WiM SUPERHUMAN ANTAjGONISTS 
 
 AND GtMER POEMS 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 B 3 315 313 
 
 r 
 
 
THE 
 SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN 
 ANTAGONISTS 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR WILLIAM WATSON 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 
 
Printed i 
 
 iqi<? 
 
PREFACE 
 
 To prevent even a possibility of 
 misunderstanding, it seems best to 
 indicate briefly here the precise ex- 
 tent of my indebtedness, in The Super- 
 human Antagonists, to ancient Persian 
 mythology. It is soon stated. I have 
 borrowed from that mythology its 
 fundamental idea : the idea of a world 
 ruled by two mutually hostile beings, 
 Ormazd and Ahriman, the Good and 
 the Evil Spirit : and I have brought 
 into my story, with sufficient modifica- 
 tion of their native attributes, three of 
 the many divinities or demigods who 
 in the Zend-Avesta are pictured as 
 revolving about the central figure of 
 Ormazd, the all-beneficent. That is 
 the full account of my obligation. 
 
 v 
 
 5451*1 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 The narrative which I have woven 
 around these personages is my own 
 invention, and the credit or discredit 
 of it must be borne solely by me. 
 Moreover, while drawing upon the 
 plentiful if somewhat unchastened re- 
 sources of this Mid-Eastern Pantheon 
 to the extent here stated, I have not, 
 where only its minor elements are con- 
 cerned, bound myself to any scrupu- 
 lous observance of its constitution or 
 composition. Its cardinal and govern- 
 ing conception is of profound and im- 
 posing significance, but its incidental 
 features have not the same grandeur, 
 and with regard to these I have used 
 such liberty as the traditional pre- 
 rogative of the Poet seemed to sanction. 
 Perhaps I ought to add, that while 
 adopting for my purposes, in its main 
 general outline, an archaic creed, I 
 have not thought it necessary to 
 hamper myself with a primitive cos- 
 vi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 mography, preferring to accept as a 
 framework the verified Universe in 
 which fancy, after all, has liberal 
 room for play. 
 
 In the word Ormazd I have chosen 
 the form favoured by the most modern 
 scholarship, in preference to others 
 heretofore current ; not that I am 
 competent to hold any opinion as to 
 its relative accuracy, but because in 
 point of sound it seems to commend 
 itself better to English ears. 
 
 And now I take occasion to say, 
 with what the reader may if he choose 
 call egotism, that this poem, whatever 
 it achieves, at any rate attempts no 
 mean or slight things ; and though I 
 have written it in about six hundred 
 lines, it could perhaps have been 
 written more easily and more quickly 
 in twice or thrice that number. A 
 few months hence it will be just forty 
 years since I carried to a then pro- 
 
 vii 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 minent publisher, since deceased, the 
 manuscript of my first book. The 
 Prince's Quest was written in the same 
 metre as The Superhuman Antagonists : 
 both belong to the region of fantasy : 
 but in methods of workmanship, as 
 well as in those matters which lie 
 nearer to the springs of thought and 
 feeling, they are perhaps as little 
 related as any two productions from 
 the same hand and brain could be. 
 Forty years, as I have said, separate 
 them : forty years of a far from 
 bookish life, in which I have seen 
 something of many countries, have 
 counted among my friends many 
 famous persons, have known very 
 varied fortunes, have had memorable 
 and great experiences, and have lived 
 intensely through much peace and 
 war. Yet at the end of these four 
 decades, and in the poem now being 
 put forth— a poem written with un- 
 viii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 hasty pen, mainly among the majestic 
 English mountains, partly on the 
 lovely Irish coast, with my young 
 children growing beside me as it grew 
 — I find myself once more dwelling in 
 an atmosphere of romantic idealism 
 akin to optimistic faith. It is an 
 atmosphere which to some eyes may 
 seem to take on illusive colours, but 
 it has at all events nothing in it that 
 can deaden or enervate, and while it 
 does not chill, neither does it fever. 
 Perhaps it may sometimes even brace 
 and hearten, and to do so is surely 
 Poetry's own noblest office. For 
 Poetry should without doubt gratify 
 the sense, but it should also fortify 
 the soul, and the degree in which it 
 harmonises these functions and per- 
 forms them with power is the measure 
 of its true and enduring worth. 
 
 A word as to the lesser poems in 
 this volume. Most of them have 
 b ix 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 already appeared in reviews, magazines 
 or the daily press. The poem acclaim- 
 ing America's intervention in the war, 
 and the one in which Ireland's mood 
 of detachment from that struggle is 
 lamented, were first published when 
 their respective themes were engaging 
 general attention. They are now re- 
 printed without essential change. 
 
 W. W. 
 
 April 1919. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface . 
 
 The Superhuman Antagonists . 
 
 OTHER POEMS 
 Americans, Hail ! 
 The Unreconciled 
 The Foresight of the Blind 
 The Warrior Lover 
 Behold ! . 
 To Certain Nebulae 
 Verses to H. C. Montgomery, Esq. 
 The Scroll of Life 
 Power and Charm 
 The Innermost Cavern . 
 Toil .... 
 
 The Earth's Desire 
 Whither Afar ? . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 V 
 
 53 
 65 
 
 74 
 76 
 
 77 
 78 
 81 
 84 
 85 
 87 
 88 
 90 
 9i 
 
 XI 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN 
 ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Ormazd, the Spirit of Light, the 
 Spirit of Good, 
 
 Their father, glorying in his father- 
 hood — 
 
 Maker of Joy, and of all blissful 
 things — 
 
 Once, in mid pomp of his world- 
 journey ings 
 
 Across the invisible viaducts of 
 Space 
 
 That lead from star to star, came face 
 to face 
 
 With him from whom all Guilt, all 
 Error known, 
 
 All that is misbegotten or misgrown, 
 a i 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Fciin without ease, toil without wage 
 
 or end, 
 And sin without delight, darkly 
 
 descend : 
 Him in whom falsehood and curst 
 
 greed began : 
 Evil's great founder, loveless Ahriman. 
 
 For he too had roamed forth that 
 
 day, the sire 
 Of the world's tears ; and bringing 
 
 spectres dire 
 To attend him, Hates and Lusts of 
 
 every hue, 
 He, as it chanced, with all his re- 
 tinue, 
 Far roving from his cavernous abode, 
 Travelled that selfsame interstellar 
 
 road, 
 That crosses the calm vasts, and runs 
 
 unseen 
 Through the hushed voids, and spans 
 
 the deeps serene. 
 
 2 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 A secret highway, it was made of old, 
 Long ere the passions of the moon 
 
 were cold, 
 Though in no chart of heaven 'tis 
 
 figured yet : 
 And on that road the mighty rivals met. 
 
 Then did they pause : then did all 
 
 Good and 111 
 Seem for a moment to stand mute and 
 
 still. 
 And as a thundercloud, a wandering 
 
 gloom, 
 Full of the whirlwind, full of sudden 
 
 doom, 
 Might hover, holding back its bolts 
 
 unfiling, 
 So hovered Ahriman. But apt of 
 
 tongue, 
 Quickly he scabbarded fierce hate in 
 
 guile, 
 And hailed bright Ormazd : ' Thou 
 
 benignant Smile, 
 
 3 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Mellowing the countenance of Eternity ! 
 Oft on thy works I gazed : on very 
 
 thee 
 I gaze at last. O falsely famed to 
 
 dwell 
 Withdrawn into thy towering citadel 
 In most remote austerity of brow ! 
 Ev'n thus did I, too, image thee ere 
 
 now— 
 A clifflike, steep Perfection. At this 
 
 hour, 
 Seeing thee as thou art, in blandest 
 
 power 
 Accessible as Spring and Morning are, 
 I will unlatch my breast, I will unbar 
 This heart of mine, I will let leap 
 
 unpent 
 The Thought that hungered for en- 
 franchisement, 
 Prisoned while many an age hath 
 
 ebbed and gone ! 
 Have I thine ear ? ' And Ormazd 
 
 said : ' Say on. 5 
 
 4 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 So Ahriman, as one that halts no 
 
 more, 
 But with large gesture opes a captive's 
 
 door, 
 Thus from his bosom set the bound 
 
 thought free : 
 ' Ormazd the Radiant ! betwixt thee 
 
 and me 
 Shared is the world : in its august 
 
 design 
 Everything everywhere is thine or 
 
 mine : 
 And throned o'er all that can rejoice 
 
 or mourn, 
 We are the lords of Life from bourn 
 
 to bourn. 
 But so enclasped,— nay, through their 
 
 farthest range 
 Knotted together in a knot so strange 
 Are our dominions, each with each 
 
 entoiled 
 Even from the prime ; so twined, so 
 
 intercoiled — 
 
 5 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Locked in a tanglement so hard to 
 undo — 
 
 So wholly intermingled through and 
 through — 
 
 Are these our realms ; that nowhere 
 within all 
 
 Their vastness is one point, however 
 small, 
 
 One meanest spot, where thou or I can 
 say: 
 
 Here have I absolute and plenary sway, 
 
 Complete, unparcelled lordship, king- 
 hood whole ; 
 
 Here do I reign, sovereign, supreme, and 
 sole. 
 
 Rather have mutual thwartings long 
 made sour 
 
 Each cup we drank of ! And is this, 
 then, Power — 
 
 Can this be rule and governance — to 
 bear 
 
 Frustration with a meek brow every- 
 where, 
 6 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 And unto bafflings without end resign 
 
 A patient breast ? For such thy wont, 
 and mine. 
 
 Ever, O Ormazd, thou art foiled by me ; 
 
 Ever, O Ormazd, I am baulked by 
 thee ; 
 
 And everywhere in our domains im- 
 mense 
 
 Is balanced Might but grandiose im- 
 potence. 
 
 Behold, then, this my Scheme, in 
 silence nursed, 
 
 In secrecy long pondered, and now 
 first, 
 
 Under the calm, grave inquest of thine 
 eye, 
 
 Bid to stand naked : the one Scheme 
 whereby 
 
 Huge discords shall be goldenly re- 
 solved, 
 
 And fair and foul cease to be inter- 
 volved, 
 
 7 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 While from a heaven uncobwebbed 
 
 thou shalt see 
 These ravelled worlds blaze with sim- 
 plicity, 
 The accurst embroilments and rank 
 
 disarray 
 Wholly thenceforward swept from life 
 
 away. 
 For now my Scheme, my slow-nurtured 
 
 Design, 
 Shall forthwith to that cloudless gaze 
 
 of thine 
 Be bared. But though it proffers 
 
 wondrous things, 
 They are no more than rich imaginings 
 Till thy command shall make them 
 
 truth, and give 
 The charter that empowers a dream to 
 
 live. 
 Behold my Project, then ! Let thee 
 
 and me 
 On a world-boundary now at last 
 
 agree : 
 6 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 A barrier, so devised as to extend, 
 
 With neither a beginning nor an end, 
 
 Along a line throughout Creation 
 drawn, 
 
 Straight as if Nature's self must then 
 be sawn 
 
 In bleeding halves ; and let this 
 barrier reach — 
 
 Being of impalpable fabric — without 
 breach, 
 
 Mid worlds long weary of our clamor- 
 ous feud, 
 
 Upward and downward through in- 
 finitude, 
 
 Mystically, and therefore, as were meet, 
 
 Invisibly ; and when 'tis built com- 
 plete, 
 
 All that is on the one side thou shalt 
 make 
 
 Thine own for evermore, and I will take 
 
 All that is on the other : and thus 
 shall we 
 
 Divide with a Divine equality 
 
 b 9 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Betwixt us twain from that time forth 
 
 the whole 
 Of Being, and equitably allot its 
 
 soul 
 And substance, past contention. Then 
 
 must these 
 Rangers of heaven, that with proud 
 
 scorn of ease 
 In many a wheeling orbit wander 
 
 wide, 
 Quit their old paths for ways as yet 
 
 untried, 
 If in their courses they would else 
 
 transgress 
 That Confine's subtle ethereal fixedness, 
 And with disorder beyond remedy 
 
 mar 
 Our Scheme. For so must even planet 
 
 and star 
 Yield them to change, and to a new- 
 framed sky 
 Conform, or perish. Meanwhile thou 
 
 and I 
 
 10 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Have but to ordain it, and with lesser 
 
 sound 
 Than of the grass breaking from out 
 
 the ground 
 There shall be fashioned as by secret 
 
 hands 
 That bodiless mystic barrier, till it 
 
 stands 
 Ungross as airandunbeheld as thought, 
 Cleaving a universe thenceforth dis- 
 traught 
 No more with our hoarse conflicts, no 
 
 more shamed 
 By our crude strifes ; and it shall be 
 
 proclaimed 
 The everlasting bound, that must 
 
 alone 
 Part thy dominions, Ormazd, from 
 
 mine own. 
 On that side of the guarded frontier, 
 
 thine 
 Shall be the only law ; on this side, 
 
 mine. 
 
 ii 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 And there let all Good dwell, thy con- 
 sort, here 
 
 All Evil live, my spouse. Then with- 
 out peer 
 
 On that side rule thou changeless, I 
 on this : 
 
 And if to wield pure sovereignty be bliss, 
 
 Bliss shalt thou have and hold, there 
 reigning ! Yea, 
 
 There for the first time shalt thou 
 truly sway 
 
 Thy princedoms, and with hate be 
 hemmed not round, 
 
 And with no harassed and mock crown 
 be crowned. 
 
 There for the first time since the birth 
 of things, 
 
 Or since the blind and thunderous 
 labourings 
 
 Of the unborn world to be brought 
 forth at all, 
 
 Shalt thou whose lips have tasted but 
 the gall 
 12 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Of doubtful empire, slake thee with 
 delight 
 
 Of perfect puissance, never-threatened 
 Might,— 
 
 None to dispute thy throne, nothing 
 to gnaw 
 
 At its deep bulwarks, — greatness with- 
 out flaw, — 
 
 None to make vain thine acts and 
 pluck away 
 
 With midnight hand what thou didst 
 plant by day, — 
 
 None to oppose thee, nothing to im- 
 pede, 
 
 And thou at last for ever lord indeed/ 
 
 He ceased, and looked to Ormazd 
 for some sign, 
 Legible haply in that brow benign, 
 Or those calm eyes. But nothing 
 
 there he read ; 
 And the pure lips of Ormazd simply 
 said, 
 
 13 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 With suchlike thrift in words as let 
 
 no trace 
 Of aught that was more inward haunt 
 
 his face : 
 ' What thou proposest I will duly 
 
 weigh, 
 And duly sha.lt thou have my Yea or 
 
 Nay.' 
 
 6 And who shall bear thy word unto 
 
 mine ear ? ' 
 Said Ahriman ; c and by what token 
 
 clear 
 Am I to know him sent indeed from 
 
 thee, 
 Right across desolate immensity ? 
 Where in the world-sweep of thy 
 
 boundless ken 
 Shall I await his coming ? And O 
 
 when 
 Shall I behold him verily at hand, 
 With thy great message ? ' Then did 
 
 Ormazd stand 
 
 14 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Silent, the monstrous silence of the sky 
 Dwarfed by his own. Fathomless was 
 
 his eye, 
 His face the cloister of his thoughts, 
 
 his head 
 A still, lone summit. But at length 
 
 he said : 
 6 No messenger shall bear to thee my 
 
 word ; 
 Only from mine own mouth shall it be 
 
 heard. 
 Where, dost thou ask ? Here, where 
 
 we parley now, 
 My tongue shall speak it. When, 
 
 demandest thou ? 
 A hundred thousand years hence, 
 
 from this hour.' 
 
 To Spirits of heavenly or infernal 
 
 power, 
 Such as in ancientness are Time's own 
 
 peers, 
 Not longer seem a hundred thousand 
 
 years, 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 With their dim-moving pomps of life 
 
 and death, 
 Than is to us a moment or a 
 
 breath. 
 And the dark ancestor of all things 
 
 vile 
 Being well content to wait so brief a 
 
 while, 
 The rivals parted, pledged to meet 
 
 once more, 
 Soon as those few swift ages should be 
 
 o'er. 
 To Night's blind heart returned the 
 
 Spirit of 111, 
 Where gloomed his fastness, whence 
 
 he roams at will 
 To mar that Good he may not quite 
 
 destroy. 
 And he who fashioned Morn and 
 
 founded Joy 
 Betook him to a region of the skies 
 That from the gaze of men is hidden, 
 
 and lies 
 
 16 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Outside the lore that can bewitch our 
 
 ears 
 With the proud epic of the stars' 
 
 careers. 
 There did the heavenly traveller halt ; 
 
 and there, 
 Seeming to rest upbuilt on golden air, 
 Were vast walls, whiter than in storm 
 
 the foam 
 Round fear-struck ships ; and many a 
 
 lustrous dome 
 Rose as the curving bosom of the swan 
 Above a still lake rises. There, too, 
 
 shone 
 Turrets that, mounting firelike, seemed 
 
 to be 
 Ravished and lost in a pure ecstasy, 
 So high they flamed ; while near them, 
 
 luminous mist, 
 Its hues the marriage of the amethyst 
 And opal, floated as amid the play 
 Of plashing fountains floats the rain- 
 bowed spray, 
 c 17 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 And splendour beyond splendour 
 
 towered, yet all 
 The glories bounded by that circling wall 
 Were one miraculous palace that 
 
 appeared 
 As if a wizard of the heavens had 
 
 reared 
 Its ageless pomps. Never therein had 
 
 been 
 Death, or his shadow ; and with 
 
 dazzling sheen, 
 Gateways through which no evil thing 
 
 might fare 
 Blazed around Ormazd as he entered 
 
 there. 
 For this was his far dwelling, which 
 
 decay 
 Touched not, and tarnish visited not ; 
 
 and they 
 Who had kept solemn watch and sleep- 
 less ward, 
 Flung wide its portals to receive their 
 
 lord. 
 
 18 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Gorgeous the web of wonder that is 
 
 spun 
 Out of the spilth and offcast of the sun ; 
 Glorious the tropic noon's unbridled 
 
 light ; 
 Glorious the pageant of the arctic 
 
 night, 
 That for an hour perchance may half 
 
 console 
 The ice-barred voyager hopeless of the 
 
 Pole. 
 But nought are all the splendours 
 
 Earth hath known, 
 To that which shook, from round the 
 
 blinding throne 
 Where Ormazd seated him again on 
 
 high, 
 Tempests of radiance to the burnished 
 
 sky. 
 
 And now unto his presence did he call 
 Three lordly minds, illustrious among 
 all 
 
 19 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 That compassed him as with strong 
 
 ramparts : three 
 Not far below himself in majesty, 
 Rashnu and Vayu and great Mithra, sons 
 Of light and might, his seeing and 
 
 judging ones, 
 Also his warlike captains from of old : 
 To whom he failed not straightway to 
 
 unfold 
 Ahriman's Scheme, by which that 
 
 Prince of Pain 
 Would carve the labyrinthine world in 
 
 twain, 
 Parting, as with a barrier none might 
 
 climb, 
 All Evil from all Good throughout all 
 
 time ; 
 And Ahriman's whole plea did he 
 
 rehearse 
 For such a halving of the universe. 
 They harkened, on each word and tone 
 
 intent, 
 Standing before him proudly reverent^ 
 20 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 In silence, till their counsel was be- 
 sought, 
 
 When Vayu was the first to unseal his 
 thought. 
 
 * Let me not with a niggard tongue 
 refuse ' 
 
 ('Twas thus he spake) ' its just, its 
 rightful dues 
 
 To this world-spacious world-remould- 
 ing Plan, 
 
 Born of the cloud-girt mind of Ahri- 
 man. 
 
 Under this Scheme, no more might 
 fairest Good, 
 
 From the infecting touch and neigh- 
 bourhood 
 
 Of Evil, suffer transformation strange, 
 
 Take Evil's hues and into Evil 
 change ; 
 
 For strict impassable confines being set 
 
 'Twixt these that oft in a fell freedom 
 met, 
 
 21 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Such woes would cease for ever. And 
 
 perchance 
 Evil itself, lacking the sustenance 
 It sucks from Good,-— denied its ban- 
 
 quetings 
 Mid the lorn ruins of once blissful 
 
 things, — 
 Would sicken and fail, pining with 
 
 countenance wan 
 For that rich fare it had long feasted 
 
 on. 
 But whether Good, shorn of the 
 
 strength it draws 
 From hourly battle with Evil's fangs 
 
 and claws, 
 And from uncounted clashings, hard 
 
 to endure, 
 With the huge monster's dragon 
 
 armature, 
 Would flourish or fade, richer or poorer 
 
 grow, 
 Rise with new fire, or smoulder lulled 
 
 and low 
 
 22 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 And in a barren peace at last abide, — 
 Of that, O Ormazd, thou that stood'st 
 
 beside 
 Time at his cradling must forejudge, 
 
 not we : 
 Thou who didst know from their 
 
 nativity 
 Both Good and Evil, seeing their wars 
 
 begun, 
 And ever won and lost, and lost and 
 
 won.' 
 
 Reverberant, vibrant, nor less broad 
 
 and deep 
 Than the sea's utterance round the 
 
 cloven steep, 
 Was his rich-billowing voice, each 
 
 cadence grave 
 Being like the lapse of a sonorous wave 
 When it withdraws down a resounding 
 
 shore. 
 And after his last word, there hovered 
 
 o'er 
 
 23 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 That council a brief silence, tremulous 
 As with expectancy, till Rashnu 
 
 thus 
 Put it to flight : ' One only thing is 
 
 plain. 
 Not our advantage, not our weal or 
 
 gain, 
 O Ormazd, doth thy foe of foes in- 
 tend ! 
 What, then, can be his goal, his secret 
 
 end? 
 What lurked behind his specious words, 
 
 when he, 
 As if by veriest chance encountering 
 
 thee 
 Amid the heavens, poured forth the 
 
 Scheme which thou 
 Bid'st us consider ? Is it that he 
 
 now 
 Foresees his empire slowly dwindling, 
 
 thine 
 Greatening, and seeks to avert by this 
 
 design 
 24 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 That gradual droop of power, that 
 
 piecemeal fall, 
 And long, inglorious fading, which of all 
 Dreary vicissitude is the dreariest 
 
 known, 
 To one that sits upon a haughty 
 
 throne ? ' 
 
 So asked the noon-bright Spirit, 
 
 and when he ceased 
 To speak, although no tongue replied, 
 
 at least 
 Faces made answer ; and in speech to 
 
 the eye 
 His fellow counsellors there standing 
 
 nigh 
 Uttered what seemed not an uncertain 
 
 Yea. 
 Then spake outright the lordliest child 
 
 of day ; 
 He in whom met, and nobly did agree, 
 Resplendent strength and mastering 
 
 suavity ; 
 
 d 25 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 He at whose footfall, when he roamed 
 
 abroad, 
 The heavens themselves were stilled 
 
 and hushed and awed, 
 Hearing the golden thunder of his tread ; 
 Great Mithra. ' First, let me declare,' 
 
 he said, 
 c How full, how perfect is mine own 
 
 assent 
 To all that hath from lips more 
 
 eloquent 
 Most justly flowed. Like Vayu, loth 
 
 am I 
 With a mean stint to grudge and half 
 
 deny 
 Fit and due praise to a Project, to a 
 
 Scheme, 
 Which, were it proved but a vain- 
 
 builded dream, 
 Would none the less reveal, if nought 
 
 beside, 
 A dauntless Dreamer : being a vision 
 
 wide 
 26 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 As the mind's farthest outstretch : 
 
 wanting not 
 Its lures, its beckon, its promises of 
 
 what 
 Ev'n the all-coveting hand of Hope 
 
 might well 
 Have lacked the greed to crave. But 
 
 truth to tell, 
 I also must like Rashnu cry Beware ! 
 For it is warrior's wisdom, when- 
 
 soe'er 
 A foe seems friendliest, to set double 
 
 guard, 
 And at an enemy's gift look long and 
 
 hard. 
 Now 'tis exceeding sure, that till we 
 
 know 
 Whether thyself, O Ormazd, or thy 
 
 foe 
 Already wield o'er life the ampler 
 
 power, 
 And in these clangorous worlds at 
 
 each loud hour 
 
 27 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Already govern the more vast domain, 
 We know not whether 'twere thy loss 
 
 or gain 
 To embrace a Project, fix and ratify 
 Beyond revokement a Design, whereby 
 The Dark One would in breadth of 
 
 empire be 
 Thy changeless Equal everlastingly, 
 And thine own puissance an arrested 
 
 tide, 
 Standing magnificently petrified. 
 Send therefore to each haunt and 
 
 dwelling-place 
 Of Mind— each tenanted orb that rides 
 
 in Space — 
 Each populous busy star that sails 
 
 upbuoyed, 
 Eager and ardent on the torpid 
 
 Void- 
 Send to all seats of life, and through 
 
 the whole 
 Compass and circuit of that world of 
 
 soul 
 
 28 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 That in a fast enmeshment without 
 
 end 
 Deep amidst worlds of clay is woven— 
 
 send 
 Unseen and noiseless watchers, 
 
 searchers, spies, 
 A myriad listening ears and probing 
 
 eyes, 
 And bid them bring thee word from 
 
 everywhere 
 Of how thine enemy's strength and 
 
 thine compare ; 
 In what sphere thou prevailest ; in 
 
 what zone 
 And tract of Being his might o'ertops 
 
 thine own ; 
 What wavering region of vext ebb 
 
 and flow 
 Now hails thee paramount and anon 
 
 thy foe. 
 In brief, from wheresoever living 
 
 thing 
 Abides, let thine intelligencers bring 
 
 29 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Knowledge that, summed into one 
 
 boundless ray, 
 Shall show forth clear how thou dost 
 
 stand to-day, 
 Measured against thine adversary ; 
 
 and so, 
 In that enormous torchflare, we shall 
 
 know 
 Whether 'twill profit thee or him alone, 
 Who at the heart of darkness hath his 
 
 throne, 
 If thou, unto his Scheme consenting, 
 
 cast 
 Off and make null and quite tread out 
 
 the Past, 
 Bartering this variable and fluctuant 
 
 sway- 
 Surge and subsidence, crescence and 
 
 decay— 
 For an unchanging Realm, within 
 
 whose pale 
 Nowhere shalt thou have reason to 
 
 bewail 
 
 30 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Evil triumphant, and its arms made 
 
 proud 
 With trophy and spoil ; or to rejoice 
 
 aloud 
 At its abjection, and its flight in fear 
 Before the gleaming of a dawn-tipt 
 
 spear. 5 
 
 Such were his words; and now, in 
 
 speech that fell 
 From where no shadow of untruth 
 
 might dwell, 
 Ormazd's elect and faithful had out- 
 poured 
 Freely their thought, which in their 
 
 breasts to hoard 
 Had been ignoblest service ; and the 
 
 three, 
 For their oft-proved and spotless fealty 9 
 Received the thanks of that enthroned 
 
 and crowned 
 Benignance. Then, from where the 
 
 glory around 
 
 3i 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 His presence like the soul of dayspring 
 burned, 
 
 They to a thousand radiant tasks re- 
 turned. 
 
 And Ormazd did as Mithra coun- 
 selled. First 
 
 Recalling hosts that had been long 
 dispersed 
 
 On divers errands, diligent spirits and 
 true, 
 
 He formed them into bands and squad- 
 rons new, 
 
 And with new mandate sent them 
 everywhere 
 
 Among the speedful, spurring worlds ; 
 and there, 
 
 Wherever the dim lifeseed had been 
 sown 
 
 In quickened soil, or on waste foam or 
 stone ; 
 32 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Wherever aught had breath, and did 
 
 beget 
 Offspring, and wither and die ; and 
 
 chiefliest yet, 
 Wherever creatures born, not quite in 
 
 vain, 
 To a broad estate of pleasure and of 
 
 pain, 
 Large hereditaments of bliss and 
 
 woe — 
 Wherever such a race, emerging 
 
 slow, 
 Had risen in honour and shame and 
 
 love and lust 
 Out of the pregnant and parturient 
 
 dust, 
 There did those secret emissaries en- 
 gage 
 In a profound, a solemn espionage. 
 None saw them ; yet among the quick 
 
 and dead 
 Daily they moved, with a reposeless 
 
 tread, 
 
 E 33 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 And they became a presence inter- 
 wreathed 
 
 With all that was ; by everything that 
 breathed 
 
 Felt like a vague commotion, like a 
 breeze 
 
 Furtive in underwoods where forest 
 trees 
 
 Stand pensive. And with questing 
 eyes and ears 
 
 They, traversing the divers peopled 
 spheres, 
 
 Passed to and fro ; the mortals dwell- 
 ing there 
 
 Being oft obscurely on a sudden 
 aware 
 
 Of something which had opened not 
 their doors, 
 
 And had no step that sounded on their 
 floors, 
 
 But fainter than a rustle or a sigh 
 
 Had glided in, and like a waft gone 
 
 by. 
 
 34 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 And ages came and went, with pause- 
 less pace 
 And trampling onsweep, till the very 
 
 face 
 Of heaven was here and there by slow 
 
 degrees 
 Being changed ! Young planets, the 
 
 shy novices 
 Of Night, appeared beside old palsied 
 
 ones, 
 Their joyless kin; while certain fervid 
 
 suns 
 Grew senile, and with no more force 
 
 to spend 
 Doted decrepit, nearing their lone 
 
 end : 
 And sometimes, as from fires that 
 
 blanch and char, 
 There fell the ashes of a ruined star. 
 And still did the unslumbering 
 
 searchers ply 
 Their task; and not till they had 
 
 heard pass by, 
 
 35 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Mid voices as of cloud-clad chariot- 
 eers, 
 
 The thunderous wheels of ninety 
 thousand years, 
 
 Did they return, and unto Ormazd 
 bring 
 
 The heaped fruit of their worldwide 
 harvesting. 
 
 Then came the lesser, lighter labour 
 
 — though 
 This, too, was a prodigious toil— of so 
 Ordering and setting forth in due 
 
 array 
 The piled and boundless- seeming 
 
 knowledge they 
 Had reaped, that Ormazd at a glance 
 
 might see 
 The range and scope of his own 
 
 sovereignty, 
 Measured against the empire of his foe. 
 And many an age had yet to come and 
 
 go, 
 36 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 That as it fleeted found that toil's last 
 stage 
 
 Still distant : many a shadowy-trail- 
 ing age, 
 
 When Man may in his long slow dawn 
 have been, 
 
 And round him forms that mid this 
 haunt terrene 
 
 Succeeded stranger shapes, once mon- 
 strously 
 
 Got of the dalliance of the Earth and Sea. 
 
 But the huge labours were at length 
 complete ; 
 
 The garnered knowledge was in order 
 meet 
 
 Ranged and disposed ; the task was 
 perfected ; 
 
 And Ormazd, seeing as in a chart 
 outspread 
 
 His own and his fell rival's power, 
 could view 
 
 These with exactness, and now verily 
 knew 
 
 37 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Which was the greater : whereupon 
 
 he cast 
 Falterings behind him, and stood 
 
 founded fast 
 In a resolve that might not change or 
 
 fade, 
 Touching the answer that must soon 
 
 be made, 
 At the appointed place and destined 
 
 day, 
 To Ahriman— the doomful Yea or Nay. 
 
 For now that day drew near, and 
 
 peaklike rose 
 Out of the plains of time— the day 
 
 when those 
 First mighty forefathers of Good and 111 
 Must indeed meet once more, and so 
 
 fulfil 
 Their mutual pledge, or both for ever 
 
 stand 
 Alike forsworn. And ere it loomed at 
 
 hand, 
 
 38 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Orrnazd together called, besides the 
 
 Three 
 Nighest himself in splendour and 
 
 majesty, 
 Thrice three of less renown ; and on 
 
 each one 
 Bestowing words of cheer and benison, 
 He to the twelve made known his 
 
 whole intent. 
 And at a sign they left him, and he 
 
 went 
 From out his lofty-towered abiding- 
 place, 
 And he looked down o'er the abysm of 
 
 Space, 
 He whom its deeps were powerless to 
 
 appal. 
 O'er Nothingness, most awsome thing 
 
 of all, 
 There looked he down ; and halted on 
 
 its verge, 
 Somewhat as on a rock above the 
 
 surge 
 
 39 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 A fearless swimmer a moment halts, 
 
 ere he 
 With headlong leap commits him to 
 
 the sea. 
 Then from the towers and courts and 
 
 domes that glowed 
 Around his innermost divine abode — 
 The outskirts of that Light which was 
 
 his throne — 
 Ormazd upon the skies went forth 
 
 alone, 
 There, for the second time, and for 
 
 the last, 
 To meet the Saddener of the World. 
 
 He passed 
 By many a massy star, matched with 
 
 whose girth 
 Puny indeed were this our boastful 
 
 Earth, 
 And onward without tarrying or de- 
 lay, 
 Right across many a planet's ancient 
 
 way, 
 40 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 His own'being no such curving course, 
 
 he fared. 
 The ever fevered comet as it 
 
 flared 
 With violent inroad through the 
 
 heavens, and raced 
 Athwart Creation, he that knew not 
 
 haste 
 Serenely in its hot flight overtook 
 And far outsped. As one that fords 
 
 a brook 
 In a mere journey o'er vale and wold, 
 
 he crossed 
 The madding meteor torrent, that 
 
 seemed lost 
 And aimless, doomed to chase in 
 
 dizzy sky 
 Its own self round the sun. At times 
 
 his eye 
 Saw War beside his pathway, cosmic 
 
 strife 
 As of a new world crashing into 
 
 life 
 
 F 41 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Through welter and rage and the loud 
 
 splintering 
 Of old worlds' bones. But oft, where 
 
 breathing thing 
 Or living voice had never sought to 
 
 intrude 
 On the cold, blank, tremendous 
 
 quietude, 
 He swept through utter Calms that 
 
 well might be 
 Likened to the immense serenity 
 And infinite composure of the dead : 
 Kingdoms that Silence hath inherited 
 From Silence ; and mid these he came 
 
 to where 
 His adversary awaited him, for there, 
 True to the hour and to the place of tryst, 
 Was Ahriman, his dread antagonist. 
 
 And Ormazd with a soaring voice 
 cried : ' Lo, 
 I am come to pay thee that which I do 
 owe— 
 42 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Gratitude, gratitude ! ' A joyful 
 
 gleam 
 Lit the drear face of Evil. ' Then my 
 
 Scheme 
 Hath in thine eyes found favour ? ' 
 
 But full soon 
 The gleam departed, Ormazd saying : 
 
 ' The boon 
 For which I thank thee and could 
 
 almost bless 
 The giver of a gift so measureless, 
 Is the new knowledge, full and sure, of 
 
 how 
 Thy power and mine compare, and 
 
 whether thou 
 Or I be mightier. Unto thee my 
 
 debt 
 Is boundless : without thee, not even 
 
 yet 
 That knowledge had been mine, and 
 
 thou hast well 
 Earned richest thanks.' Ahriman's 
 
 countenance fell. 
 
 43 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 1 I knew that thou hadst sent forth 
 
 everywhere 
 Thy searchers, gatherers, scouts, and 
 
 spies, and ne'er 
 Sought I to foil their quest, nor once 
 
 have laid 
 Across their path a hindrance.' Or- 
 
 mazd paid 
 No heed, but unregardful thus spake 
 
 on : 
 6 O oft did I in yonder ages gone 
 Toil with misgiving and with doubt, 
 
 nor knew 
 Whether 'twas mine own realm or 
 
 thine that grew 
 In lasting spaciousness, or whether 
 
 both 
 Stood without movement, without 
 
 change or growth, 
 Or rise or fall. And ever labouring 
 
 still, 
 I was as one that climbs an endless 
 
 hill, 
 44 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 And oft I bore a heavy, a secret 
 load, 
 
 And lacked the joy that I myself be- 
 stowed. 
 
 But now I know that when thou met'st 
 me first, 
 
 Thinking to snare me with thy guile 
 accurst, 
 
 Already had thy feet begun to slide 
 
 Ev'n then from power. Already had 
 the tide 
 
 Against thee turned : thenceforth the 
 flow was mine, 
 
 Thine the loathed ebb. And though 
 thy sure decline 
 
 Was hardly as yet a thing to itself 
 confessed, 
 
 Already somewhat below peak and 
 crest 
 
 Thou stood'st, and wert each morrow 
 fall'n away 
 
 A little — a little — from height of yester- 
 day.' 
 
 45 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 c Thy words are false,' cried Ahri- 
 
 man, ' and thou 
 Erelong shalt learn that never even 
 
 now 
 Have I put forth the full might of 
 
 mine arm 
 Against thee ; and with tremors of 
 
 alarm 
 Shalt thou look on hereafter, while I 
 
 sow 
 With dreadful largesse the long- 
 hoarded woe. 
 For whatsoever thou dost most 
 
 abhor— 
 Famine and pestilence and hate and 
 
 war, 
 And new-minted diseases worse than 
 
 death — 
 These in thrice ampler bounty with my 
 
 breath 
 Will I strew wide, wherever mortals 
 
 live 
 Their life fantastical and fugitive.' 
 
 46 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 ' And from all this,' said Ormazd, 
 
 6 shall pure fruit 
 Upgrow, and odorously will I trans- 
 mute 
 To loveliest bloom thy gifts of deadliest 
 
 bane. 
 For now henceforth I wax and thou 
 
 dost wane, 
 I broaden and thou shrinkest ; and at 
 
 length, 
 With ever leaping heart and freshening 
 
 strength, 
 Joyous I toil, knowing that day by 
 
 day 
 Somewhat art thou for ever feebler ; 
 
 yea, 
 Knowing as happiest truth that ev'n 
 
 were I 
 Not indestructible, but born to die 
 Like Gods that palely perish, making 
 
 room 
 For younger Gods,— that ev'n were it 
 
 my doom 
 
 47 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Thus at the feet of conquering Death 
 
 to bow, 
 And my chief tasks yet unperformed, 
 
 and thou 
 Neither destroyed nor vanquished,— 
 
 none the less 
 Stablisht secure in everlastingness 
 Were this my kingdom, my fair realm 
 
 of Good ; 
 But thine own realm of Evil, that 
 
 withstood 
 So long my assault, and seemed in 
 
 glory and state 
 Built above dread of fall, shall soon 
 
 or late 
 With pangs of ebbing power, with 
 
 shudderings vast, 
 Be o'ertaken and amazed ; and haply 
 
 at last 
 It shall be broken asunder in ruin 
 
 extreme, 
 Scattered as shards and the ashes of a 
 
 dream, 
 48 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 And thou, or some like heritor of thy 
 
 throne, 
 Under its mountainous dust lie hurled 
 
 and prone.' 
 
 So Ormazd spake. But his terrific 
 
 foe 
 In boundless rage was silent, and as 
 
 though 
 Somewhat abashed by that pure 
 
 strength and grace, 
 Did turn away the tempest of his 
 
 face. 
 Out of him rose a twilight dim and 
 
 dire, 
 The clouds and column'd vapours of 
 
 his ire 
 Spreading their dusk afar. Half hid 
 
 with these 
 He stood, while, swirled as in mad 
 
 vortices 
 Above him, an innumerable swarm 
 Of horrors without lineament or form 
 G 49 
 
THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS 
 
 Circled aloft and blindly eddying spun, 
 Black as a flight of crows against the 
 
 sun. 
 And he, by that foul brood attended, 
 
 passed 
 Downward through skies that his 
 
 mere frown o'ercast, 
 Betaking him in fury and in shame 
 Back to those holds of midnight 
 
 whence he came. 
 
 50 
 
OTHER POEMS 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 Frank offspring of that all-adventur- 
 ing land, 
 Where, in the petty fray of Lexington, 
 Thrice fifty summers down the wond- 
 rous Past, 
 Began no less a duel than of Night 
 And Morning, that was world- watched 
 
 eight loud years, 
 Till Morning triumphed, and the 
 
 watchers knew 
 America's soil and soul for ever free : 
 O if you fight as well upon our side 
 As once you fought against us, how 
 
 can then 
 This cause, which is your own and 
 
 ours and Man's, 
 Do aught but conquer ? You are 
 
 come to us 
 Full of the strong wine of your Western 
 air, 
 
 53 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 Full of the marrow and the sap of 
 
 life, 
 Full of the tingle of youth and maiden 
 
 valour. 
 You come as Spring comes to the 
 
 winter fields 
 When she has hovered long betwixt 
 
 ' I will ■ 
 And many a coy ' I will not ' ; for 
 
 even so 
 You hovered, halting betwixt ' Yea ' 
 
 and ' Nay '— 
 Then thundered ' Yea ' and hurled 
 
 your doubts afar. 
 And not more beautiful upon the 
 
 mountains 
 Were ever yet the feet of him that 
 
 brought 
 Glad tidings, than your prows upon 
 
 the sea. 
 
 Fresh and untired, you find this 
 host of ours 
 
 54 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 Worn with the burden and stress of 
 
 fight and toil : 
 A host, though but of yesterday's 
 
 begetting, 
 Already, in blind, deaf hurricane of 
 
 battle, 
 Neither ill tried nor proven an ill match 
 For foes that in their nursery lisped of 
 
 arms : 
 A host proud of your great copartner- 
 ship, 
 Proud of their strong new brothers in 
 
 the sword — 
 That just, that holy, that benignant 
 
 sword 
 Whose purpose and whose goal are 
 
 peace : a host 
 Famously captained by such chiefs of 
 
 war 
 As well might seem the very topmost 
 
 reach 
 Of God's own happy art in making 
 
 men. 
 
 55 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 And yet, not to the heroes, fighting 
 there 
 
 On strangers' soil — or underneath it 
 laid — 
 
 Not to the brave that face yon storms 
 of fire, 
 
 Be all the laurel, all the glory and 
 praise ! 
 
 Here, too, is greatness ; here are heads 
 grown grey 
 
 In council, not yet dreaming of repose ; 
 
 Here are the athletes of debate, and 
 here 
 
 The brains that are the lamps without 
 whose light 
 
 Armies would grope and stumble, and 
 noblest prowess 
 
 With a waste splendour dazzle a fruit- 
 less field. 
 
 Here also, his hot thirst for toil un- 
 slaked, 
 
 The sinews of his lithe mind unre- 
 laxed, 
 56 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 Is he, our Empire's leader : he who 
 
 set 
 The wheels of the machine of victory 
 Whirring and spinning throughout all 
 
 this isle, 
 Till Britain hummed as one great mill 
 
 of war : 
 A man, no wraith or shadow ; a live 
 
 man, 
 Loathed by the spectres and the 
 
 counterfeits ; 
 A man as human as your Lincoln was, 
 Not muffled up in formula and phrase, 
 With palisaded spirit, but giving us 
 Access and entrance to his hopes and 
 
 fears, 
 And in companionship of glorious 
 
 hazard 
 Bearing us with him, while he treads 
 
 a road 
 Built like a causeway across flaming 
 
 Hell; 
 Himself a flame of ardour and resolve, 
 h 57 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 Beset by all the tempests, but un- 
 
 quenched, 
 Being used to blasts, and native to the 
 
 storm, 
 And thriving on the thunder from his 
 
 prime. 
 
 Ours were the shame, if having such 
 
 a leader 
 We proved unworthy at last to be so 
 
 led, 
 And lowered the flag of an unshaken 
 
 will, 
 And stooped our soul to a stature and 
 
 a posture 
 Like theirs who preach a base truck 
 
 with the foe ; 
 Theirs who desire not to see wicked- 
 ness 
 Caught in the noose of its own vile 
 
 intent, 
 But hunger for that evil thing, a pact 
 With evil, nay, a bargain with this pit 
 58 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 That vomiting all putrescence has 
 
 o'erflowed 
 On the sweet earth, a treaty with this 
 
 slime ; 
 Who ask that we betray the spirit of 
 
 man, 
 Defraud the world that looked to you 
 
 and us 
 As guardians of its inward patrimony, 
 And co-trustees of its estate of freedom. 
 From all such grovelling counsellors, 
 
 and from 
 The craven mood that in a puissant 
 
 people 
 Were the calamity of calamities 
 And the one desperate ill, a people 
 
 itself 
 Must be its own sole saviour. But O 
 
 friends, 
 'Twixt whom and us the dark, cold, 
 
 salt partitions 
 Avail not now to intercept the heart, 
 We have an enemy that amid the once 
 
 59 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 Glad vineyards, orchards, and dear 
 meads of life 
 
 Hews at the root of all on earth that 
 flowered ! 
 
 It flowers no more, for has not he been 
 by? 
 
 He found us drowsed and half un- 
 sentinelled, 
 
 Half unaccoutred and unpanoplied, 
 
 Lapt in a human trust of human- 
 kind 
 
 And dreaming that himself was human 
 too. 
 
 Fatal, befooling dream ! He spoke 
 indeed 
 
 With human organs, gave forth human 
 sounds, 
 
 Made human gestures, and his melo- 
 dists 
 
 Had fashioned heretofore high human 
 music, 
 
 None fairer and none nobler, and his 
 poets 
 60 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 Had thrilled the world with most per- 
 
 human song ; 
 But all his later study and care had 
 
 been 
 To rip from his own breast the human 
 
 heart, 
 And, having rid him of so vain a thing, 
 To found upon the hideous ghastly 
 
 void 
 The edifice of his thoughts, deeds, and 
 
 desires ; 
 As if upon a hollow and a want 
 There could arise aught 'stablisht to 
 
 endure. 
 And this, this was not all ! For where 
 
 his heart 
 Had suffered dread erasure, demons 
 
 found 
 Befitting residence and domicile, 
 And made that cavern in his breast 
 
 their home. 
 Yonder they camp, thence do they 
 
 sally abroad, 
 
 61 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 And thither from fell foray they return. 
 These, his foul tenants, these no arms 
 
 can slay, 
 Theirs being a monstrous immortality; 
 But he o'erthrown, their fort and 
 
 citadel 
 Were fall'n, and lacking that secure 
 
 retreat 
 These Terrors would be terrible no 
 
 more. 
 This, then, O friends and mighty 
 
 aiders, this 
 Must be your task and ours : to level 
 
 with earth 
 That fort, that citadel, that hold 
 
 itself, 
 Where all the trooping fiends find 
 
 harbourage 
 And trysting-place, and couch and 
 
 kennel, and whence 
 In the aghasted eye of the sick day 
 They make infernal sortie. More than 
 
 this 
 
 62 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 No league of Man can compass : less 
 than this 
 
 Would, for ourselves or for our woeful 
 heirs, 
 
 Be but damnation a brief while de- 
 ferred, 
 
 At best a little putting off of fate, 
 
 At best a little miserable ease, 
 
 And then the paying of all the arrears 
 of doom, 
 
 Vouched in remorseless audit ; then 
 indeed 
 
 Ruin and perdition and a world un- 
 done. 
 
 In that belief, you and ourselves 
 await, 
 
 With hope that cannot wholly van- 
 quish fear, 
 
 The veiled, tremendous morrow ; and 
 yonder stands 
 
 Your Nation, watching o'er the sea 
 her sons ; 
 
 6 3 
 
AMERICANS, HAIL ! 
 
 A Nation whence, as from an orchestra 
 Suavely controlled, there rises goldenly 
 Though sternly, with far surge and 
 
 tidal swell, 
 Not without sad and wailful underflow, 
 But mighty in heave of sound, all 
 
 dissonance hushed, 
 A new Heroic Symphony of war ; 
 Heard throughout Earth with a grave 
 
 thankfulness 
 By such as love great music ; and per- 
 haps 
 Ev'n on an ear divine not wholly lost, 
 Not utterly unacceptable to Heaven. 
 
 December 1917. 
 
 6 4 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 In a crease of the forehead of Antrim, 
 
 where Time has written on stone 
 The tale of the endless debate of the 
 
 obstinate land and sea — 
 Those heirs of magnificent discord, 
 
 that just for a season agree 
 To compose their thunderous quarrel, 
 
 but ever at heart are prone 
 To harp on it night and day in a 
 
 moody undertone, 
 And presently mutter a word that is 
 
 dark with wrath and bale, 
 And rouse from counterfeit sleep their 
 
 fell vendetta, and so 
 Return to the naked hate they were 
 
 born in long ago, 
 
 i 65 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 Reopen the wrangle of ages, resume 
 
 the dear dispute, 
 The controversy eternal that bears but 
 
 death for fruit, 
 As well from of old these haughty, im- 
 placable brawlers know ; — 
 In a crease of the forehead of Antrim, 
 
 where Time has written that 
 
 tale, 
 I have found me a place that surely is 
 
 musing on ancient woe, 
 And remembers in dreams the tread of 
 
 the midnight foot of Doom : 
 A place where even the candours of 
 
 noon seem sinister things : 
 And there I have heard the ocean 
 
 recitative roll and boom, 
 The monotonous ocean soliloquy 
 
 rumble morose and low ; 
 The obscure beginning of storm, like a 
 
 rustle of huddled wings ; 
 The stroke of the great sea-hammer, 
 
 awaking with blow on blow 
 
 66 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 In the cavernous land such outcry as 
 
 iron from iron wrings ; 
 The clang of the shock of the waters 
 
 that butted with taurine roar 
 Against fallen Dunseveric, once the 
 
 abode of vengeful Kings ; 
 And the blind, mad panic in heaven 
 
 when eastward the hurricane tore 
 By the marge where lorn Templastra 
 
 dejected ponders, and o'er 
 That fantasy, wild Ballintoy, on the 
 
 steeps in the lee of Bengore. 
 
 ii 
 
 And listening there to the sound of 
 
 contention fierce, that began 
 'Mid the Earth's primeval travail, ere 
 
 God had dreamed of Man- 
 Contention ordained to abide when 
 
 Man within dust and stone 
 Shall haply have been forgotten by all 
 
 but God alone — 
 
 6 7 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 I have heard, as a thing far off, the 
 
 voice that is yet as nigh 
 As the duel of land and sea, beneath 
 
 the impartial sky ; 
 A richer voice than theirs, and of deep, 
 
 all- human tone ; 
 Pulsating, vibrating, plangent, a voice 
 
 we dare not fly : 
 The voice of Ireland's self, for ever 
 
 about our door ; 
 The voice that beats as a billow on us 
 
 that are the shore. 
 
 in 
 
 O Ireland, easeless Ireland, how oft 
 
 like yonder tide 
 Thy soul has arisen, all foam, to break 
 
 on the crags in spray ! 
 And ever the crags endured, and the 
 
 bright spray gleaming died, 
 And ever as brief iridescence did 
 
 Fortune glimmer away. 
 
 68 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 But to-day shall it still be the 
 
 same ? Thy heart's abounding 
 
 dower 
 And the wealth of thy spirit, are 
 
 these to be spent like a thunder 
 
 shower ? 
 Behold, after weary ages of fever and 
 
 barren pain, 
 A cause that is worth thy passion, a 
 
 sword that deserves thy hand ! 
 O take them and make them thine. 
 
 'Tis the world's transcendent 
 
 hour. 
 'Tis the day of the falling of barriers, 
 
 and out on the western main 
 The interdicts of Ocean themselves are 
 
 annulled and vain, 
 For the daughter of many races, that 
 
 long was wont to tower 
 As the great lone Alp among nations, 
 
 serene in mateless power, 
 At last, her human bosom prevailing, 
 
 comes to stand 
 
 6 9 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 With her kindred, side by side, with 
 
 her lovers, heart by heart ; 
 And is it thy choice at this hour to 
 
 hold thee coldly apart, 
 To watch from without in the time of 
 
 the leaping of chasms unspanned, 
 When glimpsed amid clouds are the 
 
 ways of the World-Deviser, who 
 
 planned 
 How Good shall be born of Evil and 
 
 suckled on Evil's breast — 
 In the time of the drawing together of 
 
 continents, east and west, 
 In the morn of the stormy bridal of 
 
 far-cleft land and land, 
 When the hemispheres brook no longer 
 
 their soulless bars unblest ? 
 
 IV 
 
 Ah, words without hope of fruitage, 
 like seed on the breakers flung ! 
 
 But at least I have told my thought, in 
 faithful if idle speech, 
 
 70 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 That comes not of rage or hatred, and 
 
 only of love is sprung. 
 And now I will hold my peace, I will 
 
 husband now my tongue, 
 I will learn of whatever is voiceless 
 
 whatever it has to teach. 
 The spent tide flags and recoils. Like 
 
 gifts unused and waste 
 Is the many-tinted seaweed that strews 
 
 the Atlantic beach. 
 I will climb the track to westward, 
 
 where bards of old have paced, 
 Whose songs are asleep by cromlech 
 
 and cairn and haunted mound. 
 I will follow the path that leads 
 
 to the Way of the Giants, 
 
 around 
 By the Amphitheatre vast, with its 
 
 tiers of cliff, where rise 
 The column'd shafts of basalt like 
 
 organ- pipes to the skies, 
 Outrolling a fugal silence, involved, 
 
 impassioned, profound. 
 
 7* 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 'Tis the path that gropes and crawls 
 on the lean rock's wasted side, 
 
 Where nightly the Giant's Loom by 
 invisible hands is plied. 
 
 And east and west are the caverns, 
 their dark roofs arched and 
 groined, 
 
 The chambers and vaulted dungeons 
 and monstrous crypts of the sea : 
 
 And pillars, fallen and prostrate, from 
 mighty facades disjoined — 
 
 Released, but in utter abjection, un- 
 bound, but vainly free ; 
 
 And desolate ruined holds of many a 
 chief and King ; 
 
 And the mastersong of disunion that 
 earth and ocean sing ; 
 
 And large and bold on the headlands 
 the manuscript of Time ; 
 
 And coiled with the roots of the world, 
 where Life thrusts up like a tree, 
 
 The Powers that rive and sunder, un- 
 moved by appeal or plea ; 
 72 
 
THE UNRECONCILED 
 
 The Powers that shatter with discord 
 what else were a golden chime ; 
 
 The Estrangeing Ones, the dividers, 
 the hewers in twain from the 
 prime ; 
 
 The Unmakers and Destroyers, what- 
 ever their names may be. 
 
 September 1917. 
 
 73 
 
THE FORESIGHT OF THE BLIND 
 
 The great, strange, conquering legends 
 
 puissant still 
 As in the Middle Age whence they 
 
 arose, 
 Which are they ? Sovereign above 
 
 all are those 
 Of Faust's dread bargain with the 
 
 Spirit of 111, 
 And of that Knight who, taking long 
 
 his fill 
 Of bliss with Venus, earned him longer 
 
 woes ! 
 And from the Kingdom of our living 
 
 foes 
 Came both these dreams, mighty to 
 
 haunt and thrill, 
 And each the tale of a lost soul: as 
 
 though 
 
 74 
 
THE FORESIGHT OF THE BLIND 
 
 Germania unawares had prophesied 
 Of her own state and fate on Earth, 
 
 that sees, 
 Dark with self- doom, against a fiery 
 
 glow, 
 The lost soul of a nation, wandering 
 
 wide 
 Like lone Ahasuerus, without ease. 
 
 February 1918. 
 
 75 
 
SONG 
 THE WARRIOR LOVER 
 
 When War's red tempest shall depart, 
 
 That long hath sundered me 
 From those sweet precincts of thy 
 heart 
 
 And all that heaven of thee ; 
 If I return from where they rest 
 
 Whom battle's scythe hath mown, 
 Then in the fragrance of thy breast 
 
 I '11 live for love alone. 
 
 But if, where warstorms wildest roll, 
 
 My life for her I yield- 
 That other empress of my soul, 
 
 Who called me to the field — 
 Though 'twixt you twain, with dying 
 breath, 
 
 My homage I '11 divide, 
 My heart will turn to thee in death, 
 
 To claim and clasp its bride. 
 
 76 
 
BEHOLD ! 
 
 O Thou that with a signal canst con- 
 trol 
 
 All seas that roll ; 
 
 O Thou that with a whisper canst 
 assuage 
 
 All winds that rage : 
 
 Behold how softer than the human 
 breast 
 
 The wild bird's nest ! 
 
 Behold how calmer than the world of 
 men 
 
 The wild beast's den ! 
 
 March 1918. 
 
 77 
 
TO CERTAIN NEBULAE 
 
 Planet and star, and the glory of 
 
 ancient constellations, 
 These have surfeit of homage, in songs 
 
 of a thousand singers : 
 You, O Nebulae, still, as of old, dwell 
 
 yonder songless ; 
 One in Orion's sword-hilt, one in 
 
 Andromeda's girdle, 
 One like shadowy foam, where sails 
 
 a fantastical Argo. 
 You, mid Arabian cities, and proud 
 
 Chaldea, and Egypt, 
 Mighty astronomers, slowly decipher- 
 ing Heaven's papyrus, 
 Oft, no doubt, have watched, in a 
 
 world all colour and fruitage, 
 Balsam, sultry aroma, and odorous 
 
 vivid abundance, 
 
 78 
 
TO CERTAIN NEBULAE 
 
 Palm, oleander and cedar, acanthus 
 
 and lotus and laurel, 
 Foliage, vintage, plumage, honey and 
 
 delicate unguents, 
 Attar and spices and myrrh. And in 
 
 many a nearer region 
 Many a wandering gaze hath known 
 
 your places of ambush, 
 High above dreams, above tears ! 
 
 But never a golden greeting 
 Thither ascends, through space, 
 
 through coldly inhuman vast- 
 
 ness, 
 Out of the mouth of a poet, in magical 
 
 human numbers. 
 You, then, far across night, and im- 
 mense, magnificent silence, 
 Intricate cosmic coil, and the nodes of 
 
 entangled orbits, 
 Let me salute, O pallid, unsplendid 
 
 things, amid splendour 
 Hovering ever obscure, amid prideful 
 
 lustre unprideful : 
 
 79 
 
TO CERTAIN NEBULAE 
 
 You that to vague, light ken seem only 
 
 as bodiless auras, 
 Breath of a hundred stars ; but rather 
 
 appear unto wisdom 
 Fringes and shreds of the Veil, through 
 
 which, at the Earth's great 
 
 moments, 
 Flashes of God break forth, in the hour 
 
 of the smiting of Evil ; 
 Day of the clang of the axe upon trees 
 
 that bore but poison ; 
 Day of the mortal throes of iniquitous 
 
 perishing empires ; 
 When, upon brows discrowned, the 
 
 erasing extinguishing thunders 
 Fall, and the throne of the cruel is 
 
 tossed as a leaf in the whirlwind. 
 
 November 1918. 
 
 80 
 
VERSES 
 
 To Henry C. Montgomery, Esq., 
 of Belfast. Written near 
 Windermere. 
 
 Good friend and true, who, for the 
 gifts and knowledge 
 That stead you well amid the clang 
 and strife, 
 Are less in debt to yonder younger 
 College 
 Than to the University of Life : 
 
 Take, at this time that opens the 
 heart's fountains, 
 Take, at this Yuletide, from across 
 the seas, 
 The greetings of the meres and of the 
 mountains, 
 And of your friends who are the 
 guests of these. 
 L 81 
 
VERSES TO H. C. MONTGOMERY, ESQ. 
 
 Nay, ere my rhyme, that must not 
 halt or tarry, 
 Flits through the snowstorm like a 
 battered dove, 
 My little firstborn daughter bids it carry, 
 To her big, bearded playfellow, her 
 love. 
 
 Wild roars the blizzard. Wilder tem- 
 pest rages 
 In Man's fierce breast, and hides 
 from the world's eye 
 The truthtellers and lightgivers and 
 sages 
 That live when hatred and when 
 fury die. 
 
 In this ill day, what good wish shall I 
 send you ? 
 Vain, when our fate yet hangs in 
 quivering doubt, 
 To ask that all felicity attend you, 
 And bid you to forget the woe without ! 
 82 
 
VERSES TO H. C. MONTGOMERY, ESQ. 
 
 I can but pray that in some happier 
 morrow, 
 You, and we also, gazing from afar, 
 May look back on this vast, life-blind- 
 ing sorrow 
 As on the occultation of a star, — 
 
 A fixed star, briefly hidden by the 
 passing 
 Of a reposeless orb of bloodred glow : 
 Then bursting forth, where Night's 
 bright hosts were massing, 
 To pour its glory undimmed, as long 
 ago. 
 
 Christmas 1917. 
 
 »3 
 
THE SCROLL OF LIFE 
 
 Life seems a scroll, not so much darkly 
 
 writ 
 As ill transcribed ; and he who pores 
 
 on it 
 Must, like a painful scholiast, thread 
 
 perplext 
 The thorny thicket of a mangled text. 
 
 But with it wov'n is many a quoted 
 
 line, — 
 The cryptic prose breaks into verse 
 
 divine ; 
 And in strange wafts the painful 
 
 scholiast hears 
 Hexameters of the Iliad of the Spheres. 
 
 84 
 
POWER AND CHARM 
 
 A cot was ours, lone on a wooded fell 
 That gazed into a fairy mere renowned. 
 Dark mountains on our right hand 
 
 camped around ; 
 Green, on our left, were copse and 
 
 ferny dell. 
 Thus betwixt Power and Charm we 
 
 abode ; and well 
 Loved we the brows of Power, with 
 
 silence crowned ; 
 Yet many a time, when awsomely 
 
 they frowned, 
 To Charm we turned, with Charm, 
 
 with Charm to dwell. 
 
 So have I turned, when overbrooded 
 
 long 
 By that great star-familiar peak 
 
 austere, 
 
 85 
 
POWER AND CHARM 
 
 My Milton's Sinai-Helicon divine, 
 
 To some far earthlier singer's earth- 
 sweet song : 
 
 A song frail as the windflower, and as 
 dear, 
 
 With no more purpose than the 
 eglantine. 
 
 86 
 
THE INNERMOST CAVERN 
 
 The unsailed, the unentered cavern, 
 
 The still ungazed upon ! 
 No light but the sea-phosphorescence 
 
 Amidst its night hath shone. 
 
 Then only it wakes from slumber, 
 Whenever the visiting gleam 
 
 Of the fairy fire of the Ocean 
 Illumes its secret dream. 
 
 For it dreams of space without con- 
 fines, 
 
 Of vastness around and above ; 
 And it waits like the heart of a maiden, 
 
 That waits to be lit by love. 
 
 8 7 
 
TOIL 
 
 Life is a workshop and a temple as 
 
 well, 
 Where the great toilers— so their annals 
 
 tell- 
 To Justice, Truth, and Love paid 
 
 worship, knowing 
 Life was a workshop and a temple as 
 
 well. 
 
 Life is a workshop and a palace 
 
 both. 
 Nature, that ever labours without 
 
 sloth, 
 Nature herself in beauty and grace 
 
 hath taught us 
 Life is a workshop and a palace 
 
 both. 
 
 88 
 
TOIL 
 
 O be it ours, while hate and feud are 
 
 rife, 
 To keep far off from this our land the 
 
 strife 
 That yonder makes a wreck of Man's 
 
 own dwelling, 
 His wondrous workshop, temple and 
 
 palace, Life. 
 
 m 89 
 
THE EARTH'S DESIRE 
 
 When a sigh as of abdication is wrung 
 
 from lordly things 
 By the rumour of crumbling pride that 
 
 the eve of autumn brings ; 
 
 When the troubled splendours come, 
 and the glad perfections go, 
 
 Amid flitting of vagabond tempest 
 irresolute to and fro ; 
 
 * Ask, ask thou a boon,' say the Hea- 
 vens to the wistful Earth ; but 
 in vain 
 
 She asks for the bliss of the Rose, and 
 the pomp of the Nightingale's 
 pain. 
 
 90 
 
WHITHER AFAR ? 
 
 In light, in night, in twilight, 
 I sought— I sought for Thee ! 
 
 But my light, was it Thy light ? 
 I sought, and nought could see. 
 
 I strove by inward eyesight 
 To gaze on things to be : 
 
 But my sight, was it Thy sight ? 
 I gazed, and nought could see. 
 
 Along Thy starlit highway 
 
 Thou lead'st me, bound or free ! 
 
 If my way, then, be Thy way, 
 O whither lead'st Thou me ? 
 
 9i 
 

 545!>L'8 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY