dream; yes:— some one softly said 
 “He’s gone”; and then a sigh went round the 
 room. 180 
 
 And then I surely heard a priestly voice 
 Cry “Subvenite”; and they knelt in prayer. 
 
 I seem to hear him still; but thin and low, 
 
 And fainter and more faint the accents come, 
 
 As at an ever-widening interval. 
 
 Ah! whence is this? What is this severance? 
 
 This silence pours a solitariness 
 Into the very essence of my soul; 
 
 And the deep rest, so soothing and so sweet, 
 
 Hath something too of sternness and of pain, 190 
 For it drives back my thoughts upon their spring 
 By a strange introversion, and perforce 
 I now begin to feed upon myself, 
 
 Because I have nought else to feed upon. 
 
 Am I alive or dead? I am not dead, 
 
 But in the body still; for I possess 
 
 A sort of confidence which clings to me 
 
 That each particular organ holds its place 
 
 As heretofore, combining with the rest 
 
 Into one symmetry, that wraps me round, 200 
 
 And makes me man; and surely I could move, 
 
 Did I but will it, every part of me. 
 
 And yet I cannot to my sense bring home, 
 
 By very trial, that I have the power. 
 
 ’Tis strange; I cannot stir a hand or foot, 
 
 I cannot make my fingers or my lips 
 By mutual pressure witness each to each, 
 
 Nor by the eyelid’s instantaneous stroke 
 Assure myself I have a body still. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 9 
 
 Nor do I know my very attitude, 210 
 
 Nor if I stand, or lie, or sit, or kneel. 
 
 So much I know, not knowing how I know, 
 
 That the vast universe, where I have dwelt, 
 
 Is quitting me, or I am quitting it. 
 
 Or I or it is rushing on the wings 
 Of light or lightning on an onward course, 
 
 And we e'en now are million miles apart. 
 
 Yet . . . is this peremptory severance 
 Wrought out in lengthening measurements of 
 space, 
 
 Which grow and multiply by speed and time? 220 
 Or am I traversing infinity 
 By endless subdivision, hurrying back 
 From finite towards infinitesimal, 
 
 Thus dying out of the expansive world? 
 
 Another marvel: some one has me fast 
 Within his ample palm; 'tis not a grasp 
 Such as they use on earth, but all around 
 Over the surface of my subtle being, 
 
 As though I were a sphere, and capable 
 To be accosted thus, a uniform 230 
 
 And gentle pressure tells me I am not 
 Self-moving, but borne forward on my way. 
 
 And hark! I hear a singing; yet in sooth 
 I cannot of that music rightly say 
 Whether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones. 
 
 Oh, what a heart-subduing melody! 
 
10 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Angel 
 
 My work is done, 
 
 My task is o’er, 
 
 And so I come, 
 
 Taking it home, 240 
 
 For the crown is won, 
 
 Alleluia, 
 
 For evermore. 
 
 My Father gave 
 In charge to me 
 
 This child of earth 
 E’en from its birth, 
 
 To serve and save, 
 
 Alleluia, 
 
 And saved is he. 250 
 
 This child of clay 
 To me was given, 
 
 To rear and train 
 By sorrow and pain 
 In the narrow way, 
 
 Alleluia, 
 
 From earth to heaven. 
 
 Soul 
 
 It is a member of that family 
 Of wondrous beings who, ere the worlds were 
 made, 
 
 Millions of ages back, have stood around 260 
 
 The throne of God: — he never has known sin; 
 
 But through those cycles all but infinite 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 11 
 
 Has had a strong and pure celestial life, 
 
 And bore to gaze on th’ unveiled face of God, 
 
 And drank from the eternal Fount of truth, 
 
 And served Him with a keen ecstatic love. 
 
 Hark ! he begins again. 
 
 Angel 
 
 0 Lord, how wonderful in depth and height, 
 
 But most in man, how wonderful Thou art ! 
 With what a love, what soft persuasive might 270 
 Victorious o’er the stubborn fleshly heart, 
 
 Thy tale complete of saints Thou dost provide, 
 To fill the thrones which angels lost through 
 pride ! 
 
 He lay a grovelling babe upon the ground, 
 
 Polluted in the blood of his first sire, 
 
 With his whole essence shattered and unsound, 
 And, coiled around his heart, a demon dire, 
 Which was not of his nature, but had skill 
 To bind and form his opening mind to ill. 
 
 Then was I sent from heaven to set right 280 
 The balance in his soul of truth and sin, 
 
 And I have waged a long relentless fight, 
 
 Resolved that death-environed spirit to win, 
 Which from its fallen state, when all was lost, 
 Had been repurchased at so dread a cost. 
 
 Oh, what a shifting parti-coloured scene 
 
 Of hope and fear, of triumph and dismay, 
 
 Of recklessness and penitence, has been 
 
 The history of that dreary, lifelong fray! 
 
12 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 And oh, the grace to nerve him and to lead, 290 
 How patient, prompt, and lavish at his need ! 
 
 0 man, strange composite of heaven and earth ! 
 
 Majesty dwarfed to baseness ! fragrant flower 
 Running to poisonous seed! and seeming worth 
 Cloaking corruption! weakness mastering 
 power ! 
 
 Who never art so near to crime and shame, 
 
 As when thou hast achieved some deed of 
 name; — 
 
 How should ethereal natures comprehend 
 A thing made up of spirit and of clay, 
 
 Were we not tasked to nurse it and to tend, 300 
 Linked one to one throughout its mortal day ? 
 More than the Seraph in his height of place, 
 
 The Angel-guardian knows and loves the ran- 
 somed race. 
 
 Soul 
 
 Now know I surely that I am at length 
 Out of the body: had I part with earth, 
 
 I never could have drunk those accents in, 
 
 And not have worshipped as a god the voice 
 That was so musical; but now I am 
 So whole of heart, so calm, so self-possessed, 
 
 With such a full content, and with a sense 310 
 So apprehensive and discriminant, 
 
 As no temptation can intoxicate. 
 
 Nor have I even terror at the thought 
 That I am clasped by such a saintliness. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 13 
 
 Angel 
 
 All praise to Him, at whose sublime decree 
 The last are first, the first become the last; 
 
 By whom the suppliant prisoner is set free, 
 
 By whom proud first-borns from their thrones 
 are cast, 
 
 Who raises Mary to be Queen of heaven, 
 
 While Lucifer is left, condemned and unforgiven. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Soul 
 
 I will address him. Mighty one, my Lord, 321 
 My Guardian Spirit, all hail ! 
 
 Angel 
 
 All hail, my child ! 
 
 My child and brother, hail ! What wouldest thou ? 
 Soul 
 
 I would have nothing but to speak with thee 
 For speaking’s sake. I wish to hold with thee 
 Conscious communion; though I fain would know 
 A maze of things, were it but meet to ask, 
 
 And not a curiousness. 
 
14 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Angel 
 
 You cannot now 330 
 Cherish a wish which ought not be wished. 
 
 Soul 
 
 Then I will speak. I ever had believed 
 That on the moment when the struggling soul 
 Quitted its mortal case, forthwith it fell 
 Under the awful Presence of its God, 
 
 There to be judged and sent to its own place. 
 What lets me now from going to my Lord ? 
 
 Angel 
 
 Thou art not let; but with extremest speed 
 Art hurrying to the just and holy Judge: 
 
 For scarcely art thou disembodied yet. 340 
 
 Divide a moment, as men measure time, 
 
 Into its million-million-millionth part, 
 
 Yet even less than that the interval 
 
 Since thou didst leave the body; and the priest 
 
 Cried “Subvenite”, and they fell to prayer; 
 
 Nay, scarcely yet have they begun to pray. 
 
 For spirits and men by different standards mete 
 The less and greater in the flow of time. 
 
 By sun and moon, primeval ordinances— 
 
 By stars which rise and set harmoniously — 350 
 
 By the recurring seasons, and the swing, 
 
 This way and that, of the suspended rod 
 Precise and punctual, men divide the hours, 
 
 Equal, continuous, for their common use. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 15 
 
 Not so with us in th’ immaterial world; 
 
 But intervals in their succession 
 
 Are measured by the living thought alone, 
 
 And grow or wane with its intensity. 
 
 And time is not a common property; 
 
 But what is long is short, and swift is slow, 360 
 And near is distant, as received and grasped 
 By this mind and by that, and every one 
 Is standard of his own chronology. 
 
 And memory lacks its natural resting-points 
 Of years, and centuries, and periods. 
 
 It is thy very energy of thought 
 Which keeps thee from thy God. 
 
 Soul 
 
 Dear Angel, say, 
 
 Why have I now no fear at meeting Him? 
 
 Along my earthly life, the thought of death 370 
 And judgment was to me most terrible. 
 
 I had it aye before me, and I saw 
 The Judge severe e’en in the crucifix. 
 
 Now that the hour is come, my fear is fled; 
 
 And at this balance of my destiny, 
 
 Now close upon me, I can forward look 
 With a serenes t joy. 
 
 Angel 
 It is because 
 
 Then thou didst fear, that now thou dost not fear. 
 Thou hast forestalled the agony, and so 380 
 
 For thee the bitterness of death is past 
 
16 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Also, because already in thy soul 
 
 The judgment is begun. That day of doom, 
 
 One and the same for the collected world — 
 
 That solemn consummation for all flesh, 
 
 Is, in the case of each, anticipate 
 Upon his death; and, as the last great day 
 In the particular judgment is rehearsed, 
 
 So now too, ere thou comest to the Throne, 
 
 A presage falls upon thee, as a ray 390 
 
 Straight from the Judge, expressive of thy lot. 
 That calm and joy uprising in thy soul 
 Is first-fruit to thee of thy recompense, 
 
 And heaven begun. 
 
 IV 
 
 Soul 
 
 But hark ! upon my sense 
 Comes a fierce hubbub, which would make me fear, 
 Could I be frighted. 
 
 Angel 
 
 We are now arrived 
 
 Close on the judgment-court; that sullen howl 
 Is from the demons who assemble there. 400 
 It is the middle region, where of old 
 Satan appeared among the sons of God, 
 
 To cast his jibes and scoffs at holy Job. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 17 
 
 So now his legions throng the vestibule, 
 Hungry and wild, to claim their property, 
 And gather souls for hell. Hist to their cry. 
 
 Soul 
 
 How sour and how uncouth a dissonance! 
 Demons 
 
 Low-born clods 
 Of brute earth, 
 
 They aspire 410 
 
 To become gods, 
 
 By a new birth, 
 
 And an extra grace, 
 
 And a score of merits. 
 
 As if aught 
 Could stand in place 
 
 Of the high thought, 
 
 And the glance of fire 
 Of the great spirits, 
 
 The powers blest, 420 
 
 The lords by right. 
 
 The primal owners 
 
 Of the proud dwelling 
 And the realm of light, — 
 
 Dispossessed, 
 
 Aside thrust, 
 
 Chucked down, 
 
 By the sheer might 
 Of a despot’s will, 
 
 Of a tyrant’s frown. 430 
 
18 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Who after expelling 
 Their hosts, gave, 
 
 Triumphant still, 
 
 And still unjust, 
 
 Each forfeit crown 
 To psalm-droners, 
 
 And canting groaners, 
 
 To every slave, 
 
 And pious cheat, 
 
 And crawling knave, 440 
 
 Who licked the dust 
 
 Under his feet. 
 
 Angel 
 
 It is the restless panting of their being; 
 
 Like beasts of prey, who, caged within their bars, 
 In a deep hideous purring have their life, 
 
 And an incessant pacing to and fro. 
 
 Demons 
 
 The mind bold 
 
 And independent, 
 
 The purpose free, 
 
 So we are told, 450 
 
 Must not think 
 To have the ascendant. 
 
 What’s a saint? 
 
 One whose breath 
 
 Doth the air taint 
 Before his death; 
 
 A bundle of bones, 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 19 
 
 Which fools adore, 
 
 Ha! ha! 
 
 When life is o’er, 460 
 
 Which rattle and stink, 
 
 E’en in the flesh. 
 
 We cry his pardon ! 
 
 No flesh hath he; 
 
 Ha! ha! 
 
 For it hath died, 
 
 Tis crucified 
 Day by day, 
 
 Afresh, afresh, 
 
 Ha! ha! 470 
 
 That holy clay, 
 
 Ha! ha! 
 
 This gains guerdon, 
 
 So priestlings prate, 
 
 Ha! ha! 
 
 Before the Judge, 
 
 And pleads and atones 
 For spite and grudge, 
 
 And bigot mood, 
 
 And envy and hate, 480 
 
 And greed of blood. 
 
 Soul 
 
 How impotent they are ! and yet on earth 
 They have repute for wondrous power and skill; 
 And books describe, how that the very face 
 Of the Evil One, if seen, would have a force 
 Even to freeze the blood, and choke the life 
 Of him who saw it. 
 
20 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 ' Angel 
 
 In thy trial-state 
 
 Thou hadst a traitor nestling close at home, 
 Connatural, who with the powers of hell 490 
 
 Was leagued, and of thy senses kept the keys, 
 
 And to that deadliest foe unlocked thy heart. 
 
 And therefore is it, in respect of man, 
 
 Those fallen ones show so majestical. 
 
 But, when some child of grace, angel or saint, 
 
 Pure and upright in his integrity 
 Of nature, meets the demons on their raid, 
 
 They scud away as cowards from the fight. 
 
 Nay, oft hath holy hermit in his cell, 
 
 Not yet disburdened of mortality, 500 
 
 Mocked at their threats and warlike overtures; 
 
 Or, dying, when they swarmed, like flies, around, 
 Defied them, and departed to his Judge. 
 
 Demons 
 
 Virtue and vice, 
 
 A knave’s pretence 
 ’Tis all the same; 
 
 Ha! ha! 
 
 Dread of hell-fire, 
 
 Of the venomous flame, 
 
 A coward’s plea. 510 
 Give him his price, 
 
 Saint though he be, 
 
 Ha! ha! 
 
 From shrewd good sense 
 
 He’ll slave for hire, 
 
 Ha! ha! 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 21 
 
 And does but aspire 
 To the heaven above 
 
 With sordid aim, 
 
 And not from love. 520 
 
 Ha! ha! 
 
 Soul 
 
 I see not those false spirits; shall I see 
 My dearest Master, when I reach His throne; 
 
 Or hear, at least, His awful judgment- word 
 With personal intonation, as I now 
 Hear thee, not see thee, Angel ? Hitherto 
 All has been darkness since I left the earth; 
 
 Shall I remain thus sight-bereft all through 
 My penance time ? If so, how comes it then 
 That I have hearing still, and taste, and touch, 
 
 Yet not a glimmer of that princely sense 531 
 Which binds ideas in one, and makes them live ? 
 
 Angel 
 
 Nor touch, nor taste, nor hearing hast thou now; 
 Thou livest in a world of signs and types, 
 
 The presentations of most holy truths, 
 
 Living and strong, which now encompass thee. 
 
 A disembodied soul, thou hast by right 
 No converse with aught else beside thyself* 
 
 But, lest so stern a solitude should load 
 And break thy being, in mercy are vouchsafed 540 
 Some lower measures of perception - 
 Which seem to thee as though through channels 
 brought, 
 
 Through ear, or nerves, or palate, which are gone. 
 
22 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 And thou art wrapped and swathed around in 
 dreams, 
 
 Dreams that are true, yet enigmatical; 
 
 For the belongings of thy present state, 
 
 Save through such symbols, come not home to thee. 
 And thus thou tell’st of space, and time, and size, 
 Of fragrant, solid, bitter, musical, 
 
 Of fire, and of refreshment after fire; 550 
 
 As (let me use similitude of earth, 
 
 To aid thee in the knowledge thou dost ask) — 
 
 As ice which blisters may be said to burn. 
 
 Nor hast thou now extension, with its parts 
 Correlative,— long habit cozens thee,— 
 
 Nor power to move thyself, nor limbs to move. 
 Hast thou not heard of those, who after loss 
 Of hand or foot, still cried that they had pains 
 In hand or foot, as though they had it still? 
 
 So is it now with thee, who hast not lost 560 
 Thy hand or foot, but all which made up man; 
 
 So will it be, until the joyous day 
 Of resurrection, when thou wilt regain 
 All thou hast lost, new-made and glorified. 
 
 How, even now, the consummated Saints 
 See God in heaven, I may not explicate. 
 
 Meanwhile let it suffice thee to possess 
 Such means of converse as are granted thee, 
 Though till that Beatific Vision thou art blind ; 
 
 For e’en thy purgatory, which comes like fire, 570 
 Is fire without its light. 
 
 Soul 
 
 His will be done ! 
 
 I am not worthy e’er to see again 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 23 
 
 The face of day; far less His countenance 
 Who is the very sun. Nathless, in life, 
 
 When I looked forward to my purgatory, 
 
 It ever was my solace to believe, 
 
 That, ere I plunged amid th’ avenging flame, 
 
 I had one sight of Him to strengthen me. 
 
 Angel 
 
 • 
 
 Nor rash nor vain is that presentiment; 580 
 
 Yes, —for one moment thou shalt see thy Lord. 
 Thus will it be: what time thou art arraigned 
 Before the dread tribunal, and thy lot 
 Is cast for ever, should it be to sit 
 On His right hand among His pure elect, 
 
 Then sight, or that which to the soul is sight, 
 
 As by a lightning-flash, will come to thee, 
 
 And thou shalt see, amid the dark profound, 
 Whom thy soul loveth, and would fain approach, — 
 One moment; but thou knowest not, my child, 590 
 What thou dost ask: that sight of the Most Fair 
 Will gladden thee, but it will pierce thee too. 
 
 Soul 
 
 Thou speakest darkly, Angel ! and an awe 
 Falls on me, and a fear lest I be rash. 
 
 Angel 
 
 There was a mortal, who is now above 
 In the mid glory: he, when near to die, 
 
 Was given communion with the Crucified,— 
 
24 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Such, that the Master’s very wounds were stamped 
 Upon his flesh; and, from the agony 
 Which thrilled through body and soul in that 
 
 embrace 600 
 
 Learn that the flame of the Everlasting Love 
 Doth burn ere it transform. . . . 
 
 V 
 
 . . . Hark to those sounds ! 
 They come of tender beings angelical, 
 
 Least and most childlike of the sons of God. 
 
 First Choir of Angelicals 
 
 Praise to the Holiest in the height, 
 
 And in the depth be praise: 
 
 In all His words most wonderful; 
 
 Most sure in all His ways ! 
 
 To us His elder race He gave 610 
 
 To battle and to win, 
 
 Without the chastisement of pain, 
 
 Without the soil of sin. 
 
 The younger son he willed to be 
 A marvel in his birth: 
 
 Spirit and flesh his parents were; 
 
 His home was heaven and earth. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 25 
 
 The Eternal blessed His child, and armed, 
 
 And sent him hence afar, 
 
 To serve as champion in the field 620 
 
 Of elemental war. 
 
 To be his Viceroy in the world 
 Of matter, and of sense; 
 
 Upon the frontier, towards the foe, 
 
 A resolute defence. 
 
 Angel 
 
 We now have passed the gate, and are within 
 The House of Judgment; and whereas on earth 
 Temples and palaces are formed of parts 
 Costly and rare, but all material, 
 
 So in the world of spirits nought is found, 630 
 To mould withal and form into a whole, 
 
 But what is immaterial; and thus 
 The smallest portions of this edifice, 
 
 Cornice, or frieze, or balustrade, or stair, 
 
 The very pavement is made up of life — 
 
 Of holy, blessed, and immortal beings, 
 
 Who hymn their Maker’s praise continually. 
 
 Second Choir of Angelicals 
 
 Praise to the Holiest in the height, 
 
 And in the depth be praise: 
 
 In all His words most wonderful; 640 
 
 Most sure in all His ways ! 
 
 Woe to thee, man ! for he was found 
 A recreant in the fight; 
 
26 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 And lost his heritage of heaven, 
 
 And fellowship with light. 
 
 Above him now the angry sky, 
 
 Around the tempest's din; 
 
 Who once had angels for his friends, 
 
 Had but the brutes for kin. 
 
 0 man! a savage kindred they; 650 
 
 To flee that monster brood 
 
 He scaled the seaside cave, and clomb 
 The giants of the wood. 
 
 With now a fear, and now a hope, 
 
 With aids which chance supplied, 
 
 From youth to eld, from sire to son, 
 
 He lived, and toiled, and died. 
 
 He dreed his penance age by age; 
 
 And step by step began 
 
 Slowly to doff his savage garb, 660 
 
 And be again a man. 
 
 And quickened by the Almighty’s breath, 
 
 And chastened by His rod, 
 
 And taught by Angel-visitings, 
 
 At length he sought his God: 
 
 And learned to call upon His name, 
 
 And in His faith create 
 
 A household and a fatherland, 
 
 A city and a state. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 27 
 
 Glory to Him who from the mire, 670 
 
 In patient length of days, 
 
 Elaborated into life 
 A people to His praise ! 
 
 Soul 
 
 The sound is like the rushing of the wind — 
 
 The summer wind among the lofty pines; 
 
 Swelling and dying, echoing round about, 
 
 Now here, now distant, wild and beautiful; 
 
 While, scattered from the branches it has stirred, 
 Descend ecstatic odours. 
 
 Third Choir of Angelicals 
 
 Praise to the Holiest in the height, 680 
 
 And in the depth be praise: 
 
 In all His words most wonderful; 
 
 Most sure in all his ways ! 
 
 The Angels, as beseemingly 
 To spirit-kind was given, 
 
 At once were tried and perfected, 
 
 And took their seats in heaven. 
 
 For them no twilight or eclipse; 
 
 No growth and no decay: 
 
 ’Twas hopeless, all-ingulfing night, 690 
 
 Or beatific day. 
 
 But to the younger race there rose 
 A hope upon its fall; 
 
28 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 And slowly, surely, gracefully, 
 
 The morning dawned on all. 
 
 And ages, opening out, divide 
 The precious and the base, 
 
 And from the hard and sullen mass, 
 
 Mature the heirs of grace. 
 
 0 man ! albeit the quickening ray, 700 
 
 Lit from his second birth, 
 
 Makes him at length what once he was, 
 
 And heaven grows out of earth; 
 
 Yet still between that earth and heaven— 
 
 His journey and his goal — 
 
 A double agony awaits 
 His body and his soul. 
 
 A double debt he has to pay — 
 
 The forfeit of his sins, 
 
 The chill of death is past, and now 710 
 
 The penance-fire begins. 
 
 Glory to Him, who evermore 
 By truth and justice reigns; 
 
 Who tears the soul from out its case, 
 
 And burns away its stains ! 
 
 Angel 
 
 They sing of thy approaching agony, 
 
 Which thou so eagerly didst question of: 
 
 It is the face of the Incarnate God 
 
 Shall smite thee with that keen and subtle pain*, 
 
THE DREAM GF GERONTIUS 
 
 29 
 
 And yet the memory which it leaves will be 720 
 A sovereign febrifuge to heal the wound; 
 
 And yet withal it will the wound provoke, 
 
 And aggravate and widen it the more. 
 
 Soul 
 
 Thou speakest mysteries; still me thinks I know 
 To disengage the tangle of thy words: 
 
 Yet rather would I hear thy angel voice, 
 
 Than for myself be thy interpreter. 
 
 Angel 
 
 When then — if such thy lot — thou seest thy Judge, 
 The sight of Him will kindle in thy heart 
 All tender, gracious, reverential thoughts. 730 
 Thou wilt be sick with love, and yearn for Him, 
 And feel as though thou couldst but pity Him, 
 That one so sweet should e’er have placed Himself 
 At disadvantage such, as to be used 
 So vilely by a being so vile as thee. 
 
 There is a pleading in His pensive eyes 
 Will pierce thee to the quick, and trouble thee. 
 
 And thou wilt hate and loathe thyself; for, though 
 Now sinless, thou wilt feel that thou hast sinned, 
 As never thou didst feel; and wilt desire 740 
 To slink away, and hide thee from His sight 
 And yet wilt have a longing aye to dwell 
 Within the beauty of His countenance. 
 
 And these two pains, so counter and so keen, — 
 The longing for Him, when thou seest Him not; 
 The shame of self at thought of seeing Him,— 
 
 Will be thy veriest, sharpest purgatory. 
 
30 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Soul 
 
 My soul is in my hand: I have no fear,— 
 
 In His dear might prepared for weal or woe. 
 
 But hark! a grand mysterious harmony: 750 
 
 It floods me, like the deep and solemn sound 
 Of many waters. 
 
 Angel 
 
 We have gained the stairs 
 Which rise towards the Presence-chamber; there 
 A band of mighty Angels keep the way 
 On either side, and hymn the Incarnate God. 
 
 Angels of the Sacred Stair 
 
 Father, whose goodness none can know, but they 
 Who see Thee face to face, 
 
 By man hath come the infinite display 
 
 Of Thy victorious grace; 760 
 
 But fallen man — the creature of a day— 
 
 Skills not that love to trace. 
 
 It needs, to tell the triumph Thou has wrought, 
 
 An AngePs deathless fire, an Angel’s reach of 
 thought. 
 
 It needs that very Angel, who with awe, 
 
 Amid the garden shade, 
 
 The great Creator in His sickness saw, 
 
 Soothed by a creature’s aid, 
 
 And agonized, as victim of the Law 
 Which He Himself had made; 770 
 
 For who can praise Him in His depth and height, 
 But he who saw Him reel amid that solitary fight? 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 31 
 
 Soul 
 
 Hark ! for the lintels of the presence-gate 
 
 Are vibrating and echoing back the strain. 
 
 Fourth Choir of Angelicals 
 
 Praise to the Holiest in the height, 
 
 And in the depth be praise: 
 
 In all His words most wonderful; 
 
 Most sure in all his ways ! 
 
 The foe blasphemed the Holy Lord, 
 
 As if he reckoned ill, 780 
 
 In that he placed His puppet man 
 The frontier place to fill. 
 
 For even in his best estate, 
 
 With amplest gifts endued, 
 
 A sorry sentinel was he, 
 
 A being of flesh and blood. 
 
 As though a thing, who for his help 
 Must needs possess a wife, 
 
 Could cope with those proud rebel hosts, 
 
 Who had angelic life. 790 
 
 And when, by blandishment of Eve, 
 
 That earth-born Adam fell, 
 
 He shrieked in triumph, and he cried, 
 
 “A sorry sentinel; 
 
 The Maker by His word is bound, 
 
 Escape or cure is none; 
 
 He must abandon to his doom, 
 
 And slay His darling Son. ” 
 
32 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Angel 
 
 And now the threshold, as we traverse it, 
 
 Utters aloud its glad responsive chant. 800 
 
 Fifth Choir of Angelicals 
 
 Praise to the Holiest in the height, 
 
 And in the depth be praise: 
 
 In all His words most wonderful; 
 
 Most sure in all His ways ! 
 
 0 loving wisdom of our God ! 
 
 When all was sin and shame, 
 
 A second Adam to the fight 
 And to the rescue came. 
 
 0 wisest love ! that flesh and blood 
 Which did in Adam fail, 810 
 
 Should strive afresh against the foe, 
 
 Should strive and should prevail; 
 
 And that a higher gift than grace 
 Should flesh and blood refine, 
 
 God’s Presence and His very Self, 
 
 And Essence all divine. 
 
 0 generous love ! that He who smote 
 In man for man the foe, 
 
 The double agony in man 
 For man should undergo; 820 
 
 And in the garden secretly, 
 
 And on the cross on high, 
 
 Should teach his brethren and inspire 
 To suffer and to die. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 33 
 
 VI 
 
 Angel 
 
 Thy Judgment now is near, for we are come 
 Into the veiled presence of our God. 
 
 Soul 
 
 I hear the voices that I left on earth. 
 
 Angel 
 
 It is the voice of friends around thy bed, 
 
 Who say the “Subvenite” with the priest. 
 
 Hither the echoes come; before the Throne 830 
 Stands the great Angel of the Agony, 
 
 The same who strengthened Him, what time He 
 knelt 
 
 Lone in the garden shade, bedewed with blood. 
 That Angel best can plead with Him for all 
 Tormented souls, the dying and the dead. 
 
 Angel of the Agony 
 
 Jesu! by that shuddering dread which fell on 
 Thee; 
 
 Jesu! by that cold dismay which sickened Thee; 
 Jesu ! by that pang of heart which thrilled in 
 Thee; 
 
 Jesu! by that mount of sins which crippled Thee; 
 
34 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 Jesu! by that sense of guilt which stifled Thee; 
 Jesu! by that innocence which girdled Thee; 841 
 Jesu! by that sanctity which reigned in Thee; 
 Jesu! by that Godhead which was one with Thee; 
 Jesu ! spare these souls which are so dear to Thee, 
 Who in prison, calm and patient, wait for Thee; 
 Hasten, Lord, their hour, and bid them come to 
 Thee, 
 
 To that glorious Home, where they shall ever gaze 
 on Thee. 
 
 Soul 
 
 I 
 
 I go before my Judge. Ah ! . . . . 
 
 Angel 
 
 .... Praise to His Name! 
 The eager spirit has darted from my hold, 850 
 And, with the intemperate energy of love, 
 
 Flies to the dear feet of Emmanuel; 
 
 But, ere it reach them, the keen sanctity, 
 
 Which with its effluence, like a glory, clothes 
 And circles round the Crucified, has seized, 
 
 And scorched, and shrivelled it; and now it lies 
 Passive and still before the awful Throne. 
 
 0 happy, suffering soul ! for it is safe, 
 
 Consumed, yet quickened, by the glance of God. 
 
 Soul 
 
 Take me away, and in the lowest deep 860 
 
 There let me be, 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 35 
 
 And there in hope the lone night-watches keep, 
 Told out for me. 
 
 There, motionless and happy in my pain, 
 
 Lone, not forlorn, — 
 
 There will I sing my sad perpetual strain, 
 
 Until the morn. 
 
 There will I sing, and soothe my stricken breast, 
 Which ne’er can cease 
 
 To throb, and pine, and languish, till possest 870 
 Of its Sole Peace. 
 
 There will I sing my absent Lord and Love: — 
 Take me away, 
 
 That sooner I may rise, and go above, 
 
 And see Him in the truth of everlasting day. 
 
 VII 
 
 Angel 
 
 Now let the golden prison ope its gates, 
 
 Making sweet music, as each fold revolves 
 Upon its ready hinge. And ye great powers, 
 Angels of Purgatory, receive from me 
 My charge, a precious soul, until the day, 880 
 When, from all bond and forfeiture released, 
 
 I shall reclaim it for the courts of light. 
 
 Souls in Purgatory 
 
 1. Lord, Thou hast been our refuge: in every gen- 
 eration ; 
 
36 
 
 THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 2. Before the hills were born, and the world was: 
 
 from age to age Thou art God. 
 
 3. Bring us not, Lord, very low: for Thou hast 
 
 said, Come back again, ye sons of Adam. 
 
 4. A thousand years before Thine eyes are but as 
 
 yesterday: and as a watch of the night 
 which is come and gone. 
 
 5. The grass springs up in the morning: at even- 
 
 ingtide it shrivels up and dies. 
 
 6. So we fail in Thine anger: and in Thy wrath 
 
 we are troubled. 
 
 7. Thou hast set our sins in Thy sight: and our 
 
 round of days in the light of Thy counte- 
 nance. 
 
 8. Come back, 0 Lord! how long: and he entreat- 
 
 ed for Thy servants. 890 
 
 9. In Thy morning we shall be filled with Thy 
 
 mercy: we shall rejoice and be in pleasure 
 all our days. 
 
 10. We shall be glad according to the days of our 
 
 humiliation: and the years in which we have 
 seen evil. 
 
 11. Look, 0 Lord, upon Thy servants and on Thy 
 
 work: and direct their children. 
 
 12. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be 
 
 upon us: and the work of our hands, estab- 
 lish Thou it. 
 
 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall 
 be: world without end. Amen. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 37 
 
 Angel 
 
 Softly and gently, dearly-ransomed soul, 
 
 In my most loving arms I now enfold thee, 
 
 And, o’er the penal waters, as they roll, 
 
 I poise thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee. 
 
 And carefully I dip thee in the lake, 901 
 
 And thou, without a sob or a resistance, 
 
 Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take, 
 Sinking deep, deeper into the dim distance. 
 
 Angels, to whom the willing task is given, 
 
 Shall tend, and nurse and lull thee, as thou 
 liest; 
 
 And Masses on the earth, and prayers in heaven, 
 Shall aid thee at the Throne of the Most High- 
 est. 
 
 Farewell, but not for ever! brother dear, 
 
 Be brave and patient on thy bed of sorrow, 
 
 Swiftly shall pass thy night of trial here, 911 
 And I will come 'and wake thee on the morrow. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 39 
 
 THE TEXT 
 
 PROLOGUE. Lines 1-170. 
 
 1. What is the natural tone of a death scene? 
 
 2. How does the prologue gain that tone? 
 
 3. Do the choruses of the Assistants intensify that effect? 
 
 4. Does the Latin add to or detract from the effect? Why? 
 
 5. Describe the “new feeling never felt before” by which 
 Gerontius knows that he is dying. Lines 7-28. 
 
 6. In lines 7-28. 
 
 a. Which line best pictures to you the void into which 
 Gerontius is falling? 
 
 b. What effect do his invocations produce on the narrative? 
 
 c. What lines indicate his fear of death? 
 
 d. Can you point out any indication of a death struggle? 
 
 7. Line 42 indicates a change of mood. There are four 
 such soul states in Gerontius’ dying. What is the mood in lines 
 1-30? In lines 42-107? In lines 107-130? In lines 147-150? 
 
 8. Are these moods influenced by the prayers of the Assist- 
 ants ? Explain. 
 
 9. Show by examples the responsiveness of the language to 
 the mood; i. e., by change in rhythm, by change in diction. 
 
 10. What comparison brings out “that sense of ruin which 
 is worse than pain”? Line 110. 
 
 11. Did you ever dream that you were falling? Does the 
 comparison used in the poem correspond to your feelings? 
 
 12. Is there any indication of temptation? Line 120. 
 
 13. What would you say are the most beautiful lines of the 
 prologue? Give reasons for your choice. 
 
 14. How would you characterize the movement or rhythm 
 of the prologue? 
 
 15. What ideas or thoughts strike you as new in the prologue? 
 
40 
 
 THE LOYOLA CLASSICS 
 
 FIRST EPISODE. Lines 171-320. 
 
 16. What lines indicate the movement of the first episode? 
 
 17. Is the movement a contrast to that of the prologue? 
 Why? 
 
 18. What world does the soul now enter, and what problem 
 now faces the poet? 
 
 19. In line 225 we read: “Another marvel: ” 
 
 What marvels make up this episode? 
 
 20. How can “sweet rest” have pain? Lines 190-195. 
 
 21. What two doubts possess the soul? Lines 196-210; 210- 
 225. 
 
 22. Have you felt doubt as to whether you were moving 
 when a train rushed past the one in which you were? Are 
 your feelings verified in the poet’s words? 
 
 23. How would you characterize 
 
 a. The Angels’ first song? (A song of ). 
 
 b. The Angels’ second song? (A song of ). 
 
 24. What is the effect of these melodies on the narrative? 
 
 25. How does Gerontius recognize the Angel? Line 258. 
 
 26. Do you consider line 307 exaggerated? Can you recall 
 anything similar in Saint John’s Apocalypse ? 
 
 27. Why is the soul of Gerontius temptation-free? Line 312. 
 
 28. What lines impress you as the most musical in this 
 episode? 
 
 29. Scan them for their musical reason. 
 
 SECOND EPISODE. Lines 321-394. 
 
 30. What two questions of Gerontius, together with the 
 Angel’s answer, make up the content of this episode? 
 
 31. Do the answers satisfy your thoughts on the matter in 
 question ? Why ? 
 
 32. Are the questions such as you would ask? Why? 
 
 33. What line in the Angel’s first answer shows the time 
 occupied by the first and second episodes? 
 
THE DREAM OF GER0NT1US 
 
 41 
 
 34. How is “time” measured in eternity? Line 355. 
 
 35. Is this standard natural? Would or could you propose 
 
 another standard? 
 
 36. What keeps the soul of Gerontius from his God? Line 
 365. 
 
 37. “I saw the Judge severe e’en in the crucifix.” Is this 
 the common view of men? Should it be otherwise? Why? 
 
 38. What is the relation of the Particular to the General 
 
 Judgment as given in the text? Lines 380-390. Is this relation 
 
 consonant with the Catechism? 
 
 39. In these lines is there any indication that Gerontius is 
 saved ? 
 
 THIRD EPISODE. Lines 395-602. 
 
 40. What lines strike the key-note of this episode? 
 
 41. Are the Demons’ choruses in harmony with this note? 
 
 Why? 
 
 42. What is the attitude of the Demons towards God? 
 Towards man? 
 
 43. Is this attitude natural? Why? 
 
 44. Describe the character of the Demons as drawn by 
 Newman. 
 
 45. Milton’s archdemon is heroic. Are Newman’s? 
 
 46. Which view is truer to faith? Which is the more artistic 
 
 and literary? 
 
 47. How does the Angel account for this difference of views? 
 Lines 490-500. 
 
 48. Does the introduction of demons add an element of plot? 
 State reasons. 
 
 49. What lines in 540-550 indicate the medium of Gerontius’ 
 perception ? 
 
 50. Why does the poet employ this medium? Has it any 
 bearing on the title? 
 
 51. What lines in 570-580 show the craving of the soul for 
 God? 
 
42 
 
 THE LOYOLA CLASSICS 
 
 52. “That sight of the Most Fair will gladden thee, but it 
 will pierce thee too.” What example does the Angel use to 
 explain this paradox? Lines 590-599. 
 
 FOURTH EPISODE. Lines 603-824. 
 
 53. A motif — a word much used in art and literature — is the 
 recurrence of a theme. Thus in a symphony a fundamental 
 melody appears and reappears in the different movements. 
 What might be termed the motif of the songs of the five choirs 
 of Angelicals? 
 
 54. The content of the Angelicals’ songs is : The story of 
 
 man’s ? 
 
 55. Does Gerontius’ appreciation of the Angelicals’ song 
 recall Tennyson’s Bugle Song? Why? Line 674. 
 
 56. Note the progress : — through the Gate, up the Sacred 
 Stairs, to the Threshold. How does Newman turn this poetic 
 fancy to artistic use? 
 
 57. “There is a pleading in His pensive eyes will 
 
 trouble thee.” Line 736. What incident of the Passion does 
 this line suggest? 
 
 FIFTH EPISODE. Line 825-875. 
 
 58. Wffiat is the tone of this episode? Why is such a tone 
 employed ? 
 
 59. “I hear the voices that I left on earth.” Line 827. This 
 line and the Angel’s answer bring back what scene? 
 
 60. Lines 827-835 show “the fears of anxious hearts.” Is 
 this note of anxiety in place? Why? 
 
 61. The words of the Angel of the Agony are full of ? 
 
 Why is this feeling proper here? Lines 836-847. 
 
 62. The most solemn moment of the poem is left to our 
 imagination. Why? Line 848. 
 
 63. W ; hat is the effect of God’s sanctity on the soul of 
 Gerontius? Line 853. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 43 
 
 64. Does this effect give us a picture of what sin must be 
 in the sight of God? Why? 
 
 65. After judgment, what is the sole thought of Gerontius? 
 What were his thoughts before? Why this difference? Line 
 860. 
 
 66. Note the simple beauty of the Soul’s song of resignation. 
 
 EPILOGUE. Lines 876-912. 
 
 67. Mark the sweet peace of the epilogue. What are its 
 elements ? 
 
 68. Would you prefer another ending? For instance, that 
 Gerontius should wake from his dream and live? State reasons 
 for your preference. 
 
 69. Select any one of the Poems for Comparative Reading 
 and compare it with The Dream of Gerontius, stressing these 
 three points : 
 
 a. Is the view-point Christian or pagan? 
 
 b. Are the treatment and attitude submissive or defiant? 
 
 c. Is the effect hopeful or depressing? 
 
 SHORT POEMS FOR COMPARATIVE READING 
 
 Arnold: Rugby Chapel; Thyrsis. 
 
 Browning : Prospice. 
 
 Bryant: Thanatopsis. 
 
 Gray: Elegy in a Country Churchyard. 
 
 Hemans : The Hour of Death. 
 
 Holmes: Under the Violets. 
 
 Hood: The Death Bed. 
 
 Hunt : Death. 
 
 Keats: The Terrors of Death. 
 
 Knox: Oh! Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud ? 
 
 Longfellow: The Two Angels; Resignation. 
 
44 
 
 THE LOYOLA CLASSICS 
 
 Lowel : After the Burial. 
 
 Lyte: Abide with Me. 
 
 Milton : Lycidas. 
 
 Moore: Oft in the Stilly Night; Those Evening Bells. 
 
 Poe: Annabel Lee; The Raven. 
 
 Procter: History of a Life. 
 
 Rosetti : Song. 
 
 Scott: Soldier, Rest. 
 
 Shelley: Adonais. 
 
 Stoddard: We Sat by the Cheerless Fireside. 
 
 Tennyson : Crossing the Bar; Break, Break, Break. 
 
 Whitman: O Captain! My Captain! 
 
 Wordsworth: Three Years She Grew. 
 
 Almost all these poems can be found in The Cambridge Book 
 of Poetry and Song. (The Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York.) 
 
 DRAMATIC OUTLINE 
 
 Drama is a picture of human life for representation on the 
 stage. The essential lines of difference between ancient, or 
 classical, and modern, or romantic drama may be illustrated in 
 the following table : 
 
 CLASSICAL 
 
 1. Religious subject. 
 
 2. Action carried through 
 prologue, five acts, and epi- 
 logue.’ 
 
 3. Chorus. 
 
 4. Three unities. 
 
 5. Two or three actors. 
 
 6. Soliloquy and dialogue. 
 
 MODERN 
 
 1. Subject matter unre- 
 stricted. 
 
 2. Prologue and epilogue 
 rarely employed, while num- 
 ber of acts varies. 
 
 3. No chorus. 
 
 4. One unity. 
 
 5. No set number of 
 actors. 
 
 6. Soliloquy and dialogue 
 are shortened. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 47 
 
 For a fuller discussion of dramatic principles consult : 
 
 Coppens : A Practical Introduction to English Rhetoric. 
 Matthews: Study of the Drama. 
 
 Moulton : Ancient Classical Drama. 
 
 Woodbridge: The Technique of the Drama. 
 
 Freytag: Technique of the Drama. 
 
 THE DRAMATIC FORM 
 
 1. State the elements characteristic of classical dramatic 
 form. Point out these elements in The Dream of Gerontius. 
 
 2. In any dramatic form there must be a rise and fall in- 
 action. Why ? 
 
 3. Trace this rise and fall in The Dream of Gerontius. 
 
 4. Do you think that the action drags? If so, why? 
 
 5. What is the climax in the poem? 
 
 6. Show that the preceding episodes have a direct bearing 
 on the climax. 
 
 7. Point out that this relation grows closer as the episode 
 comes nearer to the climax. 
 
 8. How would you word a law of dramatic composition 
 embodying the ideas contained in Nos. 6 and 7? 
 
 9. Can you find any such principle in your Rhetoric? 
 
 10. Do you think there is a gain in dramatic effect by the 
 abruptness in the climax itself? Why? 
 
 11. In the classical form the climax has place in the fifth 
 act. Does the fifth episode correspond to the fifth act in this 
 respect ? 
 
 12. The dramatis personae are : the Assistants ; the Angels ; 
 the Demons ; the Soul ; God. Which of these is made the 
 central figure and why? 
 
 13. Dramatic action requires a clash of persons or of forces. 
 Have we such a clash here? 
 
 14. With what object does this clash concern itself? 
 
 15. What characters represent what would be the hero and 
 the villian in modern drama? 
 
 16. Is the plotting of the Demons suggested rather than 
 acted before our eyes? Wihy? 
 
48 
 
 THE LOYOLA CLASSICS 
 
 17. The Dream of Gerontius may be the drama of (a) a 
 soul’s salvation; or, ( b ) the defeat and success of God’s crea- 
 tion. Which of these views is yours, and why? 
 
 18. The characters of the dramatis personae should be por- 
 trayed in their actions and their conversation. Is this prin- 
 ciple worked out in the poem? If so, give a brief character 
 sketch of Gerontius, the Guardian Angel, and the Demons. 
 
 19. Do the soliloquies of the Soul strike you as natural or 
 forced; long drawn out or of proper length? Why? 
 
 20. Why should the dialogue be in the form of question and 
 answer? 
 
 21. Do you think the subjects of the dialogues are too deep 
 to be interesting? State your reasons. 
 
 22. Do you think people not of the Faith would appreciate 
 the dialogues? Justify your answer. 
 
 23. Is there any direct answer to the boasts and complaints 
 of the Demons? Why? 
 
 24. Can you consider the choruses of the Angelicals an in- 
 direct answer to the Demons? 
 
 25. Does the indirect dialogue of the Angelicals and the 
 Demons represent counsels for and against the soul at judg- 
 ment? Why? 
 
 26. Would this representation be in accord with our idea of 
 angels and demons? 
 
 27. Would such a representation of angels and demons be 
 dramatic? Why? 
 
 28. What five great passions mentioned in the Dramatic 
 Outline are brought into play in a drama? Can you point out 
 the expression of these passions in the poem? 
 
 29. In the classic drama the chorus “consisted of a band of 
 persons who were supposed to have been present at the occur- 
 rences represented. They were actors, or rather spoke and sang 
 like one actor in the drama.” Show that the chorus of Assist- 
 ants, Angelicals, and Demons fulfills these two conditions. 
 
 30. In the classic drama the personnel of the chorus remains 
 unchanged. Why does the action of The Dream of Gerontius 
 call for a change in the personnel of the chorus? 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 49 
 
 31. The office of the chorus was “to utter the voice of wis- 
 dom, counsel, and religion,” and “from time to time sing an 
 ode suggested by the play, thus relieving the attention of the 
 spectators.” Show that these duties are fulfilled by the As- 
 sistants, Demons, and Angelicals. 
 
 32. The choruses usually marked the division of the acts. 
 Do they as a rule mark the division of the episodes in The 
 Dream of Geroniius? 
 
 33. What is meant by the three unities? 
 
 34. Have they a place in The Dream of Gerontiusf 
 
 35. Why are they not all employed in modern drama? 
 
50 
 
 THE LOYOLA CLASSICS 
 
 STUDENT ASSIGNMENTS 
 
 1. Let each student write an honest appreciation of the poem. 
 Is it a masterpiece to him or not? State why. 
 
 2. Let the class construct a similar drama. The theme : 
 
 a. The soul of Judas; or, 
 
 h. The soul of Joan of Arc. 
 
 Follow the dramatic analysis (prologue, five episodes, epi- 
 logue). A single episode may be assigned to one student or 
 to a group of students as the number in the class varies. Have 
 the assignments read in class, criticized, combined, and pub- 
 lished in the school paper as a class poem. (If the class has 
 not studied metrical composition, the exercise might profitably 
 be written in prose.) 
 
 3. Hold a class symposium : 
 
 a. Paper on the history of the poem. 
 
 h. Paper on appreciation of the poem by literary 
 critics. 
 
 c. Paper on the verse structure. 
 
 d. Paper on Elgar’s Oratorio. 
 
 e. Intersperse with select readings from the poem. 
 
 4. Let the students select three or four passages to be mem- 
 orized and state the reason of the choice. 
 
 5. Assign word studies: 
 
 a. Let the student determine in any episode the ratio 
 
 of Anglo-Saxon words to those of classical origin 
 and state reason for the proportion used. 
 
 b. Let the student note in any episode the picture 
 
 words, figures, and comparisons ; and then deter- 
 mine whether ornamental or plain diction pre- 
 dominates in the chosen episode. Show the con- 
 nection between the diction and the thought. 
 
 6. A short paper on the laws of narration and their exem- 
 plification in The Dream of Gerontius. 
 
 7. A paper on Greek drama, stressing the Hellenistic idea 
 of blind fate, which of course could have no place in Christian 
 literature. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 51 
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Abraham, n. The divinely appointed founder of the Jewish 
 nation. 
 
 Aggravate, vt. To add weight, to increase. (Colloquial) To 
 provoke, to anger. 
 
 Albeit, conj. Even though, although, notwithstanding. 
 
 Arraign, vt. To cite, to summon, to indict. 
 
 Ascendant, a. Ascending, rising, superior, dominant. 
 
 Beatific Vision (Theological). The sight of God face to face. 
 Bigot, a. Narrow-minded. , 
 
 Blandishment, n. Soothing or flattering speech or action. 
 
 Cant, v. To speak with affected or hypocritical unction. 
 Celestial, a. Heavenly, divine. 
 
 Chastisement, n. The infliction of punishment. 
 
 Chronology, n. The science which treats of time; the order of 
 events. 
 
 Chuck, vt. To toss, to pitch. 
 
 Clod, n. A lump' of clay. 
 
 Clomb, pp. or imp. of climb. 
 
 Coil, vt. To wind in rings. 
 
 Communion, n. Sympathetic intercourse. 
 
 Comply, vi. To consent, obey. 
 
 Composite, a. Compound. 
 
 Connatural, a. Innate, congenital, cognate, allied. 
 
 Constituent, a. Component. 
 
 Consummate, vt. To complete, to finish. 
 
 Converse, vi. To commune, to talk with. 
 
 Cope, vi. To contend, to fight. 
 
 Cornice, n. The horizontal molded projection at the top of a 
 building, usually under the eaves. 
 
 Correlative, a. Mutually involving or implying one another. 
 Cozen, vt. To cheat, to swindle. 
 
 Cycle, n. Eon, a vast period. 
 
 Dreed, pp. of dree, v. To suffer, to bear. 
 
 Effluence, n. A flowing out. 
 
 Eld, n. Former times, antiquity, old age. 
 
 Emmanuel, n. God with us ; one of the names of the Savior. 
 
52 
 
 THE LOYOLA CLASSICS 
 
 Febrifuge, n. A medicine that is efficacious against fever. 
 Guerdon, n. A reward given as an honor, recompense, requital. 
 Heritage, n. An estate that passes by descent; a share, a por- 
 tion. 
 
 Hist, interj. Be silent, hush, hark. 
 
 Hubbub, n. Uproar, tumult. 
 
 Incarnate, vt. To embody in flesh. 
 
 Impotent, a. Weak, destitute of power. 
 
 Integrity, n. Uprightness of character, the state of being entire. 
 Intemperate, a. Characterized by lack of moderation, violent. 
 Intonation, n. Modulation of voice in speaking. 
 
 Introversion, a. The act of turning within. 
 
 Isaac, n. A Hebrew patriarch, the son of Abraham. 
 
 Job, n. A Hebrew patriarch, a type of patience. 
 
 Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison (Greek). Lord have mercy on us, 
 Christ have mercy on us. 
 
 Lintel, n. The horizontal top-piece of a doorway. 
 
 Loathe, vt. To regard with hatred and disgust. 
 
 Loathsome, a. Exciting extreme aversion or disgust. 
 
 Lot, n. A Hebrew patriarch. 
 
 Lucifer, n. Satan. 
 
 Marvel, n. That which excites wonder, a prodigy. 
 
 Maze, n. A labyrinth, a network. 
 
 Mete, vt. To allot, to apportion. 
 
 Mortis in discrimine (Latin). In the critical moment of death. 
 Moses, n. A Hebrew legislator and prophet. 
 
 Mutual, a. Common, reciprocal. 
 
 Nathless, adv. Nevertheless. 
 
 Nethermost, a. Lowest. 
 
 Novissima hora est (Latin). The final hour is here. 
 
 Penal, a. Of or pertaining to punishment. 
 
 Peremptory, a. Not admitting of debate or expostulation, de- 
 cisive, absolute. 
 
 Presage, n. An indication of something to come, omen, portent. 
 Proficiscere, anima Christiana, de hoc mundo (Latin). Go 
 forth, O Christian soul, from this world. 
 
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS 
 
 53 
 
 Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, de profundis oro te, Miserere 
 Judex meus, parce mihi, Domine (Latin). Holy Strong one, 
 Holy God, from the depths I pray Thee, pity me, my Judge, 
 spare me, O my Lord! 
 
 Scopeless, a. Without end or limit. 
 
 Scud, vi. To move, run, or fly swiftly. 
 
 Thecla, n. A saint of Isauria. 
 
 Token, n. Any object indicative of another object, a sign, an 
 indication. 
 
 Transform, vt. To change. 
 
 Uncouth, a. Ungainly, odd, outlandish. 
 
 Unruly, a. Ungovernable. 
 
 Vestibule, n. A small antechamber. 
 
 Visitant, n. A visitor or guest. 
 
 Wane, vi. To diminish in size or brilliancy, to decrease.