WW' < Class _.PS x^lcn_ Book„ .?_5 Copyright }1^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. ^p Willmxa ©auffjjn iHooBp THE FIRE-BRINGER. izmo, $i.io net. Post- age extra. THE MASQUE OF JUDGMENT. i2mo, $1.50. POEMS. i2mo, $1.25. THE FIRE-BRTNGER THE FIRE-BRINGER BY WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY tSitt Utititt^ibt ^tt^^, yrignt £ntry CLASS CU XXc. No. corv n And zvhen Zeus determined to destroy the men of the brazen age^ Deukalion, being forewarned by Pro- metheus^ built a boat^ and putting into it food and drink^ embarked with Pyrrha. Zeus sent a great rain from heaven^ so that all men were overwhelmed^ except a few who fled to the high places. Deukalion was driven upon the darkness of the waters until he catne to Parnassus ; and there^ when the rains had abated^ he landed and made sacrifice^ praying for men to repeople the earth. Then Deukalion and Pyrrha took stones^ and threw them over their heads ; those which Deukalion threw became men^ and those which Pyrrha threw became women. . . . Also Prometheus gave to them fire ^ bringing it secretly in a fennel stalk. When Zeus learned of this^ he commanded Hephastos to bind the body of Prometheus upon Mount Caucasus ; and for the theft of fire Prometheus suffered this punish- ment. Apollodorus. The Fire-Bringer is intended as the first mem- ber of a trilogy on the Promethean theme, of which The Masque of Judgment^ already published, is the second rhember; but the connection between the present poem and the one which follows it in the dramatic sequence is informal, and the action of each is complete in itself. DRAMATIS PERSONiE Prometheus Pandora Deukalion Pyrrha iEoLUS ' Lykophon Alcyone Rhodope The Stone Men The Earth Women A Priest of Zeus Various persons, survivors of Deukalion's flood. THE FIRE-BRINGER ACT I. J)arkness covers the scene. Faintly discernible^ a mountain slope., backed by low cliff's^ and beyond these the upper stretches of the mountain. In the cliffs a small cave^ and before the mouth of the cave a rude altar of earth. Deukalion and Pyrrha are seated against the cliff ; JEolus lies on his face at their feet. Deukalion. Thou hast slept long. Pyrrha. I saw a burning lamp That passed between the levret and the dove On Zeus's altar, and a smoke went up. 2 THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion. Dreams : we are old. The green heart and the sear He feeds with dreams ; having some pur- pose in it, Or else His idleness. Pyrrha. No lamp was here ? No fire, no light ? Deukalion. Some fire-sparks in the eyes Of dull bewildered beasts that came to gaze. And dully moved again into the mist. They have forgot their natures, even as we. And those who tremble yonder on the heights For fear the ebbing deep should mount again. Breathing this darkness have forgot our- selves. Our natures, and the motions of our souls. THE FIRE-BRINGER 3 Pyrrha. Was not the Titan here ? Seemed as he stood, Behind him dawn, and in his lifted hand — Deukalion, He came, in darkness. Pyrrha. What word should he bring ? Deukalion. I feigned to sleep. I had no heart for speech. Pyrrha. What did he, being with us ? Deukalion. Stood awhile Watching thy slumber ; touched the sleep- ing head Of ^olus ; gazed upward to the heights ; 4 THE FIRE-BRINGER Then vanished down the slope : and far be- low Pandora sang. Pyrrha. Again ? — Deukalion. I say below I heard her once, and once upon the peaks. A little after, thunder tore the sky. And *t was as if, far off, unearthly steeds And cloudy chariots plunged across the dark. Hush fell ; and, wailing like a broken bird, I heard her dropping down from rock to rock. Then for an endless season sat she here, Her head between her knees, and all her hair Spread like a night-pool in the autumn woods. Pyrrha. Since the loosed raven flew, nor came again-, THE FIRE-BRINGER 5 And since the black wind ceasing cast us here, How long should the time be ? Deukalion. A week, a month. Measureless years, some moments. Time is dead. Drowned in the waste of waters ; or it lies Somewhere abolished in the primal mud, Caught in the rings of Python, whom at dusk Of that last day, peering in terror forth Before we shut the windows of our boat. We heard hiss from the north and from the south. And from the east and west, and saw him lay His circles round the frothy rim of the world ; Or fled above the dark, Time softly there Laughs through the abyss of radiance with the gods. 6 THE FIRE-BRINGER Pyrrha. Think'st thou the gods laugh, now the col- ored world They sought to when the spring was on the hills, And had their stolen loves here, lies snuffed out, A reeking lamp ? Deukalion. Also therefore they laugh : And therefore also do we bow us down In fear and worship. Pyrrha. Ay, so. — What sayest thou ? Deukalion. I say supernal laughter and smooth days Fill up Heaven's golden room ! For that the earth Hath her dim sorrow and her shrouded face. Should the gods grieve ? THE FIRE-BRINGER 7 Pyrrha. Husband, these breasts are dry That fed our many sons ; that head of thine Is hoar with majesty of years and rule; Much have I learned of thee and stored at heart Concerning gods and men, the elder age Of golden peace, the silver time between. When lust and strife began to gnaw the world, And these wild latter days. In the ark also, Crouching in darkness, and upon this mount Of weary darkness, hast thou held a torch To light my mind to patience of these woes Through understanding. Yet, behold, O king, I understand not I Wherefore hath great Zeus, Thy likeness in the heavens, bound like thee To shepherd his wide people, sent his floods To whelm them up, shut from the remnant clans Sun, moon, and stars; and for a final curse Drawn from the flints and dry boughs of the pine 8 THE FIRE-BRINGER The seed of divine fire, — yea, from our blood. Yea, from the secret places of our frames Sucked up the fire of passion and of will, And left us here by the desolate black ebb To rot and crumble with the crumbling world ? Wherefore is this, O king ? Deukalion. Thyself hast said. Pyrrha. Yet know not. — Heavy of thought ! Make me to know. Deukalion. Because these latter days are full of pride And lust and wrangling ; because his skies were vexed With the might of rearing horses, and the wheels Of chariots, and the young men blowing horns THE FIRE-BRINGER 9 Against his citadel ; because the south In all its chambers laughed a grievous red Out of the vineyards of its wantonness ; Because our fitful pulses, when they fell, Sang grief, division, terror, shame, and loss, Troubling that harmony which is the breath Of the gods' nostrils, yea the delicate tune To which they pace their souls, and act with joy Their several ministries. Pyrrha. Why then so long Do these flat slugs, that once were statured men. Cling to the oozy earth-rind He would cleanse For some new perfect race? Why, when thou heard'st Prometheus whisper thee his fearful news That evening by the farm-gate, did'st thou grant No sleep to slave or free, till from the hills lo THE FIRE-BRINGER The mighty pines were dragged, the hull- beams laid, The roof-tree raised, the doors and windows set. And through the muttering thunder all thy house Led in to safety ? When the holy fire, Brought by thine own hands from the hearth, went out. Why did'st thou bare thy white head to the storm To fetch another brand, and, finding none. Come forth with lamentation ? Why were seen. Through all thy mountain kingdom, runners stripped, And panted words, and flying to the peaks ? Thou answerest not; but leaning darkly down Over the head of little ^Eolus, Fingerest a tarnished lock from out the dust ! Speak, father ! Through this numbing gloom, this death, This veil of years, thy silence pierceth me. THE FIRE-BRINGER ii Deukalion. I try to feel again the thing I felt, But cannot, so the sinews of my soul Are loosened. Yet 't was for this radiant head That all was done defiantly toward God. His father Hellen and our other sons Were wandering, or had poured their life- blood out In obscure battle. This alone was left. This little flower of Greece, for whom I dreamed Kingdoms and glories, plaudits, trophies, palms. And sound of deathless lyres across the world. For his sake, fumbling in the gloom I built This altar, and have groped about the rocks For live thing worthy sacrifice •, have lain In bush and hollow till some dreaming bird Or sleep-besotted beast fell to my hands. And rent the same, and offered it with groans Upon the smokeless altar. 12 THE FIRE-BRINGER Pyrrha. Once He heard, Thou knowest. Deukalion. I know. We will not think thereon ! Pyrrha. The unwrought shapes, the unmoulded at- titudes ! The tongues of earth, the stony craving eyes ! Deukalion. Unto the husband was the wife's desire No longer, nor the husband's to the wife. The young maid lay undreamed on by the boy. The little life that was, was sinking fast Or sunk beyond recall. God's doubtful voice Out of the wind of the oak was fair to hear. Seeming to promise store of goodly men. And women vessels for the flowing life To enter and be spilled not. There was hope. Prometheus said not nay. Beside the verge THE FIRE-BRINGER 13 Of the spent flood did we not see him stoop, Kneading the clay in with the roiled foam, Breathing and breathing with his fiery breath. Then cry upon his work, and scattering it Rise up in haste and wrath ? Yet here was hope ! Pyrrha. Yea, as I flung the clods, and stooped and flung, I dared not look behind, for hope ; and thou. Stooping and flinging the allotted stones. Seemed clothed in prime of years, foreseeing earth With a big breed replenished ; till on a sudden Terribly out of the gloom the Titan cried ; Then we, ceasing, beheld, and fled in fear. Deukalion. Would they might sit as now, removed apart, Brooding upon the ground ; nor come again With vague slow motion up the shrouded slope. Fining the mist with formless utterance. 14 THE FIRE-BRINGER As craving to be born ! My men of stone In dreams appal me with their Hfted hands Of threat and suppHcation, and by thee Stand the earth-women pleading. Pyrrha. Ere I slept I was anhungered. Searching for sweet roots I crawled and groped my way, till I was come Unto a brackish water cupped and held From that same sea whereof the gurge but then Lessened its roar far down the cragged dark. There by the pool they sat, with faces lift And brows of harsh attention ; in their midst Pandora bowed, and sang a doubtful song. Its meaning faint or none, but mingled up Of all that nests and housekeeps in the heart. Or puts out in lone passion toward the vast And cannot choose but go. Deukalion. In mockery sent. In mercy be she taken, or on the hills THE FIRE-BRINGER 15 Drinking thisdarknessjwitherand be changed To such as we are ! Pyrrha. Thinkest thou that Zeus In anger made her thus ? Deukalion. 'Twill be so. When she came Our minds were dim and fearful. Pyrrha. Very dim. And blurred with fearful dream ; but — By the boat We crouched, and hearkened if the water still Drew downward, or was crawling up again To seize us unaware ; the mist was full Of beasts and men in wretched fellowship ; Then suddenly a breath like morning blew ; I saw as 't were a shadowy sun and moon Go up the blinded sky ; far off yet near I heard Prometheus speaking, and her voice In low and happy answer. i6 THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion. He would catch The hurled thunder-bolt, and forge from it A reaper's hook ; the vials of white wrath He spills to make a wine-cup for a feast ; Curses he knows not from the gifts of love ; And in the shadow of this death, even here, As low as from her pitch of pride earth 's fallen. He will be plotting that whereby to climb And lift us high above the peaks of God One dizzy instant, ere we fall indeed And he with us forever ! Pandora (sings, below). Along the earth and up the sky 'The Fowler spreads his net : O soul, what pinions wild and shy Are on thy shoulders set ? What wings of longing undeterred Are native to thee, spirit bird? Pyrrha. Hearken, is 't not THE FIRE-BRINGER 17 Her song again ? Far down among the vales Did'st hear it ? Faint and far, but — Hearken still ! Pandora (sings). What sky is thine behind the sky. For refuge and for ecstasy ? Of all thy heavens of clear delight Why is each heaven twain, O soul I that when the lure is cast Before thy heedless flight , And thou art snared and taken fast Within one sky of light. Behold, the net is empty, the cast is vain. And from thy circling in the other sky the lyric laughters rain I Deukalion. Through the gorge there — a shadow — Pyrrha, look ! Over the torrent bed and up the slope Something comes on, in stature more than man, And swifter. i8 THE FIRE-BRINGER Pyrrha. O swift-comer, it is thou ! None other, thou, wind-ranger, bringer-in ! Child, be awake ! Prometheus ! Prometheus (entering, lifts Pyrrha). Do not so ; These hands come poor ; these feet bring nothing back. Pyrrha. Thy hands come filled with thee, thy feet from thence Have brought thee hither; it is gifts enough. Deukalion. Is there no hope ? Pyrrha. Speak ! speak ! Through this dark cloud The eyes of Zeus's eagle cannot pierce Or any listener heed. Have we a hope? THE FIRE-BRINGER 19 Prometheus. From earth and all this lower realm of air The fire is gone. Pyrrha, Thy searchings ! — Giveth ease If but to hear thy voice. Prometheus (seats himself beside the cliff). I clambered down Old earthquake-cloven rifts and monstrous chasms Where long ago the stripling Titans peered At play and dared not venture, — found me out Flint-stones so buried in disastrous rock I thought the Darkener sure had passed them by ; But not a spark lived in them. Past the walls Rhipean, and the Arimaspian caves, I sought the far hyperborean day. But not a banner of their rustling light Flapped through the sagging sky, nor did the Fates 20 THE FIRE-BRINGER Once fling their gleaming shuttles east or west. By Indian Nysa and the Edonian fount Of Haemus long I lurked, in hope to find Young Dionysus as he raced along And wrest his pine-torch from him, or to snare Some god-distracted dancing aegipan, And from his garland crush a wine of fire To light the passion of the world again And fill man's veins with music ; but there went A voice of sighing through the ghostly woods. And up the mountain pastures in the mist Desolate creatures sorrowed for the god. Across the quenched ^gean, where of old The shining islands sang their stasimon, Forever chorusing great hymns of light Round Delos, through the driving dark I steered To seek Hephaestos on his Lemnian mount ; But found him not. His porches were o'er- thrown, THE FIRE-BRINGER 21 His altar out, and round his faded peak The toiled Cyclops, bowing huge and dim, Uncouthly mourned. . . . (He starts up^ and ga-zes toward the mountain-top.^ Soon will the smouldering life Cease even to smoulder ! I must forth again. But where? But where? {Pause.) Deukalion. Where suppliants still must go, But with the act of suppliance, and the mind. Not stiff and rebel brows, not daring deeds Be of availment, but to clasp the knees And touch the beard of Zeus. Within his house Still lives the sacred fire. 'T is there to have, If one by sacrifice and rites full-brought Could find the way. Prometheus (laughs). 'T is there to have ; thou sayst ! One thistledown of fortune to the good 11 THE FIRE-BRINGER And 't had been ravished thence, an hour ago. To better uses ! Deukalion. 'T was but so long since The thunder spake. Across the vault of heaven Plunged down the shadowy furnishment of war. Pyrrha. Thou *rt wounded ! Lo, this arm hangs helpless by ! — O, rash and overbold ! Thou — thou hast dared — The herm£e holding vigil at heaven's bound Have cried thy name out, and the shadows vast Of perished gods, beside the inmost hearth. Have spoken of thee, that the soul of Zeus Hath shook with dreams of evil to his house ! Deukalion. How might'st thou pass the terror of his ward. THE FIRE-BRINGER 23 Tread his serenest citadel, and come Not thunder-blasted hither, with slight wound ? Prometheus (flings himself again upon the ground). When each great cycle of Olympian years Rounds to its end, there comes upon the gods Mysterious compulsion. As a gem Borne from a lighted chamber Into dusk. Heaven of Its splendor disarrays itself. Hushes Its dyes, and all the whispering sphere Hangs like a moon of change. Knowing not why. Nor unto what, each brooding deity Wends to the sacred old Uranlan field, Where bloom old flowers, which. In the morn of time. Forgotten gods did garland for their hair. To celebrate some long-forgotten joy That then did pierce the heart of the young world. 24 THE FIRE-BRINGER Here gather they, with mute and doubtful looks At one another, waiting till She comes, Mnemosyne, mother of thought and tears. Remembrancer, and bringer out of death Burden of longing and sweet-fruited song. Then toward the upper windows of the stars, The roof and dome of things, the place su- preme Of speculation inward on the frame Of life create, and outward on the abyss That moans and welters in the wind of love. She leadeth up their shining theory. And there they stand and wonder on the time When they were not and when they shall not be. This was my moment ; for I knew 't was near, And laired away among the steep-up crags of day That bastion and shore-fast his pearl of power. THE FIRE-BRINGER 25 His white acropolis. Soft as light I passed The perilous gates that are acquainted forth. The walls of starry safety and alarm, The pillars and the awful roofs of song, The stairs and colonnades whose marble work Is spirit, and the joinings spirit also, — And from the well - brink of his central court Dipped vital fire of fire, flooding my vase, Glutting it arm-deep in the keen element. Then backward swifter than the osprey dips Down the green slide of the sea, till — Fool, O fool ! 'T was in my hands ! 'T was next my bosom ! Fierce Sang the bright essence past my scorching cheek. Blown up and backward as I dropped and skimmed The glacier-drifts, cataracts, wild moraines. And walls of frightful plunge. Upon the shore i6 THE FIRE-BRINGER Of this our night-bound wretched earth I paused, Lifted on high the triumph of my hands. And flung back words and laughter. As I dropped, The dogs of thunder chased me at the heels, A white tongue shook against me in the dark, And lo, my vase was rended in my hands. And all the precious substance that it held Spread, faded, and was gone, — was quenched, was gone ! (^Pause.) Deukalion (in a low voice). We cannot thank thee, though thy love be love. Great is thy heart; we cannot praise thy deed. Prometheus. It was not therefore done ! Pyrrha. For our poor praise. THE FIRE-BRINGER 27 For our poor love and praise ; albeit now The shouting of thy loud blood drowneth all! Deukalion (after a long silence). Prometheus, thou hast thought to be our friend. Our blood-kin, our indweller ; hast in- dued Vesture of our mortality and pain, — Wherefore if not for pride, for fiercest pride ? Thou hast found out wild pathways for our treading. Whispered us Nature's secrets, given to our hand The spirit of fire and all its restless works. Yea, blown aflame our all too eager blood Till earth went red and reeling like a torch When Dionysus calls under the moon. Look round thee, O storm-sower, what we reap Now in the season's fullness ! Is it good ? 28 THE FIRE-BRINGER Pride was thy lesson, and earth learned so well That she is fallen more low than she was high. Prometheus. And shall be higher than that height she was, By all this depth she has fallen ! Deukalion. In that day Let Chronos lift his old abolished head From mid Lethean mallows, and dim- tongued Call to thy shadowy brothers where they dream. And leading up his faint forgetful host. Rive the great diadem from Zeus's brow. Then may thy stormy will at last be thine ; But as for now, even for thy earth's dear sake. Be humble, O be humble ! Bind thy hair With willow, and put on the iron ring, THE FIRE-BRINGER 29 That so, by walking fearfully at last, We bend Heaven from its anger. Else shall man Suffer such woes as now we muse not of, And thou such punishment as quails the heart To think on. Prometheus. Either now with violent hand We snatch salvation home, or here we sit Till Python, hissing softly up the dark, Dizzy our lapsed souls, and headlong down We drop into his jaws, which from the first — See, the boy wakes ! jEoIus (waking). Give me to eat and drink. Pyrrha. Water and roots I hoarded in the cave. I will go fetch them forth. (^She goes into the cave.) 30 THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion. Was 't well with thee In slumber, child ? I know not. I did sleep. Pyrrha (coming out). The roots are gnawed, and the sweet water spilled. Be patient, iEolus, I will seek thee more. Deukalion. Stay ; let me fetch them rather. Thou wilt fall. Or meet some fear. The sluggish serpents lie And will not move, though trodden, save to sting. Pyrrha, Thou knowest not where the roots are still to find. Deukalion (rising painfully). Together then. Ah, me! Where is thy hand? THE FIRE-BRINGER 31 Pyrrha. Here, father. No, this way ! {They go slowly out ^feeling along the cliff.) Prometheus. Poor poisoned flower, Poor droop-head, down again ! (Stoops over Molus.) Woe for the house. Woe for the vineyard, woe for the orchard croft. The oil-tree and the place of standing corn ! Woe for the ships of venture ! Woe on Him Who sows and will not gather ; shame and woe Who sendeth forth and when the message comes Makes deaf and strange ! {He sinks down beside the cliffy O Mother Clymene, What of the song-thrush and the morning star. The moon deep-hung with increase down the dawn. 32 THE FIRE-BRINGER The wet fields brightening fast, the hour thy pangs Came on thee for my sake ? What of the earth Thou loved'st so well and taught'st me well to love ? — Hears not ! 'T was long ago. {^His head falls upon his knees.^ One deep, deep hour ! To drop ten thousand fathoms softly dawn Below the lowest heaving of life's sea. Till memory, sentience, will, are all annulled. And the wild eyes of the must-be-answered Sphinx, Couchant at dusk upon the spirit's moor. Blocking at noon the highway of the soul. At morn and night a spectre in her gates, — For once, for one deep hour — i^He lifts his head slowly^ and peers into the darkness.^ Say who ye are That fill the night with deeper heaviness ! Break up your strangling circle and come out. More, more, and wretcheder ! A spirit pass Into some old and unachieved world. THE FIRE-BRINGER 22 A storm-fall in some wood of rooted souls ! But O, what spirit-piercing flower of life Blooms from the wasteful heap ? (^From among the crouching figures of the Stone Men and Earth IVomen^ Pandora's voice is heard.^ Pandora (sings). Of wounds and sore defeat I made my battle stay ; Winged sandals for my feet I wove of my delay ; Of weariness and fear, I made my shouting spear; Of loss, and doubt, and dread. And swift oncoming doom I made a helmet for my head And a floating plume. From the shutting mist of death. From the failure of the breath, I made a battle-horn to blow Across the vales of overthrow. O hearken, love, the battle-horn I T^he triumph clear, the silver scorn I O hearken where the echoes bring. 34 THE FIRE-BRINGER Down the grey disastrous morriy Laughter and rallying ! Prometheus. Thou ! Is it thou ? Pandora (comes from among the recumbent figures, holding something aloft). Where is Prometheus ? Prometheus. I am I, thou knowest. Pandora. I had a gift for him. Where is he gone ? Prometheus. Give me thy gift. 'T will bring Prometheus back To the high home and fortress of his soul, Where thou and he made gladness. {^She gives him a fennel stalk.') What is this ? THE FIRE-BRINGER 35 Pandora. A hollow reed. I found it on the hills. Prometheus. Such used the mothers in the upland farms Fetch unpolluted fire in, once a year, To light their hearths anew; such would the girls Crown with fir-cone and smilax when they heard The frenzied pipe call in the midnight hills, And whisperings of anguish dimmed their blood. Pandora. Such had Prometheus, were he here again, Wreathed for his listening earth ; such had he filled With unpolluted fire, and kindled new The hearth-cheer of the world. Prometheus. Earth, sea, and air. The caverned clouds, the chambers of the storm, 36 THE FIRE-BRINGER Yea, the thrice perilous alps and crags of heaven Have watched the robber lurk, and laughed at him ! Do not thou mock him too ! Pandora. Him I will mock Who, being thirsty, climbs not to the spring, But meanly drinks at rillet and low pool. And thirsteth still the more. Prometheus. The spring ? The spring ? {^He hesitates^ then starts up with a wild gesture^ I could have done it once ! I could have done it ! Pandora (coming nearer). Stranger ! Prometheus. Hush, look ! They rise at me again ! THE FIRE-BRINGER 37 "The Stone Men. When earth did heave as the sea, at the lift- ing up of the hills ^ One saidy " Te shall wake and he ; fear not^ ye shall have your wills." We waited patient and dumb ; and ere we thought to have heard^ One said to us " Stay ! " and " Come / " — a dim and a mumbled word. Mortise us into the wall again, or lift us up that we look therefrom ! 'The Earth Women. 'The night, the rain, and the dew from of old had lain with us, 'The suns and winds were our lovers too, and our husbands bounteous : But lo, we were sick at heart when we leaned from the towers of the pine. We yearned and thirsted apart in the crimson globes of the vine. O tell us of them that hew the tree, bring us to them that drink the wine ! {They disappear.^ 38 THE FIRE-BRINGER Prometheus. Only a moment did they strain their brows In weary question at me, ere they turned And melted down into the blotting dark ! (i/(? starts slowly down the slope.^ Pandora. They go to find Prometheus. Prometheus. Of these stones To build my rumoring city, based deep On elemental silence ; in this earth To plant my cool vine and my shady tree Whose roots shall feed upon the central fire ! {^He turns to Pandora.^ Love ! Pandora. Where thou goest, I am ; there, even now I stand and cry thee to me. Prometheus (starts again down the slope). Yea, I come, I come; to find somewhere through the piled gloom THE FIRE-BRINGER 39 A mountain path to unimaglned day. Build all this anger into walls of war Not dreamed of, dung and fatten with this death New fields of pleasant life, and make them teem Strange corn, miraculous wine ! Pandora (watching him disappear). Prometheus, lord ! ACT II. Scene as before. The space below the cliffs is de- serted ; on the slope above f voices of men and women are heard. First Voice. Peer farther down ! Hear'st thou the waters yet? Second Voice. With sea-slime and with lichen-tangled shells The rocks are strewn, and ocean-breathing things Gasp in the shallow pools ; but the main flood Is sunken further than the ear can hark. {They descend.^ A Young Man's Voice (above). A little strength, sister, a little strength ! Nay then, I die with thee. THE FIRE-BRINGER 41 An Old Man 5 Voice. My son, my son, Where art thou ? Answer me ! Another Voice. Peace. He is dead. I saw him sink upon the farther slope. Back to him, if thou wilt ; thou 'It come too late. Chorus of Men. The fallen must lie where they fell, For the dead cannot succor the dead. Chorus of Women. O when through the valleys of hell Shall the light of our Saviour be shed ? (They descend. Others appear from above.\ First Voice (above). Trust not the sea ! Look where the frothing lip Curls off the giant fang ! Back to the heights ! Second Voice. Nay, fallen are the waters. It is past. 42 THE FIRE-BRINGER Third Voice. The life we hurled from off the temple crag With supplications and with piercing song, Has made thus much appeasement. One more life Will roll away the ocean of main dark ; Unless we be forever doomed to lie As now, blind bulks of sleep, or hunger- bitten To creep the stagnant bottom of the world. Fourth Voice. This way, 't is said, Deukalion carried him. Follow on, yonder, where the cliff breaks down. (They descend ; others follow. From the side ^ below the cliff's^ a muttering group presses in ; in their midst are Deukalion and Pyrrha^ who shield Molus against the cliff. The space about the altar is filled with indistinct figures.) Deukalion. I am king, hear ye, am I not the king ? Higher than I is none. Take me ! Why him, THE FIRE-BRINGER 43 Little of strength and wisdom ? I am wise, My cunning brain is stronger than a host. Though this my spear-arm be a Httle fallen From when it led you out against the north, I am more terrible and mighty now, An old, much-seeing spirit. In my death The gods will taste a pleasure and be soothed. But from this child, this playmate — look ye here — This piece of summer's carelessness, this tuft Of hyssop planted by the wells of glee, — What honor should the dread gods have on him ? They shall have me, Deukalion — A Mans Voice. Bring not on us With wordy shifts, the last steep horror down ! That is no babe thy withered arm hides there. We know him ; we have seen. If he might live 44 THE FIRE-BRINGER His name would fill the future, and make big The story of his folk. He is our best. Our soul of price, and him the gods demand. Together with the maid, whose father here — O how much more a kinglier will than thou ! — Deukalion. Where art thou, Lykophon ? Mine eyes are dim. Lykophon. Here by the altar. Deukalion. And thy child ? Lykophon. Here too. Deukalion. Thy heart is firm to do it ? Thou wilt live, And think on 't after ? Ay, remember that! Hast weighed that with the rest? THE FIRE-BRINGER 45 Lykophon. He was my slave, Whose crazed old voice cried yonder of his son. Was it to win a remnant of dim days, A handful of poor mealtimes and to-beds, He offered him ? To watch some mornings rise. Some evenings fall, fringing with fearful light The cliff he hurled him from to the hungry sea? Am I a lesser than my bondman is ? Deukalion. Yea, ye will teach me, and I'll bear it tame ! I know what fits a king, what he must pay In peace of soul and heart's blood for his folk. King-drownling of an island of drowned dogs. Wolves, snakes, and field-rats, crept from out the flood 46 THE FIRE-BRINGER For hunger and the hell-bred fog to rot ! Rot ye ! I '11 keep my own. Lykophon (to the crowd). Back, back, I say ! The gods despise enforced offerings. When the heart brings its dearest and its last Then only will they hear — if then, if then! Deukalion. Be this life taken, what is left ? O friends, O wretched children, lift your hearts and eyes, Look through the death-dark hither and be known On what you ask ; think on yourselves, on me. On them that keep the heights, and who lie strewn Along the downward path. See how the price Doth shame the purchase ! THE FIRE-BRINGER 47 A Man s Voice. We have thought on these. And find they are our brothers and our friends, Our parents, children, wives ; and that they die. Lykophon. Not they alone. The past, the future dies. A Womaris Voice. Hark what he says ! He knows not, yet he says ! None of you know. I have cried unto you And told you of it, but you will not know ! You will not listen what I carry here Under my heart, and feed and shelter now. That then shall be the bread and wine of the world. The torch and sword and lyre, the water- brook. The lion-gate and wall of many towers. The marshaler of dances, — there, O there Beyond the shadow and the sorrow, far In God's new garden. His green virgin mount ! 48 THE FIRE-BRINGER Chorus of Women. Would, would we might be silent, for we know Though now He puts us by, Though now He heeds us not nor hearken- eth. The groping of our anguish up the sky Will wean and wear Him so That in the vexed sendings of His breath He will breathe out a deeper than the gloom Of our deep doom. And put in death a sting sharper than death. {Distant thunder.^ Chorus of Men. Seize them and stifle up their irking lips ! He grudgeth at us, but forgetteth where He felt our spreaded palms, and was aware Of fierce and tedious prayer. Yonder of us night darkens with His frown ; Far off, and all forgetfully He drips His drowsy anger down. (The thunder rolls nearer^ and terrific storm sweeps over the scene^. THE FIRE-BRINGER 49 A Womaris Voice. Ah, no. He smiteth us ! His lightning leaps From end to end of the world ! A Mans Voice. His thunder shakes The pillars of the dark. Lo, up above The roof of darkness ruins and lets in Thrice horrible night ! Another Voice. Alas, the wind, the wind ! The trampling and the bellowing herds of rain Loose on the mountain slopes ! Bow down ! Bow down ! Deukalion (gropes forward through the tem- pest and lifts ^olus upon the altar). Lord, stretch thy hand and take him ! He is thine. Lykophon. What criest thou, Deukalion ? 50 THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion. Take the child. The gods' dark will be done! I am content. {He falls.) Lykophon (bending over him). Deukalion ! Pyrrha. Husband ! Father ! Speak, look up ! Lykophon (rising). The king is down. Here in his mighty room I stand up over you ! Where is the priest Who serves the altar on God's mountain top? A Man's Voice. Yonder he crouches, and his sacred eyes Are set athwart ; he wanders in his wit. Lykophon. Prepare him for his ministry. . . . And thou. THE FIRE-BRINGER 51 Alcyone, sweet head ! Thou keepsake life Left me for memory, thou precious seal Stamped with her mystic love-sign unto me, I put her blessing on thee ; and do thou Kiss me, and put her blessing upon me For this I do. (^He lifts her upon the altar.') Weep not. — Room for the priest ! {The priest advances^ holding the sacrificial knife.) Pyrrha (flings herself before the altar). Hold off your hands, hold off! The king is fallen. And falling spake somewhat. But I, who drank Of his deep will, who ever was and am His heart's high furtherer, cry over him Ye shall not touch them yet ! Not yet ye shall ! Not till Prometheus comes or makes a sign ! Lykophon. Thou see'st the gray eternities of time 52 THE FIRE-BRINGER That we have waited, till our minds are crazed With watching, and our all o'er-hearkened ears Hear silence roar and mutter like a sea ; And still he comes not, and no word comes past The crouching places and close lairs of death. A Maris Voice. Yet he will come : his haughty soul shall not Be hindered of its walk. Priest. Behind the wall A thief was taken, and his sons at dawn Said " Now he comes with purchase ; we will feast," — Even while the ravens on his glazing eyes Were feasted, and the master of the house Said, " I have judged him and forgotten him." THE FIRE-BRINGER 53 Ye blind and credulous, ye whispering things ! Mutterers, collusioners ! What wait we for? Chorus of Women. O that our spirits might not thus Afflict us, making pictures on the dark, And giving silence tongues to cry against us ! For though we shut our ears and will not hark. And blind our eyes from seeing, he is there ; The dust of heavenly battle dims his hair. The large gods close about him, he is down ; Now thrice three times about the shining town The thunder-winged chariot drags his corse; And now they bind him to the winged horse With chains of burning light ; the portent rears away O'er prairies of insufferable day ! 54 THE FIRE-BRINGER Chorus of Men. 'Twixt Berenice's tangled hair And that blue region of the morning where The bright wind-shaken Lyre Sheds down the dawn its spilth of silver fire. We saw him stoop and run upon the air, Shielding from region gusts the stolen flame ; But from a steep cloud warping up the west A curse of lightning came. With tort-flung neck and clutched breast He fell, a ruined star ; And now the char Had quenched itself with hissing, in the sea. But lo, again his soul flamed gloriously ! The eagle tempest, gyring from its place, Seized him, and whirled. And hung him on the plunging prow of the world. To shed the anguish of his face Upon the reefs and shoals of space, To lighten with the splendor of his pain Earth's pathway through the main. THE FIRE-BRINGER 55 Though death was all her freightage, and the breath That swelled her sails was death. A Man s Voice. He will not come. I heard an old bard once Sing of him, saying Titan lapetos Fathered him not ; his mother Clymene, Wandering in the morning of the world. Suffered human embraces. 'T will be so. For he is human-minded, and too slight To wrest from God's hand the withholden fire. Second Voice. Hearken ! One sings upon the upper slopes. T^hird Voice. 'Tis she, the other gift in mockery sent, Pandora. Fourth Voice, Haunting, cruel to the heart. She opens sunny doors, which ere we look Are closed foreverlasting, and their place Not to be guessed. 56 THE FIRE-BRINGER Fifth Voice. This was another thing Prometheus did. Whom the gods sent in wrath To make us know how wondrous was the life That inchmeal they took from us, even her He chose out for his love, and even here He made his bridals. Sixth Voice. Some say 't is not so, But she Pandora is a child he had Before the sea rose and the night came down, And others say his sister, whom he fetched From Hades, where she was with Clymene, Being childed late, after the Titans fell. A Woman s Voice. Hush, hark, the pouring music ! Never yet The pools below the waterfalls, thy pools, Thy dark pools, O my heart — ! A Young Man^s Voice. Delirious breast ! She jetteth gladness as a sacred bird. THE FIRE-BRINGER 57 That o'er the springtime waves, at large of dawn, Off Delos, to the wakening Cyclades Declares Apollo. A GirPs Voice. Once more, once more, O sisters, ere we die I will lift up my cry To Him who loved us though He puts us by. For yonder singer with the golden mouth Hath fallen upon us privily as falls The still spring out of the south On the shut passes and locked mountain walls. And suddenly from out my frozen heart Dark buds of sorrow start. Freshets of thought through my faint being roll. And dim remembrance gropes and travails in my soul. I will cry on Him piercingly By reason of my girlhood how it ailed. Then when I seemed 58 THE FIRE-BRINGER Unto myself a thing myself had dreamed, And for whose sake the visionary Spring High in the chilly meadows where she stood With lips of passionate listening In the sea-wind above the moaning wood, Scattered her discrowned hair, and bowed herself, and wailed. And then, a little after, came a day That loosed my bands of ailing all away ; For somewhere in the wilds a spirit spoke. The ghostly earth went past me like a stream. And swooning suddenly aloft I woke To an intenser dream. Would mine were that same spirit's tongue to tell The joy that then befell, — Rather befell not, but refrained. Lurked and withdrew. And was an inner freshness in the dew, A look inscrutable the stars put on, A fount of secret color in the dawn. After day-fall a daylight that remained Brighter than what was gone. O sisters, kiss the numbing death away THE FIRE-BRINGER 59 From off my heavy lips, and let me say How fair my summoned spirit blossomed in its clay. When the girls sang of me that I was his Whose voice I heard treading the wilderness; And I had followed him as the homing dove That furtive way he went, Till now he had brought me up into his tent. Where flutes made mention of love, and wild throats said With wine and honey of love were his tables spread. Also the banner over us was love ! A Woman s Voice. Look, Pandora comes ! See, there above the cliff she glimmers down, And darker shapes come with her. A Man's Voice. The big seed Deukalion and Pyrrha sowed in hope To reap in terror ; the scarce-featured sons Of stone, and daughters of the sullen glebe. 6o THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion (waking). Pyrrha ! Where art thou ? Pyrrha. 'T is my face thou feelest, Thy groping hands are even on me, father. Deukalion. Who are these ? How is *t with us ? O wherefore Gaze ye all thus aloft? Pyrrha. Pandora comes. Deukalion. I see naught. Since a little while mine eyes And brain are faded. Help mine eyes to see. Pyrrha. She pauses on the margin of the cliff. About her are the shapes of them who rose Behind us, when we sowed the heavy seed. Her either hand is on a kneeling head, THE FIRE-BRINGER 6i Female and male ; her forehead more than theirs Is lifted up in yearning, and her face Is like the lyrist's when at first he waits And drifts his heart up through the cloudy strings. A Man s Voice. Take heed there to the lad, where he hath risen His height upon the altar ! And the maid Is risen. Look to them ! Pyrrha. Children ! iEolus ! What Is 't with you ? What search ye in the heavens? O, to what high thing do your spirits strain And your hands tremble up ? jEoIus and Alcyone (looking and pointing upward). The stars ! The stars ! {^Pause.^ 62 THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion. Why hath so deep a hush fallen on the night ? I heard a whispering cry. What whisper they ? Pyrrha. ^olus pointed — whispering of the stars. JEolus. iEolus — stars. Pyrrha ! Pyrrha. With thee ! Deukalion. Spakest thou Of stars ? Pyrrha. Ay, so he whispered ! Deukalion. Thou — and thou ? Pyrrha. Nothing, nothing. My soul was as a lake THE FIRE-BRINGER 6^ Spread out in utter darkness; to its depth There pierced a silvery trembling — Deukalion. Look again. Wife, cease to pray ! Look out again ! Pyrrha. The dark Gathers and flees, and the wide roof of night Leans in as it would break ; the mountain- ous gloom Unmoors, and streameth on us like a sea. O Earth, lift up thy gates ! It is the stars ! It is the stars ! It is the ancient stars ! It is the young and everlasting stars ! Pandora (sings). Because one creature of His breath Sang loud into the face of deaths Because one child of His despair Could strangely hope and wildly dare., 'The Spirit comes to the Bride again. And breathes at her door the name of the child ; 64 THE FIRE-BRINGER " I'his is the son that ye bore me I When Shall we kiss, and be reconciled? " Furtive, dumb, in the tardy stone. With growings sweet in the patient sod. In the roots of the pine, in the crumbled cone. With cries of haste in the willow-rod, — By pools where the hyla swells his throat And the partridge drums to his crouching mate. Where the moorland stag and the mountain goat Strictly seek to the ones that wait, — In seas aswing on the coral bar. In feasting depths of the evening star. In the dust where the mourner bows his head. In the blood of the living, the bones of the dead, — Wounded with love in breast and side, 'The Spirit goes in to the Bride I Pyrrha. The veil that hid the holy sky is rent ; The vapors ravel down ; and a bright wind THE FIRE-BRINGER 65 Blows, that the planets and the shoaled worlds Stoop from their dance, and wheel and shout again, Scattering influence as a maenad shakes Pine sparks and moon-dew from her whirl- ing hair. And hark, below, the many-voiced earth, The chanting of the old religious trees. Rustle of far-off waters, woven sounds Of small and multitudinous lives awake. Peopling the grasses and the pools with joy, Uttering their meaning to the mystic night ! A Maris Voice. Within my soul there is a rushing down Like darkness, and my being, as a heaven, Soareth apparent, as a heaven with stars. A heaven hung with stars my spirit is, And all among them walks a wind of will. Uttering life, and purpose, and desire ! A Woman's Voice. O for the dreaming herbs, the whispering trees. d^ THE FIRE-BRINGER And rustling, far-off waters of my heart ! O for the mystic night risen within me ! The multitudinous life, the busy sounds Of woven love, the hushed and pouring love. The pouring love and stillness of the night! Deukalion. Wife, wife, what falleth since ? Pyrrha. A stir of joy Troubles the fields of air 'twixt star and star. Across the quivering acres, by and large. An unimaginable Reaper goes. And where he walks the heavens are seldom- sown; Till o'er wan earth the spreaded heavens are bare. Save for one mighty star that gathers light And stands like a flushed singer telling glory. Now he, now even he has no dominion, For he has looked behind him to the moun- tains, O, he has looked up to the lovely mountains THE FIRE-BRINGER 67 Of the unimagined morning, and has heark- ened The pouring of the chill, eternal urns ! Over the solemn world gray habitation Wonders at habitation. Room by room, The heavens tremble and put on delight. Ignorant one to another why it is The festal wish compels them. They are brightened Under the feet of many breathless spirits, Who, lifting up their hands by the springs of ocean. Cried " Psan ! " and " O, Hymen ! " As a stream Silvereth in a wind-start, heaven is brightened Under the speed and striving of those spir- its, — Who now, even now dissolve, and leave be- hind them Only their gladness and their speed ; for now Through all its height and frame of living light. Through all its clear creation, breathing depths 68 THE FIRE-BRINGER And fleeing distances, the sacred sky Pulses and is astonished like a heart ; It looketh inward and bethinks itself, Outward, and putteth all its question by. To shine and soar and sing and be at one ! — Nearhand the slopes drink light, and far about Among the mountain places, headlands,cliffs, Lone peaks, and brotherhoods of battlement Shout, having apprehended. — Paler grow The gulfs of shadowy air that brim the vales ; As ocean bateth in her thousand firths. The gray and silver air draws down the land. The little trees that climb among the rocks As high as they can live, pierce with their spires The shoaling mist, swim softly into light. And stand apparent, shapely, every one A dream of divine life, a miracle. Chasms are cloven in the violet And amethystine waters of the air ; Forests and winding rivers of the plain Are given and withdrawn ; a moment since I saw, I thought I saw a strength of hill THE FIRE-BRINGER 6^ Uplifted far below us, built upon With what was once a lordly place of souls, A carved and marble place of puissant souls, Builded to such strong music that the sea Had hardly heaved one lintel from its post. Or marred one face of all the sculptured men. Or shaken from his seat one musing god. Again the air is cloven ; I have seen Fane-crowned promontories, curving sweeps Of silver shore, islands, and straits, and bays ; And bright beyond,the myriad ocean stream. And O, beyond — beyond ! — O shelter me ! Bow down ! Cover your eyes ! Confused Voices. Terrible wings ! — Light awfuller than darkness or the sea ! — O spirit of sharp flame amid the burning ! A Boy's Voice. My hands are on my eyelids, and my knees Shelter my face. O mother, lay thy breast About me, and shut out the killing light. Before my eyeballs and my brain be dead ! 70 THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion (on his knees, with out- stretched hands). Of late mine eyes were quenched, and now I see. Pyrrha. Thine eyelids are not open, but thy face Searcheth into the radiance. Father, cease ! Look not upon it with thy soul. Thy face Is terrible with beauty in the light. I cannot look upon thy seeing face. Take not the mortal glory on thy face ! Bow down — O let me shield thy sightless eyes ! Deukalion. Burning is laid unto the roots of the world ; The deep spouts conflagration from her springs ; And fire feeds on the air that feeds the stars. Out of the sea has burst, from rended deeps Of the unthought-on rearward has leapt out The appearance of the glory of the sun. Filling the one side of the roaring world With creatures and with branch-work of pale fire ; THE FIRE-BRINGER 71 And through the woods of fire the beasts of fire, The birds and serpents and the naked souls Flee, that their fleeing startles the slow dead Through all their patient kingdoms, and the gods In their faint spheres are flown and passion- ate. A Man s Voice. My soul is among lions. God, my God, Thou see'st my quivering spirit what it is ! O lay not life upon it ! We not knew The thing we asked for. We had all forgot How cruel was thy splendor in the house Of sense, how awful in the house of thought. How far unbearable in the wild house That thou hast cast and builded for the heart ! Lykophon. Deukalion, speak again ! Pyrrha. If yet thy flesh Endure to look upon it, speak again. 72 THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion. His soul is strong and will deliver him ! The feature of his anguish and his joy Makes dim the light adjacent, and his soul Is bright to overcome. He treads the glory Over against the roaring, hitherward. Seeing the taper of small excellent light He lifteth in his hand, the night rolls on Before him, and day follows after him. The hours, the months, the seasons, and the times Acknowledge him ; the waste calls to the sown ; The islands and hoar places of the sea Sing, as the chief of them that are taught praises. About his torch shineth a dust of souls. Daughters and sons, who fly into the light With trembling, and emerge with prophecy ; And round about goeth a wind of tongues, A wind as of the travailing of the na- tions ; Vast sorrow, and the cry of desperate lives THE FIRE-BRINGER 73 To God, and God to them crying or answer- ing- — Child ! iEolus ! My child. Where is my child ? Pyrrha. I cannot see ; the A2i-LT\Q of his coming Makes blind the place. Here, father, in thy knees ! Feel, 't is the darling head ! Wild comer, when? Hasten, have pity, we are nothing strong ! Father, how is 't with thee ? Why bow'st thou down ? Thy hand is cold, thy lips are very cold. — O gone, O gone, even at the entering-in ! A Voice. Who are these coming down, that they are mighty To walk with foreheads forward to the light. Singing the mortal radiance to its face ? A Voice. It is Pandora and the unborn men, 74 THE FIRE-BRINGER Deukalion's seed. She doth it of her power. They of their weakness. Pandora (sings, invisible in the light). Te who from the stone and clay Unto godhood grope your way^ Hastening up the morning see Tonder One in trinity ! The Earth Women. Save uSy flaming "Three ! Pandora. Dionysus hath the wine^ Eros hath the rose divine^ Lord Apollo hath the lyre : "Three and one is the soul's desire. The Stone Men. Save USy sons of fire I A Woman s Voice. Listen, they have passed. They go with singing forward down the light. THE FIRE-BRINGER 75 Prometheus (below, invisible). Thou gavest me the vessel ; it is filled. Pandora. I am the vessel, and with thee 't is filled. {Pause.) Lykophon (whispers). Pyrrha ! Pyrrha. Who whispers me ? Lykophon. Is he not come ? Is he not busied by the altar there ? Pyrrha. Nay — Lo, the terrible taper ! It is he ! I see him not ; my spirit seeth him ; My heart acheth upon him busied there. — Deukalion, O Deukalion ! Prometheus (from the altar). Pyrrha ! Pyrrha ! 76 THE FIRE-BRINGER Pyrrha. > Prometheus, saviour ! Prometheus. Lykophon ! Lykophon. Lo, me ! Prometheus. Bring me your children hither. Pyrrha and Lykophon (groping forward with iEolus and Alcyone). Here are they ! Prometheus. Unto this twain, man-child and woman- child, I give the passion of this element; This seed of longing, substance of this love; This power, this purity, this annihilation. Let their hands light the altar of the world. 'T is yours forever. I have brought it home ! THE FIRE-BRINGER 77 (The radiant mist fades ; it is clear day ^flooded with morning sunlight. The children apply the burn- ing reed to the fuel., and fire flames high upon the altar. Pandora^ voice is heard faintly ., far below.\ Pandora. Too far^ too far, though hidden in thine arms ; Too darkly far, though lips on lips are laid I Love, love, I am afraid; I know not where to find thee in these storms That dashed thy changed breast my breast upon. Here in the estranging dawn. Unsteadfast ! who didst call and hast not stayed. Tryst-breaker I I have heard Thy voice in the green wood, and not de- ferred : — O fold me closer, fugitive one, and say where thou art gone I Nay, speak not, strive not, sorrow not at all! O, dim and gradual I — Beloved, my beloved, shall it be ? 78 THE FIRE-BRINGER Keep mCy keep me with thy kiss, Save me with thy deep embrace ; For down the gulfs of spirit space, The slow, the implacable winds, now unescap- ably Wheel us downward to our bliss. Whelm us, darken us — O lethal winds ! — down to our destined place. Swimming faitit , beneath, afar — O lover, let there be No haste, nor clamor of thy heart to see ! But I have seen, and I whisper thee How the rivers of peace apparent are. And the city of bridal peace Waits, and wavers, and hardly is. Fades, and is folded away from sight ; And now like a lily it openeth wistfully. Whispering through its courts of light " How long shall we be denied ? How long must the eastern gate stand wide. Ere these who are called shall enter in, and the bridegroom be with the bride ? " ACT III. An open rocky place higher in the mountains ; in the rock-wall at one side is a rough-hewn open tomb ; in the rear the stranded ark of Deukalion^ caught amid great rocks ^ is outlined against snow-peaks and against a vast sunset cloudy full of shifting light. The funeral train of Deukalion winds up the steep path from below. Lykophon and a company of grown men carry the bier^ beside which walk Pyrrha and /Eolus. Chorus of Old Men. In one same breath Uttering life and death, Whatso His mouth seems darkly to ordain The darkling signal of His hand makes vain, And like a heart confused He sayeth and gainsaith. With himself He wrestles thus Or gives this wrestling unto us. Whichever, it is well. O children, we are risen out of hell, 8o THE FIRE-BRINGER And it is pleasant evening ! Daughters,sing ! Upon his way let soft and golden mirth Be spoken round the king, And unto heaven be told the sweetness of the earth. Chorus of Girls. How shall the thought of our hearts be said. Here, where this averted head Lonely walks by the lonely dead ? 'T were better others sang. Not we, not we ! For when the mighty morning sprang Terrible in gladness from the sea. When, entering the high places of the air. Noontide unbelievably Possessed them, and lifted up his trophy there, — Yea, all the noon and all the afternoon. We could have put our secret by, we could have spoken Well before thee, O mourner, O heart- broken ! THE FIRE-BRINGER 8i But now, but now — Mother, mother. We have, seen one coming with thee up the steep ; His mild great wing we saw him keep Over thee like a, sheltering arm, And the shadow of one pinion fell across To shield the bosom of thy lord from harm ; We have seen him, the dark peace-giver, Thanatos ; — But O, we have seen also another. Winged like him, and dazzling dim. He came up out of the sun, yet he goeth not down therewith ; For, ever warmer, closer, as the evening fall- eth pale. His arm is over our necks, and his breath Searches whispering under our hair ; and his burning whisper saith A thing that maketh the heart to cease and the limbs to fail. And the hands to grope for they know not what ; We would not find what he whispers of, and we die if we find it not ! 82 THE FIRE-BRINGER Chorus of Young Women. Ere our mothers gave us birth, Or in the morning of the earth The high gods walked with the daughters and found them fair, Ere ever the hills were piled or the seas were spread, His arm was over our necks, my sisters, his breath was under our hair ! Their spirits withered and died who then Found not the thing that his whisper said. But we are the living, the chosen of life, who found it and found it again. Where, walking secret in the flame. Unbearably the Titan came, Eros, Eros, yet we knew thee, Yet we saw and cried unto thee ! Where thy face amid exceeding day more excellently shone There our still hearts laughed upon thee, thou divine despaired-of one ! Though o'er and o'er our eyes and ears the heavy hair was wound. Yet we saw thee, yet we heard thy pinions beat! THE FIRE-BRINGER 83 Though our fore-arms hid our faces and our brows were on the ground. Yet, O Eros, we declare That with flutes and timbrels meet. Whirling garments, drunken feet, With tears and throes our souls arose and danced before thee there ! {They place the body in the hewn vault of the rock.\ Pyrrha. Go down now. I and tEoIus will watch Till dawn, when ye will come to shut the tomb And sing him to his peace. Lykophon. Some few with thee Will hold the watch, for safety. Pyrrha, None. Alone. (The others go down the path^ leaving Pyrrha and Molus seated by the tomb ; a girl lingers behind^ and when the last figure has disappeared^ throws herself at Pyrrha^ s feet.) 84 THE FIRE-BRINGER Rhodope. See, it is Rhodope, thy handmaiden ! Behold, thou knowest. He loved her. She would stay. Pyrrha (touching her head). Thy heart shall take no fear. O, stay with us ! {jThe voices of the young men are heard^ descending^ Chorus of Toung Men. When, to the king's unveiled eyes The rended deeps and the rended skies Seemed as a burning wood, — lacchos ! lacchos ! When flame took hold of the place of the dead. And burning seized on the throne of God, And birds and beasts and the souls of men As a wind of burning fled, — lacchos ! Yea, in the blinding radiance when The Bringer of Light by the altar stood, lacchos ! lacchos ! Evoe ! We saw thee, we knew thee, we cried upon thee! THE FIRE-BRINGER 85 We had lost thee and had thee again ! Plucker of the tragic fruit, Eater of the frantic root, Shaker of the cones of raving, sounder of the panic flute Over man and brute, lacchos ! Hunter in the burning wood, Planter of the mystic vine. From the spirit and the blood Crusher of the awful wine, lacchos ! Evoe ! lacchos ! (The voice dies away in the distance. Silence.^ Molus (whispers to Rhodope). See'st thou ? The cloud ! (^Touching Pyrrha.) Mother, What means the cloud ? Pyrrha (raising her head). How, child? The cloud. See how it lives within ! 86 THE FIRE-BRINGER Pyrrha. 'T will rain ; he brought us back the blessed rain. And storm, and natural darkness, with the light. (^Bows her head again.^ As also to our hearts the shutting-in Of rain and natural darkness. Rhodope (looking up from Pyrrha's knees). All the hours Since long ago at dawn, the livelong hours Of glory, since he brought the morning back. The cloud has piled itself, and wondrous lights Have been thus restless in it. jEoIus. Where is he ? Pyrrha. I know not, child. It may be that he sleeps, THE FIRE-BRINGER 87 Being weary ; or he wanders with his love To gaze upon the gladness of the world. Rhodope. No one has seen him since he fetched the light. They say of him — I heard the old men say — Pyrrha. The sun goes down : we will be silent now. (Silence. Molus and Rhodope., leaning together^ fall asleep. Pyrrha kneels by the tomb., with hands stretched aloft upon the king's breast.\ Pyrrha (speaks low). Thou whom my glad heart once deliber- ately Chose, and this morning suddenly with tears Chose, and was chosen, and was made thine at last In the destroying light — Deukalion, lord, The day is past, the evening cometh on. Once more to thy full-wishing lips I hold 88 THE FIRE-BRINGER The chalice of my heart up, husband ! hus- band ! For night begins to pour her voices out, And thou art stayed for on the voiceless hills. (^She lifts her head and listens. In the distance Pan- dora's voice is heard^ sharp and agonized.^ Pyrrha. For thee too, then ! Even also for thee He smote the rock ; thy spirit thirsted too Afar there in the desert of thy joy. And came and drank against the morning ray Waters of trembling. By the pools in haste Thy soul stooped, plucking herb and flower of pain That groweth newly there, by the new stream ! Rhodope (runs with tEoIus, and crouches be- side Pyrrha). Pyrrha ! Mother Pyrrha ! Look, alas, Lo, how it comes upon us ! The bird ! The bird ! THE FIRE-BRINGER 89 Pyrrha. What — where? How suddenly has dark- ness fallen, And now as suddenly 't is light again ! How terribly the lion thunder roared Leaping along the mountains to the sea ! — What saw ye ? What went by us in the wind? Rhodope. Look where the giant wings rock down the slope ! Pyrrha (gazing below). God's bird of wrath ! Swift is thy wrath, O God, Strong is thy jealousy J Rhodope. Awhile I slept ; Then as I looked and wondered at the cloud, The restless lights flushed angry, and all the west Shone stormy bright with ridges of blown fire. 90 THE FIRE-BRINGER The cloud flamed like a peak of the fiery isles. Where in the western seas Hephasstos toils. Then from yon cloven valley in the midst Came forth the wings and shadow of the bird, And grew towards us vaster than storm, more swift Than I could cry upon him, and passed down. Once o'er the plain and o'er the ocean straits. And twice o'er the old olives by the stream Where the folk rest to-night, his shadow wheeled. And now he towers straight upward like a smoke. High, high, into the evening. {Pandora's cry is heard again ; she appears in the rocks above the tomh^ gazing upward. After a mo- ment she comes down and kneels beside Pyrrha^ hiding her face against the rocks. Pause ^ Pyrrha (in a low voice, gazing at the cloud). Deemest thou THE FIRE-BRINGER 91 That he will yield himself unmurmuring up, Or will he make wild war along the peaks ? [Prometheus enters swiftly from below^ and raises Pandora. They stand clasped in each other's arms beside Pyrrha^ who^ still kneeling^ draws herself up to gaze into the king's face^ then clasps Molus with one arm and with the other the knees of Pro- metheus.) Pyrrha. Leave us not yet, before another dawn Comes, bringing surety ! For the giant dark. Seeing thee absent, may arise again, And Python lift unnameably his head In hell, hearing the gods hiss him awake. Prometheus. Be comforted ; it is established sure. Light shall arise from light, day follow day. Season meet season, with all lovely signs And portents of the year. These shall not fail ; From their appointed dance no star shall swerve. 92 THE FIRE-BRINGER Nor mar one accent of one whirling strophe Of that unfathomed chorus that they sing Within the porch and laughing house of Life, Which Time and Space and Change, bright caryatids. Do meanwhile pillar up. These shall not fail; But O, these were the least I brought you home ! The sun whose rising and whose going down Are joy and grief and wonder in the heart; The moon whose tides are passion, thought, and will ; The signs and portents of the spirit year, — For these, if you would keep them, you must strive Morning and night against the jealous gods With anger, and with laughter, and with love ; And no man hath them till he brings them down With love, and rage, and laughter from the heavens, — THE FIRE-BRINGER 93 Himself the heavens, himself the scornful gods, The sun, the sun-thief, and the flaming reed That kindles new the beauty of the world. {He draws JEolus and Rhodope to him.) For you the moon stilly imagineth Her loiterings and her soft vicissitudes ; For you the Pleiades are seven, and one Wanders invisible because of you; For you the snake is burnished in the spring. The flower has plots touching its marriage time. The queen-bee from her wassailed lords soars high And high and high into the nuptial blue. Till only one heroic lover now Flies with her, and her royal wish is prone To the elected one, whose dizzy heart Presageth him of ecstasy and death. For you the sea has rivers in the midst. And fathomless abysses where it breeds Fantastic life ; and each its tiniest drop Flung from the fisher's oar-blade in the sun 94 THE FIRE-BRINGER Has rivers, abysses, and fantastic life. For your sakes it was spoken of the soul That it shall be a sea whereon the moon Has might, and the four winds shall walk upon it, — Also it has great rivers in the midst, Uncharted islands that no sailor sees, And fathomless abysses where it breeds Mysterious life ; yea, each its tiniest drop Flung from the fisher's oar-blade in the sun Has rivers, tempests, and eternal tides, Untouched-at isles, horizons never hailed. And fathomless abysses where it breeds Incredible life, without astonishment. (//(? bends over Deukalion.) O death, majestic mood ! Transfigured brow And eyes heavy with vision, since the time They saw creation sitting like a sphinx. Woman and lion, riddling of herself At twilight, in the place of parted souls — {^He pauses^ looks at the lighted cloudy and below at the darkening earthy where a mist is beginning to rise. J THE FIRE-BRINGER 95 As far as being goes out past the stars Into unthinkable distance, and as far As being inward goes unthinkably, Traveling the atom to its fleeing core, Through world in world, heaven beneath wheeling heaven. Firmament under firmament, without end, To-day there is rejoicing, and the folk. Though ignorant, call us blessed in their hearts. Yea, He who is the Life of all this life. Death of this death and Riser from this death, Calleth us blessed in his heart of hearts ; And once again, in the dim end of things. When the sun sickens, and the heaven of heavens Flames as a frosty leaf unto the fall. In swoon and anguish shall his stormed heart Cry unto us; his cry is ringing there In the sun's core ! I heard it when I stood Where all things past and present and to come 96 THE FIRE-BRINGER Ray out in fiery patterns, fading, changing, Forevermore unfaded and unchanged. Behold, alas, mother, look up ! haste, let us be hidden in the rocks ! Pyrrha. The wings that were a little cloud in heaven Shed doom over the third part of the north ; And now he slants enormous down the west Toward his throne and eyrie in the cloud. (/« the background^ about the ark of Deukalion^ the figures of the Stone Aden and Earth Women emerge^ and stand darkly outlined against the sunset cloud. Prometheus speaks low to Pandora^ who falls at his feet. 'y Pandora. 1 would be there with thee, love. O, not here ! Prometheus (stooping over her). There where I go thou art ; there, even now THE FIRE-BRINGER 97 Thou cried'st me to thee, and I come, I come. {^He lays her in Pyrrha' s arms^ and disappears in the rocks ; he emerges on a higher level behind^ and turns westward^ {Pausing beside the ark.^ rude and dazed spirits ! Ye shall grope And wonder toward a knowledge and a grace That now we dream not of; then loneliness Shall flee away, and enmity no more Be spectral in the houses and the streets Where walk your primal hearts in the large light That floods the after-earth. (^He raises his arms over them.) Out of these stones 1 build my rumoring city, based deep On elemental silence ; in this soil I plant my cool vine and my shady tree. Whose roots shall feed upon the central fire! (^He crosses a rocky stretch leading to the western heights over which the cloud rests^ and disappears 98 THE FIRE-BRINGER in a mist -filled pass. Molus and Rhodope creep closer to Pyrrha and Pandora^ sheltering the?nselves from the chill of the rising mist, which slowly covers the scene. There is a long silence, broken by faint peals of thunder.^ Molus (whispers). Mother, the mist was gray and thick to breathe But now ; and now *t is thin, and flushes red As if all round the forests were aflame. Rhodope (whispers). Hush ! See'st thou not it is the mighty cloud. That flames more fiery when the thunder speaks ? (^Heavy thunder ; Pandora starts wildly up.'^ Pyrrha (drawing her down). Thou spirit bird, that sangest all night long And mad'st sweet utterance from the secret shade Where his wild heart spread coolness in the sun. THE FIRE-BRINGER 99 For thee to flit and sing, — O look not out ! Still hide thee in my breast ! (^Pandora sinks back. Pyrrha whispers to Rhodope.'y Rise thou, and look ! Rhodope (rises and speaks in a low voice). Over against the region where he went Thunder has torn the curtain of the mist, And out of moving darkness soars the cloud Like as a shadowed ruby, but above Like as an opal and a sardine stone Sun-touched to the panting heart ; and in the midst Are shapes throned on the moving of the lights, Who ride the wrathful lights, and are the lights. Up through the driving fringes of the mist Battle a living splendor and a gloom. O, while the shapes gather and wait at gaze. That pharos of our peril in the straits. That treader of the cups of gladness out L. of C.I loo THE FIRE-BRINGER In the sun's vineyard for us — Mother! Mother ! Look hither, look at last, for it is time. Up through the crud and substance of the cloud Prometheus wrestles with the bird of God ! (^Pyrrha rises, lifting Pandora.^ Molus. Look how the sudden wind has quenched the cloud, And them that were therein ; and how its blowing Shoulders the mist away from the keen stars That rushed out at the fading of the lights ! Look you, the cloud comes on us in the wind ! It tramples down the mountains, and above Reaches abroad in darkness, blotting out Place upon place of stars. Rhodope. The smoky air THE FIRE-BRINGER loi Climbs up and eddies round us and falls down, Rolling and spreading wider than the world ! (^As the cloud advances^ Pandora goes toward it with outstretched hands^ and pauses beside the prow of the ark^ among the Stone Men and Earth Women^ while deeper and deeper darkness drifts over the scene. The voices ofPyrrha and Pandora are heard as from the midst of the cloud. ^ Pyrrha. Vast sorrow, and the voice of broken souls ; A cry as of all kinds and generations, Times, places, and tongues ; or as a mother Heareth her unborn child crying for birth. Pandora (sings). A thousand aonSy nailed in pain On the blown world' s plunging prow ^ That seeks across the eternal main^ — Down whatever storms we drifts What disastrous headlands lift., Festal lips., triumphant brow., Light us with thy joy ., as now ! I02 THE FIRE-BRINGER Pyrrha. A sound of calling and of answering ; Answer or watch-cry of all desperate lives To God, and God to them calling or an- swering. {T'he Stone Men and Earth Women sing^ their voices growing fainter as they descend the valley behind^ 'The Stone Men and Earth Women. We have heard the valleys groan With one voice and manifold ; Stone is crying unto stone^ Mould is whispering unto mould. 'The Stone Men. Hear them whisper^ hear them call, " All for one, and one for all, Dig the well and raise the wall.'^ 'The Earth Women. " For the nations to be born. Root away the bitter thorn. Reap and sow the golden corn.'' THE FIRE-BRINGER 103 Rhodope (to Pyrrha). Hear'st thou this yet that thou didst whis- per of, Or is all silence now even to thee ? {Pyrrha does not answer. Pandora's voice is heard^ also from the valley behind^ but more distant.) Pandora (sings). / stood within the heart of God ; It seemed a place that I had known : {I was blood-sister to the clody Blood-brother to the stone.) I found my love and labor there. My house, my raiment, meat and wine. My ancient rage, my old despair, — Tea, all things that were mine. Rhodope (to iEolus). Doth not the cloud go by us ? Yonder, see, A star looks dimly through. And there, and there 'T is all awake with stars ! I04 THE FIRE-BRINGER Pandora (sings). / saw the spring and summer pass, The trees grow bare^ and winter come ; All was the same as once it was Upon my hills at home. Then suddenly in my own heart I felt God walk and gaze about ; He spoke ; His words seemed held apart With gladness and with doubt. *' Here is my meat and wine,' He said, " My love, my toil, my ancient care ; Here is my cloak, my book, my bed. And here my old despair. " Here are my seasons : winter, spring. Summer the same, and autumn spills The fruits I look for ; everything As on my heavenly hills. Rhodope. How swiftly now. THE FIRE-BRINGER 105 As if it had a meaning in its haste. The cloud-bank fades and dwindles in the north ! {Starlight and silence. After a time^ dawn begins to break in the east. Pyrrha rises and kneels again by the tomb. As the light increases., Molus and Rhodope climb higher among the rocks and watch for the rising of the sun. Below., the voices of the young men are heard.) Chorus of Toung Men (ascending). One large last star, not yet persuaded well, Expected till the mountains should de- clare ; But from his hesitant attitude, From his wild and waiting mood. Wildly, waitingly there came Over sea and earth and air And on our bended hearts there fell Trembling and expectation of thy name, Apollo ! Now the East to the West has flung Sudden hands aloft, and sung Thy titles, and thy certain coming-on ; io6 THE FIRE-BRINGER Wheeling ever to the right hand, wheeling ever to the dawn, The South has danced before the North, And the text of her talking feet is the news of thy going forth, Apollo! Apollo! Apollo! When radiance hid the Titan's face And all was blind in the altar place, Then we knew thee, O we cried upon thee then, Apollo! Apollo! Past thee Dionysus swept. The wings of Eros stirred and slept. And we knew not the mist of thy song from the mist of the fire. As out of the core of the light thy lyre laughed and thundered again ! Eros, how sweet Is the cup of thy drunkenness ! Dionysus, how our feet Hasten to the burning cup Thou liftest up ! THE FIRE-BRINGER 107 But O how sweetest and how most burning it is To drink of the wine of thy lightsome chal- ices, Apollo ! Apollo ! To-day We say we will follow thee and put all others away. For thou alone, O thou alone art he Who settest the prisoned spirit free. And sometimes leadest the rapt soul on Where never mortal thought has gone ; Till by the ultimate stream Of vision and of dream She stands With startled eyes and outstretched hands, Looking where other suns rise over other lands, And rends the lonely skies with her pro- phetic scream. Electrotyped a7id pri7ited by H. O. Houghton &" Co. Catnbridge, Mass., U.S.A. AR 2 6 1904