Slnna ^empgteaU 33tanc|) ROSE OF THE WIND. i 2 mo, $1.25, net. Postage extra. THE SHOES THAT DANCED, AND OTHER POEMS. i2mo, $1.10, net. Postage Scents. THE HEART OF THE ROAD, AND OTHER POEMS. lamo, $1.00, net. Postage 8 cents. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK ROSE OF THE WIND AND OTHER POEMS ROSE OF THE WIND And other Poems By ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY <Iu ttilicrsiDc press COPYRIGHT, IQIO, BY ANNA HKMPSTEAD BRANCH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published November rgio TO MY COUSIN H. EUGENE BOLLES THE BEST LOVER OF POETRY THAT I HAVE EVER KNOWN I DEDICATE THIS BOOK "Who would not sing for Lycidas ? he knew Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme." CONTENTS ROSE OF THE WIND I NIMROD 54 THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN . . . . . 136 DREAM H 1 THE WARRIOR MAID ....... 144 ERE THE GOLDEN BOWL IS BROKEN . . . 147 CONNECTICUT ROAD SONG 15 SO I MAY FEEL THE HANDS OF GOD . .153 TO AN ENEMY 155 SELENE . . J 6l THE WEDDING FEAST l8l DOMINUS VINEAE, SPIRITUS AGRICOLA . ROSE OF THE WIND CHARACrERS SEBASTIAN the cobbler. NORA betrothed to Sebastian. ROSE OF THE WIND an Elemental. A MINSTREL from Fairyland. SCENE : Cottage of SEBASTIAN the cobbler. In the rear is a blazing fire of logs and near it a cob bler s bench at which SEBASTIAN is seated at work over a woman s shoe. At one side of the fire a door opens out of doors. At the right an other door opens into an inner chamber. A large crucifix is the only adornment of the cobbler s room, which is lighted by fire and candle-light. On the floor by the cobblers bench is a row of shoes of all kinds from big boots to little slippers. ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) Sebastian! Oh! Sebastian! SEBASTIAN Who is there ? No answer! t was the wind belike. Hey now, (Lifts up a shoe admiringly.) 2 ROSE OF THE WIND But here s a pretty shape of good stout leather To fit the neatest feet in Christendom. And since they travel only on kind errands, God bless my leather. ROSE OF THE WIND (pUtSlde) Oh! Sebastian! Oh! SEBASTIAN Come in ! t is nobody. Eh ! My poor wits Are all rough shod. (Knocking is heard at the door.) Come in ! Come in ! Come in ! (He goes to the door and opens it but nobody is there.) Mary have mercy on me ! Sure I heard Somebody knocking. Who goes there ? No sound ! Yet by the Blessed Saints I swear I heard A voice that called Sebastian. (A strain of music delicately sweet mingles with the wind.) Mercy on me ! T is elfin music. If the Powers of the Air Flit forth to-night, why then, my good Sebastian, Shut fast thy door and bar it double tight And make a cross upon it. ( Closes door and crosses it.) ROSE OF THE WIND 3 ROSE OF THE WIND Sebastian ! SEBASTIAN No! Thou art not of my kind. ROSE OF THE WIND Open! SEBASTIAN Ye saints ! Keep well Sebastian s soul. I 11 get to work, For if to-night spells move abroad and charms Such as might whirl a spirit from its flesh, I 11 grip my hand upon some solid thing And so cleave to the earth. ROSE OF THE WIND Let me come in. SEBASTIAN Away with thee ! I am an honest cobbler. (/ a loud voice as be hammers?) Rat a tat tat ! ROSE OF THE WIND (with music) I have traveled far ! 4 ROSE OF THE WIND SEBASTIAN Waste being ! I 11 sing a song myself and drown the music. (Sings) Judas ran in sandals, Thomas wore a shoe, But Jesus Christ went barefoot The whole day through. ( Outside, the sound of laughter and of music.) Is Heaven itself not wroth ? J T is blasphemy. ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) I am hungry, good Sebastian. SEBASTIAN (singing) Peter had an oaken staff, John an hazel one, But Jesus Christ he only had A cross to lean upon. ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) My feet are cold, Sebastian. SEBASTIAN What of that ? Thou art an elfin wanderer. I know thee ! ROSE OF THE WIND 5 If thou shouldst warm thy feet before my fire I d see thy magic slippers curled at the toe ! Thou art not my kindred. (Sings) "John bad a scarlet robe, Zebbeus wore a blue ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) My cloak is full of snow, Sebastian. SEBASTIAN Hence ! And yet if t were some traveler some poor child Lost in the night Bah ! T is of alien breed. If I should let it in, t would weave a spell About me and my leather, set my shoes Belike to dancing, with nobody in them, Until my wits were wild as sea-gulls. No, Keep to thy darkness and I, by that St. Thomas They say was a shoemaker and an honest man, Will keep a hold upon my leather. ROSE OF THE WIND (from the darkness) Oh! I am so weary ! SEBASTIAN (half persuaded) T is a human voice. 6 ROSE OF THE WIND ROSE OF THE WIND Let me come in ! SEBASTIAN Some traveler gone astray ! Lost from the pilgrimage perchance that goes To Our Lady s Shrine. Sure there s no need to fear! We should be kind to those that seek the cross. ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) Be kind to me. (Sebastian goes to the door.) SEBASTIAN Well ! Well ! A moment only ! I cannot turn thee hence ! ( Opens door and upon the threshold stands ROSE OF THE WIND, beautiful and small. She is wrapped in a scarlet cloak.) ROSE OF THE WIND Am I so fearful, When thou dost see me ? SEBASTIAN Why, thou art a maid And thou art cold and hungry. ROSE OF THE WIND 7 ROSE OF THE WIND Sooth, I am. SEBASTIAN Sweet Heaven forgive me that I let my fear Of airy powers so closely lead me on To an ill deed, for I had nearly driven thee, A wanderer, from my door and thou, a woman And perchance very weary. ROSE OF THE WIND I am ! I am ! SEBASTIAN Come warm thyself. ROSE OF THE WIND (crouches by fire) I am so cold. SEBASTIAN Poor child ! But see I lay a fagot on the fire. Put out thy feet and warm them. ROSE OF THE WIND (Gathers mantle more closely around her, hiding her feet, which are shod in elfin slippers.) No! No! No! I 11 warm my hands ... I see thou art a cobbler. Whose shoes are those ? 8 ROSE OF THE WIND SEBASTIAN (at bench) I make them for my bride. To-morrow we are married. ROSE OF THE WIND Are you ? Oh ! And are you sure of it ? SEBASTIAN I am as sure As that our hearts are run into one mould By the power of love. ROSE OF THE WIND What then, is love so strong ? SEBASTIAN It can resist all things. ROSE OF THE WIND So ? Can it ? SEBASTIAN Aye! Even the spells of fairies. ROSE OF THE WIND Is it so strong ? And is she beautiful ? ROSE OF THE WIND g SEBASTIAN She is as fair As the Virgin Mary and she is good. ROSE OF THE WIND Where is she ? I wish that I could see so fair a woman. SEBASTIAN Well, bide awhile and thou shalt see her soon. She comes to get her shoes. ROSE OF THE WIND They are very ugly. Will they not hurt her feet ? Is soft as may be. SEBASTIAN Why child, this leather ROSE OF THE WIND Yet I think my feet Would bleed in them. And they are heavy. SEBASTIAN No, They are as light as I could make them. TO ROSE OF THE WIND ROSE OF THE WIND Oh! But can she dance in them? Now mine (She drops off her scarlet cloak and shows her scant green gown. She wears green slippers curled at the toe. She dances and outside is heard a peal of elfin music.) SEBASTIAN Ye saints ! Those are the elfin slippers, made of green And curled up at the toe ! Thou art no woman. ROSE OF THE WIND What ? Am I not, Sebastian ? SEBASTIAN Thou art a waif ! Brief devil of brightness. ROSE OF THE WIND Am I that, Sebastian ? SEBASTIAN Thou hast betrayed me and with thee a spell Has fallen on this thatch. Thou alien spirit ! Out with thee, in God s name ! ROSE OF THE WIND 11 ROSE OF THE WIND Oh good Sebastian, Give me a cup of water. SEBASTIAN (confounded} A cup of water! What shall I say to the devil that is in need? For Holy Writ has left no speech at all When evil powers beg for the little gift Heaven bids us always give. ROSE OF THE WIND I am thirsty. Pray Give me a cup of water. SEBASTIAN Well, I 11 give thee, If when thou hast drunk it, thou wilt go. ROSE OF THE WIND That will I If thou dost make me. SEBASTIAN Open not the door While I go out. (SEBASTIAN places shoes on floor by bench.) iz ROSE OF THE WIND Let in no evil powers. To dance about my hearth. ROSE OF THE WIND Speed thee ! I m dying For a little cup of water. SEBASTIAN Let no one in. (Goes out by inner door?) ROSE OF THE WIND (lifting her arms as if in relief) Oh I am faint. How heavy is the air Of their mortality. It burdens me. Such would it be to go thickly involved Like them, in a body not built like mine, of dream. {She looks at the shoes on the floor by the bench.) No wonder that the feet of men are slow ! What heavy shoes ! and down what weary roads They all must travel ! never feel the air But only earth beneath them ! Hey I 11 give them A festival for once ! dances amid music, beckoning to the bride s shoes. They and the others all follow her along the floor, big boots and little slippers.) ROSE OF THE WIND 13 Trip it ! Trip it ! Trip it ! Trip it ! (She dances about, laughing, looking over her shoulder and beckoning.) Trip it ! Trip it ! Trip it ! Trip it ! Underneath the blossoming tree Come, poor shoes, and dance with me. Through the streets of elfin town Where the golden flowers fall down Down a down Golden flowers fall down. Trip it trip it trip it trip it. Trip it ! Trip it ! (A voice calling outside.) VOICE Rose of the Wind ! (She hurries to the door.) ROSE OF THE WIND Come in ! come in ! come in ! (She flings wide the door and amid moonbeams enters a minstrel, dressed in fairy green. He carries a harp.) Come in, oh Magic Minstrel ! Take with powers Of music and of air this mortal dwelling. H ROSE OF THE WIND MINSTREL So brief a space hast thou been gone from us, Thy kindred. Still the tree whose plumed boughs Are soft as wings of birds, sings on, sings on. Nor yet the silence of the elfin night Obscures that music. Still the unseen pastures Stretched warm and cordial through the rain and \ sleet Laugh out beneath our dancing while we feed Our dreamy, soft, meandering flocks, with horns Moon-tipped and lilied fleeces blossoming white Kine of the milk of sleep. \ And thou art gone From us so small an hour. Thou art alone, But yet thou hast grown pale. ROSE OF THE WIND I have looked upon The face of Man and I am weary. MINSTREL Nay But hast thou seen the woman ? ROSE OF THE WIND She has not come. But she is coming Look, to get her shoes ! (Points at them.) ROSE OF THE WIND 15 Those! If my feet were doomed to travel in leather They would break upon the stone. MINSTREL She 11 dance to-night Among the fairies. ROSE OF THE WIND Shall she ? MINSTREL She must run With me up steepy mountains of the dark, And plunge into black chasms of the air And dance among the milk-white million kine That feed on sleeping flowers underneath The blossoming dream forests. ROSE OF THE WIND Will she ? Nay, But if she will not go ? MINSTREL I saw her face And I desire its beauty. 1 6 ROSE OF THE WIND ROSE OF THE WIND But she loves The cobbler. MINSTREL I am strong. My thought astride The tempest, bridles it, and with a tune I have undone the works of God. ROSE OF THE WIND He loves her. MINSTREL Who hears my tune must dance and follow me. (He plays on bis harp and ROSE dances.) Lo, thine own feet ! Yet thou art of my kind And wise and powerful. Yet thine own feet Must run because I play. ROSE OF THE WIND Nay ! t is my slippers ! Our elfin shoes are curiously made, For they must follow music. But they tell me, These mortals in this world there s nothing strong Save only love. NORA (outside) Sebastian ! ROSE OF THE WIND 17 ROSE OF THE WIND She has come ! Back back ye shoes ! Obey me ! To your places ! (The shoes all trip back to their places.) Now for thy magic ! (NoRA enters.) NORA (looking around) Sebastian ! Where is he gone ? ROSE OF THE WIND I asked him for a cup of water. NORA So. And who art thou ? ROSE OF THE WIND Rose of the Wind they call me. And I was cold and lost in the night. NORA And he Has taken you in to warm you ? You are pale. Have you traveled far ? 1 8 ROSE OF THE WIND ROSE OF THE WIND I have traveled from a land That lies so very far because t is near. Aye, nearer than the air ! And nearnesses To mortal men are dangerous deep crevasses, Waste chaos dread oblivion. NORA What strange speech ! Whence comest thou ? ROSE OF THE WIND I came not ! I am there ! J T is all around me. Eternally I sit Beneath a blossoming tree ! Dost thou not see The golden flowers fall down adown adown The golden flowers fall down! NORA I am afraid. MINSTREL Look at me Beautiful. And I will show thee whence she came ! Dost thou Not pine to see her country ! It is fair As daybreak when none sees it. ROSE OF THE WIND 19 NORA I do not know thee. MINSTREL But I know thee The charmed hour has come ! And I will show thee many a lovely tree And fruits whereof the taste is sweet, and bread That melts like snow-white honey; stars and nights And powers and thrones, and roseate dawns blown thin With the vast breath of time. NORA I know thee now ! Evil is near me ! Stand thou back from me. Thou art an elemental and on my brow There burns the cross of my baptism. MINSTREL (playing) Listen ! ROSE OF THE WIND (singing and dancing around Nora) Wild was the wind that flew From the slope of the purple hill. And u Oh" said the white cloud, sweet as dew, " / travel whither I will" 20 ROSE OF THE WIND MINSTREL Dance ! Dance ! NORA (struggling with the spell) I will not ! Oh ye loves of God, Lay hold on me ! ROSE OF THE WIND (singing and dancing to the tune) Swift was the cloud that flew Over the purple hill. And " Oh" cried the shadow, soft and blue, " / travel whither I will" NORA (moaning and struggling away) Some magic is upon me. I love Sebastian and would run from him ! Oh I must dance ! but if I dance, where to ? Mother of God ! ROSE OF THE WIND (singing and dancing to the tune) The piper blew and she heard From the slope of the unseen hill And "Oh" cried the hearty as it flew like a bird, " I fly wherever I will." ROSE OF THE WIND 21 NORA (rushes from the door into inner room with a fierce struggle) Sebastian ! ROSE OF THE WIND I tell you that to-night, my elfin brother, A strange time comes upon us and a thing Whereof we have no knowledge. MINSTREL Never before Has mortal maid refused to follow me When I played the magic music. ROSE OF THE WIND You did not see Her eyes were on the cross ! But I will help you, For I would have her gone ! Sebastian s face Seems beautiful to me as hers to thee. Oh I would have her hence and when she is gone I will tarry with him, maybe if I like. He is gracious as green trees. (Taking off her shoes.) Lo now, my shoes ! They cannot help but dance when thou dost play, For they are woven of spells and charms and dreams 22 ROSE OF THE WIND And emptiness and magic and no man Did stitch them for me. (She sets them on the floor where SEBASTIAN placed the leather shoes.) Look I set them here ! And when she sees them she will put them on, And thou shalt play, my brother, and she dance Out, out into the night ! And then this man Shall sit by me and smile. (SEBASTIAN enters with Nora. He carries a cup of water.) SEBASTIAN (to Nora, who is faint with terror) Hush, foolish child. There is no power on this earth can take My own betrothed from out my arms. Hush now I have thee charmed with love and that s a spell That binds the angels, so they ever fly About God s throne like great white birds as thou Shalt see some day, if thou art good ! In sooth Thou art so good I love thee more and more. (To the MINSTREL) Thou art a stranger ! Rest thou at my hearth. (To ROSE OF THE WIND) I bade thee keep my door shut. ROSE OF THE WIND 23 ROSE OF THE WIND It was music That blew it open. THE MINSTREL I am a traveling player With no thought save for tunes. SEBASTIAN Well rest thee ! (Giving cup to ROSE OF THE WIND.) Drink ! (To NORA, who clings to him trembling.*) Take heart, my Nora ! He s a harmless fellow. And after supper he shall play us a tune. Wilt thou make him a cake? Thou wilt not? Thou shalt do Just as thy sweet will bids thee. Go now look At the shoes I made thee set beside my bench Until to-morrow (Turning her toward the bench. ) I must mend the fire. NORA (taking up the fairy slippers) What pretty slippers! SEBASTIAN You like them ? 24 ROSE OF THE WIND NORA But so fine! So soft ! So fair and fragile as if wrought From down of humming-birds. SEBASTIAN (from the fire) It was good leather ! I paid a price for it. NORA Curled at the toe ! They are the prettiest shoes in all the world. SEBASTIAN (absorbed with mending the fire) Then try them on. (NoRA pulls off her own shoes and puts on the magic slippers, while ROSE OF THE WIND croons softly.) ROSE OF THE WIND Swift was the slope that ran From the steep of the purple hill, And " Oh" cried the brook, "/ am freer than man, For I travel wherever I will" (The MINSTREL begins to play and NORA to dance.) The tune all night and day Calls from the purple hill ROSE OF THE WIND 25 And "Ob" cried the feet that danced for aye, "We dance wherever we will! " NORA Sebastian ! Help me ! SEBASTIAN (seizing her in bis arms) Did you call ? NORA The tune ! I cannot help but follow it. SEBASTIAN (to minstrel) Stop! ROSE OF THE WIND (while the MINSTREL plays) Peace ! Thou hast no part in it. The hour lies Betwixt him and this woman ! No hand of thine Laid upon hers can help her now. SEBASTIAN Thou art The very power of darkness. But there are hands Strong and invisible as thine own spells, 26 ROSE OF THE WIND (Vnd they move all things, even the heart of God. The hands of prayer ! (Kneels at the crucifix) ROSE OF THE WIND The hour is come! SEBASTIAN (praying) Oh God Have mercy on us ! MINSTREL Look at me, Beautiful ! Let us go out, for now along the glade My people run on moonbeams, and t is time That we should laugh together. NORA (dancing) I J ll not go ! MINSTREL (playing) But look at me. NORA No. MINSTREL Come to me. NORA I will not ! ROSE OF THE WIND 27 MINSTREL Lay thou a hand on me. NORA (as if charmed) Some evil will Has entered me. Stand back from me. I knowthee. Thou art an elemental and I fear thee. MINSTREL Then run from me. NORA (going toward him slowly as in a dream) I am running. ROSE OF THE WIND (with mockery) In a dream ! SEBASTIAN (praying) Heaven have mercy. MINSTREL Curse me ! NORA (going nearer , helplessly) I do curse thee. ROSE OF THE WIND But in a dream. 28 ROSE OF THE WIND SEBASTIAN (praying) Oh, Heaven have mercy on us. MINSTREL (playing) Hide from me ! NORA (going nearer to MINSTREL, as if entranced) I have hidden from thee ! Oh Thou knowest that I hide buried in a gulf t Of darkness terrible, wherein no star Has ever ventured. I have obscured myself In pitiless cold such that thy essences To meet, would fly asunder. ROSE OF THE WIND In a dream. SEBASTIAN (praying) Have mercy on us ! MINSTREL Take thou thy Love s hand NORA (drawing nearer) It lies in his. ROSE OF THE WIND 29 MINSTREL (playing) A midnight power now Has snatched thy essence. Thy enchanted thought Is ridden by a tune and in thy flesh My music trembles. Now a vast sweet air Blows in on thee and it will have thee hence To be an element. . . . Wouldst thou escape ? Then cleave unto the cross. NORA (clinging to MINSTREL, still tranced) I cleave to the cross. ROSE OF THE WIND A dream! SEBASTIAN (praying) Have mercy on us ! MINSTREL (Harp playing of its own accord while he draws NORA to him.) Is this the love That ruleth all things ? Lie thou on my breast. NORA (clinging to his bosom, speaking from a dream) I lie in the bosom of God and round about I see the plumage of the great white birds 3 o ROSE OF THE WIND That shine and sing forever around God s heart And are the angels SEBASTIAN (starting up in despair) O thou God of Lovel MINSTREL (playing) Is this the love that ruleth all things ? Dance ! (They approach the door) ROSE OF THE WIND (dapping her hands) Out! Out! (They go forth into the night) SEBASTIAN Oh sacred power of the Cross I How thou hast failed me ! ROSE OF THE WIND (mirthfully) Come to me Beautiful ! And sit upon my hearth and tell me things, Now that the woman leaves us. SEBASTIAN What s a prayer ? That can be spellbound unto earth yes, snared In the fowler s net and never fly to Heaven ! (Rushes toward door) ROSE OF THE WIND 31 I will go after her! No mountain steep, No deep divide, no gulf, no seas shall keep My love from me (He stops at threshold.) No door leads out to that Enchanted land where she has gone. It lies In a pale world of thought and I must find Some secret road of dreams, imaginings, Ways spiritual ROSE OF THE WIND (going to him) Oh look ! Thine eyes are wet! (He puts her from him.) Sebastian, speak to me ! SEBASTIAN Thou foam of evil ! Why dost thou linger? Speak! What greater sorrow Wilt thou bring upon my house ? ROSE OF THE WIND I? Sorrow? No* I am the one that laughs eternally Outside of good, and free darting in light. My inner self sits laughing in a dell 32 ROSE OF THE WIND All golden, underneath a blossoming tree From which the golden flowers fall down, adown, The golden flowers fall down 1 SEBASTIAN (bitterly) Thou hast brought me only tears ! ROSE OF THE WIND (caressing his cheek) Tears ? What are they ? (Drawing back her hand.) What s this upon my hand ! It fell from you ! Is it a tear ? SEBASTIAN Poor alien ! Yes ! ROSE OF THE WIND It shines! How beautiful ! I think there is nothing at all In my own country half as sweet and small ! Where did it come from ? SEBASTIAN Out of sorrow, waif That God has brought to me to minister to ! Out of deep grief. ROSE OF THE WIND 33 ROSE OF THE WIND I wish I had some tears For all my own. Wilt thou not give me thine ? SEBASTIAN Thou could st not take them from me. ROSE OF THE WIND No ? And why ? SEBASTIAN Thou dost not love me. ROSE OF THE WIND But I do. SEBASTIAN Frail child! T is but a word to thee ! ROSE OF THE WIND The fairies love ! I like to see thee by me, hear thy voice, And have thee see me. SEBASTIAN T is the shadow of love ! 34 ROSE OF THE WIND ROSE OF THE WIND But why ! SEBASTIAN Thou hast no soul ! ROSE OF THE WIND But those with souls, How do they love ? SEBASTIAN They bear and suffer much And take the tears from their beloved s eyes. ROSE OF THE WIND (singing wildly) And " Oh," cried the shadow soft and blue, " / travel whither I will " , (Grows serious.) I wish I had a soul ! The price of it. SEBASTIAN Then thou must pay ROSE OF THE WIND And what is that? ROSE OF THE WIND 35 SEBASTIAN Pale shred Of moonbeams and of darkness, thou must do For him thou lovest some action that shall rend As t were the flesh from off thy bones, and laugh For its dear hardness. ROSE OF THE WIND I know not what you mean Yet I would know SEBASTIAN Then kneel before the cross. nces. ROSE OF THE WIND I cannot touch it ! Fool ! thou mockest me ! An element can only touch gross matters Through charms and spells and secret influen I am a shadow and cannot come so close As to lay a hand on it. SEBASTIAN Then pray. ROSE OF THE WIND I cannot ! And that thou knowest also ! 36 ROSE OF THE WIND (She goes towards the crucifix but retreats as if impelled by some outer power) No! No! No! I cannot look at it. It drives me back ! Oh I was wrong to venture among men ! I must flee from it. My sprite must fare clean through The soft thick substance of the wall ! ( The fire burns with great brightness and the shadow of the cross, tall and spectral, looms plainly on the wall behind her. She is re treating towards it, unwittingly, through the remainder of her speech.) Back! Back! I 11 not approach thee ! In the world of men They say there s no escaping it ; that where They go it still is there, and they must seek it, For it is strong as Love s own self! But love, I have seen, is not so strong. I am a shadow ! Let men be moved by substance but not I That am touched by shadows only. Soon shall I slip Soft through the wood of your wall and be out side And alien once more ! . . . (As if in pain) Ah! What is this? ROSE OF THE WIND 37 (She has retreated to the wall and crouches, not knowing it, at the foot of the shadow cross.) Where am I ? What has happened ? Upon me Strangeness has fallen ! SEBASTIAN (in awe) The shadow of the cross ! ROSE OF THE WIND (in deep suffering) I cannot move from it ! Oh, what was I But a bright nothing I Seeming gathered and shaped From windy elements and glittering lights That blaze and are not ! I was the void, seen By eyes of men that weave a loveliness With naught behind it. A breath of nothingness ! That blown across your faces, cold, did get A warmth out of your bosoms ! I have perched Like laughter on the lips of dying men, And they have cried, " The Void." But I was not. I have flitted in sharp light across men s eyes And they have chased me and have traveled far From God for me ! And lo, I was not ! Then I have laid a subtle hand upon their souls And they have bled beneath my touch and cried, "There is no God in Heaven," and behold, I was not ! But a change has come upon me ! And God, that bids even nothingness to serve, 38 ROSE OF THE WIND Has bound me, that was nothing. I remember How I have heard that, in the beginning, God Did set his eye on emptiness and made A sweet earth of it. So even upon me, The denial of his Being, emptiness, The Shaper has laid hold, so I must be A word out of his mouth to say " He is " ! Oh, bitter, bitter ! . . . (A moment of supreme anguish and she raises her head in wonder, with an exalted countenance.) Now at last I see! ... I see! SEBASTIAN (in awe) What seest thou ? ROSE OF THE WIND (transfigured) Love ! . . . Come thou to me ! (SEBASTIAN approaches her. She holds up her hands.) I hold my hands up to thee, for the soul Now born within me needs a gift to make Me beautiful for Love! For now my need Is but to grow more beautiful. SEBASTIAN Strange spirit How can I help thee ! ROSE OF THE WIND 39 ROSE OF THE WIND It is well with thee To give me what I ask, for it will ease thee, And I desire it deeply. SEBASTIAN Tell me. ROSE OF THE WIND See! I lift my hands up to thee like a cup Sphered for the water of life ! I love thee so. Lo in my hands I will receive thy tears ! SEBASTIAN (tenderly) They could not hold my tears. ROSE OF THE WIND Yet give them me. SEBASTIAN I cannot give them. ROSE OF THE WIND Why? SEBASTIAN But thou canst take. 40 ROSE OF THE WIND ROSE OF THE WIND How Beautiful ? SEBASTIAN Child if thou bringest back My bride my best Beloved. ROSE OF THE WIND If she comes There will be a woman in thy house. SEBASTIAN Yes, child. ROSE OF THE WIND And thou wilt love her ? SEBASTIAN Yes. ROSE OF THE WIND And more than me ? SEBASTIAN I would need to love her more. ROSE OF THE WIND Then could my hands Gather up all thy tears? ROSE OF THE WIND 41 SEBASTIAN Then in thy heart Mine own would leave its tears. ROSE OF THE WIND I will not do it ! I will not do it ! and yet what is this need That drives me where I would not ? {Song is heard outside.*) And " Ob" cried the shadow soft and blue, " / travel whither I will." ROSE OF THE WIND I 11 call her back. (She calls.) Back Brother of the Air ! Lead home again The woman thou hast with thee ! (The door opens and the MINSTREL enters, still playing, with NORA.) NORA (dreaming) My feet are streams That shine through flowering meads. I am lying hid A thousand years beneath the blossoming tree Whose leaves sing out like birds. 42 ROSE OF THE WIND ROSE OF THE WIND (tO MlNSTREL) Oh cease thy tune. (He continues playing.) NORA Upon a bed of milk-white blossoms laid, Sweetness falls on me, unto which men s slumber Is discord harsh. At mid-noon I will eat A mellow fruit and live a thousand years, Dancing along a starlight, and will sleep, And wake, and live a thousand years again, And yet once more will sleep. ROSE OF THE WIND (to MlNSTREL) I beg of thee, Stop thou thy tune. NORA (MINSTREL continues bis playing and NORA is still entranced.) They say that far away In a dim country, once I loved a man Whose name I have forgotten. J Tis not so, But wreathed with lights moon-pale I dance and sing Under a blossoming tree. The flowers fall down. The golden flowers fall down, adown, adown. ROSE OF THE WIND 43 MINSTREL (leading to the door) Beautiful wouldst thou stay ? NORA (following) No I would go. ROSE OF THE WIND She would not follow thee save for the shoes That dance in spite of her and they are mine ! I pray you give them back. MINSTREL Take them. ROSE OF THE WIND Then cease Thy tune and stop her dancing. Wilt thou ? MINSTREL Aye! If thou wilt do the thing I ask. ROSE OF THE WIND I will. (The MINSTREL quiets bis music till it fades away.*) NORA (as if waking) The light fades from the sky. A thousand leaves Fall from the tree of life. No more, no more, 44 ROSE OF THE WIND 1 The birds sing in them. All grows pale and thin And is not any longer. Do I sleep ? Or waken ? SEBASTIAN (taking her in bis arms) Nora! NORA (clinging to him) Sebastian tell me where I have been this night. SEBASTIAN Take off the accursed shoes. NORA (in wonder taking them of) Thou madest them. SEBASTIAN They are magic. ROSE OF THE WIND They are spun Of lights and laughters. NORA Virgin Mary ! ROSE OF THE WIND 45 SEBASTIAN (giving her those he had made) Here Stout Christian leather! ROSE OF THE WIND (not moving from the shadow cross) Give me back again The little shoes I lent thee. (Receives them.) MINSTREL Dost thou remember What I required of thee ? ROSE OF THE WIND Ask it. MINSTREL Cast Thy shoes upon the flames. ROSE OF THE WIND What ? burn my shoes ? I will not do it. MINSTREL (play ing Then 46 ROSE OF THE WIND NORA (to SEBASTIAN, trembling) Oh hold me close. ROSE OF THE WIND But wait ! If I should burn them, never more Shall my feet dance along the slope of the wind Close to the dark crevasses of the night, Along the freezing glacier light of stars, Me chill and beautiful as uplifted snow That hath a shape to it. Nor shall I plunge Into the darkness, sinking my body deep Into oblivion such as the soul of man Having come nigh to, disbelieves. No more Shall I trip lightly over the beamy floor Of wind stretched over golden fields of wheat Nor climb the winding turrets of the air To look from windows high and darkly set In the thick bastions of the night. No more Shall I smile through the sea and shapen sweet As silvery ripples, sink and sing and float And stream where the moon leadeth. I cannot run Through solid earth, melt lightly through a stone, And leave behind me like a thin blue smoke The curling wreaths of substance. Nor can I steal Soft through the hearts of men and pluck the fruit That in their Souls sweet Paradise doth grow ROSE OF THE WIND 47 Upon the Tree of Life, leaving it bare, With naught to feed upon ; nor snatch from them Their secret laughters, and their wisdom take So that they go astray Shall I do this ? And for the sake of tears ! Oh what are tears That my soul must needs demand them ! MINSTREL Burn thy shoes As thou hast pledged me or else depart with me And see man s face no more and I will bind thee So that thou shalt not grieve. ROSE OF THE WIND (not heeding him) They say that tears Will make our souls more beautiful Nay then I do bethink me. Should I take this spirit God gives to mortals, then must I also take Mortality upon me. I must yield My airy sweetness that can still defy Changes and seasons and I must breathe out My windy cleanness and take in vaporous death. I must weave round me cast-off old despairs And ancient sorrow, and let disaster creep Through all my subtle flesh. My unveiled eyes 48 ROSE OF THE WIND That now survey all time I must submit Unto confusions, with my wits involve Bewilderments and let my heart accept Tears beautiful strange tears! (As if stifled^ Oh this dim air, That is so full of sorrow, weighs me down ! And if I take on me the grosser stuff, Astonished at the darkness I shall grope Like one gone blind and I shall sin and fall Into disfavor with great God. Oh then If all my essence in fierce flame should hiss Like dew immortal (Looking at SEBASTIAN.) And for what ? That thou Mayst love this woman best ! Hadst thou a heart For me oh gladly would I then forsake My brighter being. I would sicken for thee! For this be freely damned. But it would bring Only more laughter to me me who have laughed From the beginning (Grappling with the shadow of the cross.) OfF from me, fearful shade ! That hast so bound me ... Still my soul implores Her heritage of tears. ROSE OF THE WIND 49 MINSTREL (playing and singing) And "O," cried the heart, as it flew like a bird, " / travel wherever I will" ROSE OF THE WIND Thou shalt not charm me. For what my soul requires that shall she have, Though I serve bleeding . . . Christ ! I kiss my shoes ! They are such pretty ones. They took my feet Upon such starry journeys. (Casts them into the fire, still crouching by the shadow cross. As the shoes burn, the fire blazes with wonderful glory. Strange dancing lights and splendors fill the room, which suggest in tneir shapes gar lands, flowers, trees. There is wild music.) Burn ! In flames Depart, my powers ! For shod in you I see My supernatural glory dance away. Aye, bid them with thy music once again, While they dance out to death. (The light fades.) MINSTREL (at the door) Farewell new mortal ! Never again beneath the blossoming tree 50 ROSE OF THE WIND Shall we run all together ! Away ! Away! I must be gone ! *T is midnight. (Opens door and lets in long moonbeam, which falls across ROSE OF THE WIND. She rises and steps into the glory) Hail ! my fellows ! (A brief glimpse through the door of dancing shapes. He rushes out amid music^ closing door.) Away ! Away ! (SEBASTIAN and NORA stand motionless in each other s arms.) ROSE OF THE WIND (approaching them wistfully) Now we are left alone. Speak to me, kind Sebastian. SEBASTIAN (not hearing) I love thee, Nora. ROSE OF THE WIND Speak to me, sister. NORA (not hearing) I love thee, oh Sebastian. ROSE OF THE WIND 51 ROSE OF THE WIND (turning away) How cold I am the fire is very low. I 11 lay a log upon it, lest they feel The chill. How heavy ! Once I had lifted it With the tip of a finger. Ah, I had forgot I had grown human. Yet I ll lift. (She heaves up from the fireside a huge log rudely twisted in a shape suggesting a cross.) The weight ! (Sinking with it to the floor.) Beautiful ! Speak to me ! I am alone And know not one among you. May I bide Beneath your thatch awhile ? I J ll serve you both And eat so little. Only let my feet Grow heavy, running for you. Only let My hands grow hard that are so soft to serve you. Teach me to bring the wood, to draw the water, To call the sheep at dusk. Oh I would learn What things would please you. Look, I can lift logs! (Again she falls beneath the burden.) But oh, the weight ! . . . I am a beggar see! Barefooted, even ! Speak to me Beautiful ! Speak to me kind Sebastian. 52 ROSE OF THE WIND SEBASTIAN (gazing at NORA) I love thee, Nora. ROSE OF THE WIND Speak to me sister. NORA (gazing at SEBASTIAN) I love thee, oh Sebastian ! ROSE OF THE WIND They do not hear me. But I think that God Hears in my heart the sound of tears. Nay then, I will not listen to them ! Why should I weep That these rejoice ? Can I not find again The old primeval laughter ? What wouldst thou have My soul that begged for tears ? What wouldst thou more ? That I should laugh ? Then I will learn the way Back to rejoicing. . . . Look I mend their fire. (Strives again with log.) I have so far to carry it ! (Sinks beneath it.) I m tired. ROSE OF THE WIND 53 So very tired ! Speak to me, Beautiful. Speak to me kind Sebastian. SEBASTIAN (gazing at NORA) I love thee, Nora. ROSE OF THE WIND Speak to me sister. NORA (gazing at SEBASTIAN) I love thee, oh Sebastian! ROSE OF THE WIND (gazing at them with supreme love) Are they not beautiful ! Dear God in Heaven He laughs to see them and the angels laugh ! . . . And I laugh too ! . . . (Falls on her knees^ holding up both hands in form of a cup) They have given me their tears ! NIMROD PART I ONE time, in Shinar, when the setting sun, With all his thousand javelins, drove the day Before him and the myriad tribes of light Departed sullenly with bleeding feet, Great Nimrod, the strong huntsman of the Lord : Returning hot with bloodshed from the chase, Beheld great Babel, wrathful, beautiful, Burn like a blood-red cloud upon the plain. Then Nimrod, when he saw it, laughed aloud, And turning to his warriors cried, "Behold How those steep battlements defy the cloud With starry dome and precipice of brass. Their sword-like minarets have stabbed the sun. What fiery ledge, what blazing battlement, What savage bastion flushed with angry gold Bulwarks the dreadful bright acropolis ! Look how yon crags of bronze, fantastic, burn In God s great conflagration, not consumed, Imperishable; but built of flaming cloud His high pavilions perish. Lo, how strong Yon citadel of stone ! Is it not great ? NIMROD 55 Is it not ribbed with sinew? Flanked with war? Are not its ramparts beautiful ? Lo now Whose is the city?" And his warrior chiefs Saw how its arrowy splendors smote the light And how its ledges, gorges, furious cliffs, And all its savage multitudinous crags Besieged the silent sky ; then, being amazed, Gazing upon such splendors, answered, "Thine." For it had come on Nimrod, in the waste, That he should build a huge metropolis For Bathsheba the queen. And it was built. Its strong foundations were sunken in deep rock, And on the walls were graven mighty shapes. For Nimrod had gone forth and laid his hand Upon the barren stones and they were runed With ancient script, embodiment of words That once were heard in Babel such utterance As when before the flood the sons of God Spoke to men s daughters, or when on the sheer marge Of time stood Adam and with august cries Saluted nature star, sun, cloud, earth, moon, Bright angels, wondering beasts and from his lips Shook huge ejaculations, piercing calls Of keen astonishment, smooth murmuring tones 56 NIMROD When he gazed forth on beauty, and when he saw Eve, in her whiteness, the first awful word Whereby a man cried unto a woman his love. Such was the speech of Babel. These words re vealed Men s hearts to one another. For the earth Had been made spiritual and with waters purged Of ancient wrong and grief. Man was new made. Not innocent as in Eden oh not fresh With Paradisal sweetness but grown wise And taught by the sons of God, they set their minds To august ends and great. So had they left Strong nations in the desert and multiplied Like myriad hordes of sand and they had raised Their thoughts to beauty and conceived high deeds, Truths, honors, valors, heroisms, loves, Faiths, aspirations, sacrifices, prayers, And unto them had built a beauteous speech, Revealing all things truly. For not yet Was mortal falseness harbored in their thought. Imagination had not dreamed of this. Not yet the bastions of high Heaven had rocked Beneath that onslaught. God s deepest angels hid In placid innocence had never yet Shed tears of nameless grief nor their warm wings Grown chill with that cold vapor from the earth. NIMROD 57 No man had learned how vessels of sweet tone, Blessed for the sacred wine of truth, might lift To trusting lips abominable drink. No man on earth had lied ; but words, fair-shaped, Blushed with the spirit s sense, fluid as thought. Priest-like their speech moved on its ancient task, The sacred ceremonials of the truth. For with that speech great prophets known of old With glowing symbols uttered secrets hid ; Wonderful doctrines of stars, suns, and moons; Litanies of the seasons ; hidden charms Wherewith the earth works miracles ; the spells Of soft angelic water; the rich creeds Of deeply brooding air entranced at noon ; High versicles that from the lips of time Spake of the eternal ; runes of numbers, shapes, And all the myriad moving powers that build The architecture of the world. These words Shone in the lucid firmaments of thought, The bright melodious orbs of heavenly speech. And Nimrod traced their shadows in dark script. For he inscribed upon his brassy walls Marvelous symbols stranger than the sphinx Breeding eternal secrets; gorgeous shapes, Bright-blazoned, beautiful ; letters, that as thick 58 NIMROD As footprints of innumerable slaves, Swept on the stately caravans of thought ; And there were signs and symbols, deeply carved, Rich characters that wreathed like thick-set vines Yielded a mortal vintage of sweet tone Whereof the juice was wisdom, and God s sons, When they had drunk of it, forevermore Must go enraptured ; jungles of black script, Where howling in the wilderness like beasts Ranged forth the dreadful wisdoms of the Lord. And there were dark and dreaming hieroglyphs, Beautiful, old, occult, in which were breathed As was God s wind into the clay, grave sounds, Angelic musics, syllables austere. But when Bathsheba saw those histories, How manifold, and how from out those signs Spoke prophecies and powers, and how the bronze Was dark with secret knowledge and such creeds As Nimrod heard from mighty men of old, She was astonished, and to her Lord she cried, " Art thou not great in Babel ? Art thou not wise ? Hast thou not learned to read the ancient sign God writes upon the wind ? Do not thy words Like dawn upon the mountain peaks make plain God s will before us ? Is not thy casual speech NIMROD 59 Beautiful to us ? When thou dost comfort us With thy deep wisdom, do our souls not feast ? Dost thou not cast thy voice abroad like thun der To teach His law to us ? From His cloudy speech Thou hast snatched the fires of His meaning down. Lo, now, thou hast transcribed for us His lore And graved His ancient spelling on the stone. Thou art great Nimrod. Where then is the Word That burns forever on the midmost page Of God s most secret book, in Heaven set deep ? What is it ? Canst thou say it ? How long shall earth Groan with the lack of it, that utterance Whereby all things grow beautiful, that Word That being spoken, the angels at the gates Shall drop their flaming swords, and we return Into that Eden which they tell us of Lost in the forests of the dawn ! Go thou, And learn that secret wisdom from the Lord. Then, when thou hast revealed it, never more Shall our flesh wither, and our souls put on Sackcloth and ashes. In shapes fulfilled of light We shall attain God s likeness. Never again Shall sorrow be upon us nor affliction Make in our flesh its lair. But death shall set 60 NIMROD His face away from us. And them shalt grow Ancient in years and beautiful with time. And I will bear thee harvests of strong males, And thou and all thy sons shall be as Kings." Then Nimrod spoke to Bathsheba, the queen, " From out the midmost page of that dark book God sets in His deep Heaven, I will bring down To thee the blazing fires of the Word Whereby this earth shall be lit up and shine As with fierce conflagration. Then indeed Our souls shall be enlightened. Then our flesh Shall blush with joy under the waning moon. Then death shall turn his face away. No more Shall sorrow be upon us nor affliction Make in our flesh its lair. But thou shalt grow Ancient in years and beautiful with time. And I will lead thee back where Eden glows Like dawn across the desert. Am I not he That when he speaks, all hearing are astonished ? Do not my words teach wisdom ? Does not my speech Cast scourges on the unrighteous ? But on them That fear the Lord is not mine utterance Sweet as the rain at noon ? Am I not Nimrod ? Lo, thou shalt bear me harvests of strong males, And I, and all my sons, shall be as Kings." NIMROD 6 1 PART II And Nimrod looked on Babel and beheld How beautiful it was, and how it glowed, A rose of splendor, burning on the plain. And in his heart the king conspired to build Sweeter and lovelier spires, more smiling fanes Than ever yet had been upon the earth And such vast arches as not yet had been, But that with mortal beauty should persuade The immortal angels, wondering, to explore Those beauteous vaults of glimmering marble made, Hollowed of whiteness like the sphered moon, Roofed terribly with arched and blazing wings; Walls like the bosoms of the Cherubim; And milk-white pavements, clear and richly pale Like alabaster, but of starrier stone, Swimming with many a floating sweetness, shed From many a violet-colored robe and green, Or rosy foot, or viol shaped of gold. There should be laughter heard angelic guests At pastime with the queen and they should play, With plumed wings and innocent grave smiles And silvery footfalls in the chastened groves; And with God s smile upon them, they should speak To men His secret Wisdom from the Book. 62 NIMROD Oh, it should be like Paradise new made And God himself should walk with them at eve. And it was builded and there moved the Queen. But if the angels in celestial games Down those calm alleys wandering, around The rosy pillars swept their golden plumes, No pale reflection of their dancing feet With starry sweetness pleased the placid stone. But still the polished, pale, white pavement shone Like smoothed water tranced with many a moon, And if they came they tarried there unseen. Then, in the streets of Babel, Nimrod made A feast before the Lord, and Bathsheba Led forth the women; and with shawms blown loud, With trumpet and with cymbal, they declared The greatness of Jehovah; but Nimrod went, And sought the Lord on a high mountain peak, And standing with uplifted arms, he raised, In great and fearful cries, his voice to God. And Nimrod cried aloud, " Lord, I am he That crouched alone in the desert. Among rocks I herded with the wolves. Then did I seek To build unto my people a strong town, With bulwarks of firm rock. Then did I heave My shoulder to the stone. Lord, I have set NIMROD 63 My citadel upon the plain ; and lest My people go astray, I have inscribed Upon my brassy walls bright characters Uttering knowledge. With a thousand tongues My walls proclaim Thee. But that Wisdom, Lord, That burns forever on the midmost page, Of thy great Book the awful hieroglyph I have not seen nor spoken. Send from Heaven Thy angel to us and I will learn from him Thy sacred Word; and when upon that feast My spirit has grown wise, lo, I will turn My people s hearts to wisdom and we shall be Beautiful nations bourgeoning the plain, And I and all my sons shall be as kings." And he was silent. But upon the town No voice shook like thunder, and from the sky No angel, sweeping earthward, in mid air, Held up God s burning Word. And he was wroth, And in his sullen heart defied Jehovah. But God sent forth a pale and spectral host Of war horse and of rider. From the steeps And citadels of cloud on the horizon, They mightily plunged upon the embattled plain Encircled round great Babel. Blazing scouts Skirmished the valley ; shadowy stallions reared, Driven by vast archangels, whose fierce spears Whirling aloft, they stabbed upon the town. 64 NIMROD A thousand gusty shapes rushed forth to war. And there were chariots of dust that drove Windily down the plain. Bright meteors lit Upon them screaming. Built among the clouds Were domes and turrets ; and blazing with pale lights Acropolis towered above acropolis. Then Nimrod, throned upon his peak, looked down To where the blazing cohorts of the Lord Threatened the town with vengeance; and he rose. Obscured with wrath as is the sun with cloud. And like an engine of dread war he set His shoulder to the mountain side and heaved Its giant bowlders forth till from the cliff With sudden scream, as if some savage chief Would drive his angry cohorts into war, They leaped with sound of grating wheels and plunged Down the precipitous slope at God s encampment. But Nimrod, leaping to the mightiest stone, Then bounding to another as they plunged, With arms outstretched and darkly beetling breast, With angry locks, with great and god-like eye, With furious shouts of battle and laughter huge, And challenges to Heaven, scourged with cries His screaming stallions maned with whistling wind NIMROD 65 Goaded the vengeance of His flinty wheels That bright with many a whirling fire appeared Bestrid with eyes yes like the lightning perched Upon the gale, he swept upon God s hosts His monstrous cavalcades. Then, driving down His thousand thundering chariots of stone, Enraged, enraptured, pale, with bow upraised, Great Nimrod shot his arrow at the gods. And lo, the heavenly onslaught flamed away. God s dark encampment lifted from the plain. Then there were rushings heard in the deep air And all the spectral host paled from the sky. Then Nimrod unto Babel cried aloud. " Lo, I have shot in Heaven God s great white horse ! With neighings and fearful tramplings he went down ! And his affrighted angel drifts pale wings Across his bosom, lest he take from me The anguish of mine arrow in mid air. Am I not Nimrod?" And he cried aloud, " Am I not Nimrod ? " Then spoke he to his soul: " Lo, such dark cities smoulder in my brain As light the air with terror. I will achieve A great and mighty town such as not yet Has mortal plotted and no angel dreamed. 66 NIMROD With my strong ramparts I will storm the sky Yes cleave it with my turrets. I will lift My fortress straight against God s citadels. And having with my frontage besieged the pale Frontiers of Heavenly air, then will I lift My slow invasion to the immortal plains And there, defying all His hosts, will drive His bright fleeced whirlwinds ; hurricanes with eyes; His golden-bellied lightnings; shaggy thunders; His meteors that dart like screaming birds Among tumultuous forests of black night ; All strange unhuman monsters that frequent, Angelic, brutish, the jungles of fierce air; His Silences, that crouch amid the waste To slay who heareth them beneath the stars Awakened out of sleep ; His awful Noise, Whose mane is like a thousand lions deep, And that with fires doth bristle; His Circum stance, His Peradventure, His Go To all beasts Furious with dreadful beauty that He keeps To rage with splendor up and down this earth ; His Wars that move with such velocity They shine as sweet as simple doves ; His Feign- ings Wherewith he shaketh man; His Abominations NIMROD 67 That howl at night, and His deep Desolation That seizeth them rejoicing at noon day; His Furies Retributions that do scream From pinnacles of air and plunging down Snatch up the guilty conscience, so they keep Upon its living flesh perpetual feast; Yes, all His angelic beasts that ravage with wrath The deep invisible air, these will I slay. Hear then ! On His own cohorts will I turn, And many a starry breast shall bleed that night And many a snow-white sweet immortal shape That cannot ever die shall writhe and bend, Blown up and down as windy fires would burn. And there shall be great tramplings, whinneyings Of winged steeds astonished. Archangels pale Shall rend their blazing splendors off and wrapped In panic only, seek escape in night, To hide them in the vastness. The Cherubim Shall swell their gorgeous eyes with dread. So then, Having dismayed His host, I will besiege The splendor of His deep acropolis, And thence will drive those inner ones that move In garments sweet of pale serenities ; The great, mild-eyed, most docile, loveliest, Whose soft meek bodies sing like great white birds Beneath the golden forest of their deep wings, 68 NIMROD Whereof the sound is like a noonday gale, That causeth dropping of fruit mild and strange; Whereof the sound is like a silver fountain That springeth in a golden basin; Whose placid bodies are like chastened pillars, Simple transparencies to the Lord, by which A great and arched roof is lifted up, That is the embracing splendor of their pinions ; Whose bodies are strong as alabaster, shapen Of pale translucent brightness, limpid stillness, Like shining water wreathed with many a star. : Oh, as a star deep sunken under water, Their bodies are sleeked like ivory set in amber. Large, peaceful, bounteous, their dreamy bodies are. These, hastening them along their happy halls Reared of supreme delight, through corridors With music paven, till their ruffled wings Ache with my violence, I will drive forth Over the high roads of high noon to where My earthly citadel shines on the plain. So leading in before my people s eyes My triumph unbelievable all these Shall pass, meek-footed, wondering, before Her That is my Love, my Queen and they shall go Into her chambers and with chastened touch Shall lay their hands upon my brazen walls And marvel at them, and shall turn mild eyes NIMROD 69 Of deep astonishment when they behold Our human beauty, how the pride of man Has waxed like cedars where the stars of God Walk forth for pleasure and His wind lies down. And I will drive them, if I will, as slaves To build me huger temples, more awful fanes, A terrible citadel from which to heave My flaming battle axe at God s own breast! Then will I plunge into His secret place And snatch from out His page that Hieroglyph. So will I scourge to labors beyond thought The bare immortal sweetness of their shapes, Beating with whips their pale astonished wings, Or if it please me, I will comfort them Feed them with mortal fruit and with my hand Smooth to obedience their trembling plumes, Till their discordant feathers sweetly sing. Then when among themselves they speak and cry, And say to one another, l Brothers, behold ! Who is this man that has so driven us From our dear placid courts ! that with his thought Can scourge us till we cry or run to do The whispered bidding of his sleep ! whose wish, Being raised against us, fearfully doth blind With terror all the century seeing eyes That live among our wings ; but, being inclined 7 o NIMROD Can soothe our grief ! Brothers, who is this man That hath defeated God and mastered us, His great soft snow-white children ? Then indeed Shall I to my great chamber lead them in, Hollowed of splendor, like the sphered moon, Roofed over as with fierce and blood-red wings. Here, in this chamber, on a polished stone As evidence that man shall pass away But he whose name endureth on that stone Shall be remembered ; from its surface springing Two brazen wings of aspect terrible, Spreading their steadfast breadth as if to lift The name inscribed thereon to Heaven j shall flame A monstrous syllable, a symbol strange, To be a sign and evidence of him Who built great Babel in the empty plain, The corner-stone and column of its greatness, Its roof, its strong foundation, and its wall, Its rose in a deep garden, its sweet water That is a wellspring in the rock. . . . Lo, now, I will go in and write thereon my name, That my enslaved great powers shall see and cry, * Behold the man that snatched God s Word from Heaven, Great Nimrod ! " . NIMROD 71 And he built upon the plain A mightier city ; and he raised on high Sheer peaks of bronze and armaments of domes That bright with sullen splendor spread their shields Against God s anger. But the eternal sky Preserved its shape in silence and the sun With all its hosts of light sped on its way, Bright, unappeasable. And God came down, Invisible, in radiance panoplied, And spoke with Nimrod. But Nimrod, in his heart, Being greatly wroth, hated Him for His speech. PART III And Nimrod came to Bathsheba the Queen, And spoke with her ; but of that golden speech There is no likeness upon earth to show How mild its sound, how beauteous its shape. But when the dying swan fulfills at eve His passion on the lake and music swells With aching sweetness all his snow-white plumes, And he, that never, never shall return, Like music burning floats into the sun; Or when upon a sleek and polished water The moon all night performs her dance serene In solitary loveliness; or if 72 NIMROD Smooth hands should serve to beautiful strange guests Pale- colored honey in a golden dish; Or if a water carrier, in the dusk, Should in his earthen jar such water lift As stars had shined on, in the wilderness, And she who drank it said it tasteth sweet; Oh then, with singing sound and moving shape, There would be written on our mortal air An old immortal alphabet from which Wrapped in her dark and sacred hieroglyph An awful visitor with shape unseen Would move with music and would take the breath, And there would shine along her ancient script The solemn beauty of that elder speech. For there is not a tongue upon the earth To tell how in that city famed of old The stately ministers of lovely sound Had laid their hands on music and built up A gracious architecture of sweet tone; Or how their great and gorgeous grammar raised Its pillars, arches, corridors, and domes, Beneath whose roofs ethereal thoughts like doves Melodiously breathed; pale visions swept With eyes enraptured; and in music stoled, Before the altars, with rituals rich and slow, Angelic meanings served before the Lord. NIMROD 73 And Nimrod said to Bathsheba, the Queen, " Am I not great ? When I my voice cast forth Does it not roar like thunder? Shall I lay My hand upon the earth and it not break Like potter s clay dried up ? When I go forth Does not the ground smoke? Who has seen my face And, having seen it, not covered up his eyes, Crying, Great Nimrod ? Are my feet not set Like cedars in the desert? Is not my breast Unto my people as a spring that gushes Out of a rock? When mine eyes glance abroad Do they not pluck up terror as the eagle Bears up the ram ? I lifted up my voice And cried unto the Lord yes unto Heaven I shook my spear; yes unto them that boasted Upon the seats of the angels, in high places I shook my strong spear! And the Lord was vexed And He sent down a whirlwind strewn with eyes. And it did roar and spread itself and I Did cast it howling underneath my feet. The whirlwind did I cast beneath my feet. The whirlwind burst its belly under me Yes, God s strong whirlwind! Behold, am I not great ? Am I not dreadful as the unicorn? 74 NIMROD Am I not a palace hung with blazing shields? Am I not Nimrod?" And Bathsheba spoke, And unto Nimrod said, "Oh, thou art He." And Nimrod said to Bathsheba, "Why then! The whirlwind fell beneath me. I am one That with a dagger stabs the empty gale And scourging air with whips shall make it bleed ! Then was deep space astonished ! For the Lord Camped mightily upon the plain. His tents Were of thick cloud. His war horses were there, His chariots of dust, His fighting angels; And He did lead on me His cohorts vast, His fierce battalions. He swept down on me His monstrous meteors. And I laughed at God. And riding in thunder down the mountain side Unto the lightning I did cry Thou Fool. And I raised up my strong bow and I shot Mine arrow at the Gods. And when it fell I saw it red with blood. For I did slay His strong white horse that plunged upon the gale. His fierce horse did I slay that spouted forth Pale smoke of vengeance ; and the storm white angel That drove him unto battle, between its wings Upon its starry bosom did I wound. NIMROD 75 Groaning in Heaven His great angel bleeds. Am I not as a city girt about With forests of tall spears ? Am I not spread ? Am I not one whose visage flames like brass ? Am I not Nimrod ? " And Bathsheba stirred Upon his breast her pale and beauteous face And unto Nimrod answered, u Thou art He." And Nimrod spoke to Bathsheba and said, " Lo, who hath built this citadel ? Who reared These furious bastions glittering on the plain? Who walled it round about with dreadful brass ? Who founded its deep fortress and decreed, Swollen abroad with splendor, terrific domes ? Who planted it with green and pleasant trees ? Was it God did it ? Who conceived the town ? Whose finger sleeked the brazen corridors? From whose imagination then did spring These bright mailed armaments of towers that sweep Their rugged radiance towards the sun ? Lo, now Did God disturb His placid hours of ease And wearying of His Heaven descend to build That monstrous chamber roofed with blood-red wings ? Did the Lord shape it ? Verily I think 76 NIMROD He was not moved from off His sacred throne To come into the plain, and make for us A thatch amid the wilderness, or build Unto His sons a comfortable roof. When was it that He left the triumphing And being grieved for us in our distress Harnessed His meteor to the groaning rock And dragged it for us ? When, with blazing ax Of His sharp lightning did He split in twain Impregnable strong stone for us ? And when Did He make derricks of the desert blast, Or of His falling stars link mighty chains ? When ? When ? Nay then, I think He was not stirred To sweat with us when we did heave the stone. I have not seen Him when the sun was hot Upon the desert perish of slow thirst. Hath He smelted bronze in a furnace ? Hath He been Scourged with the slaves ? For when the sun baked clay Upon the plain was red with blood, I think It was the footprint of some starveling child That strove with a burden, but not ever yet Because Jehovah bled. Yet when He saw My great bright citadel, the Lord was wroth, And in the darkness spied upon my speech. Yes seized upon my utterance ! His ears NIMROD 77 Snatched up my words as the avenging eagle Bears up its prey. Yes plunged on them through space And feeding on their fatness He grew wroth. For a great city shined upon my brain. And I did dream of vast and spheral halls, Broad, deep, high-arched, like Heaven s inverted dome. And I would build such towers as should search The countenance of the sun. And I would storm God s fortress with my great acropolis, And drive his frightened angels out, and thence, To do my bidding and to help me build Upon the earth a citadel more vast ; A precipice so high that I might leap Into sheer gulfs of Heaven ! Then, having plunged Through that abyss of brightness, I would scale Its secret ramparts, dare its highest wall, Triumph above its batteries, show my face With laughter on its pinnacles, then rush Into its central silence, and, from the Book Bring down to earth against His will God s Word. Therefore I would inscribe upon a stone, 4 Great Nimrod ! For behold, upon the earth Am I not mighty ? Am I not one who dreams 78 NIMROD But when he wakens seeks not any man To speak with cunning counsel but with deeds Interprets his own dream ? Am I not one Whose name is as a silver shawm blown loud? Am I not Nimrod?" And Bathsheba raised, Shining as does the terrible chrysoprase, Her pale and awful beauty from his breast And unto Nimrod said, "Lord, thou art He." Then Nimrod in his rage did spread abroad And in his violent robes gathered such wrath As hidden in dark clouds shall shake the sky. The thick locks on his head in anger reared And bristled as with sparks. His challenging eyes Swept the dark air with such velocities As when with onslaught fierce a thundering drove Of neighing steeds stampede the plain. His brow Was black with deep and swollen veins. His hands Were stretched aloft as if to snatch from Heaven God s thunderbolts. So Nimrod speechless stood, With such a silence as should scourge the air More fearfully than does the hurricane. So Nimrod stood ; and Bathsheba, the Queen, Gazing upon his presence was appalled ; And casting down her beauty at his feet NIMROD 79 Spread out the yellow harvest of her hair Upon the stone. Not like a woman now, But having seen an omen in mid air, A portent and a devastating doom, A part of groaning nature she fell down, Her broad and simple flanks like the white herds Submissive on the plain, her bones like rock, The sinew of the earth like earth she lay, The dark, the elemental, the chastised And waited for his wrath. And Nimrod spoke. " Break, break, ye clouds, and cast upon the earth Your progeny of fierce, angelic lights. Rage, rage, ye stars that never more should creep Like hounds about God s footstool. Heave, thou earth, And cast thy broth at Heaven. Ye mighty hills, Tremble I say, for sickness of His feet. Howl, thou meek air ! Thou earth, sky, sun, moon, wind, Ye forests, clouds ! Oh all ye visible things, Be purged of God. For I, that am a man, Having observed the ways of the Most High, Am utterly astonished. God was wroth. He was afraid because I sought to build A citadel so huge it should confound His High Archangels. So he drew a cloud 8o NIMROD Of angry darkness round about his throne And restless amid rest he cast about, Eternal, jealous, how he should subdue Our mortal glory. Then the Lord came down, Invisible, in radiance panoplied. And when I saw His front, I was amazed. Then was He pleased. Then was His mind set up. Then did His countenance boast and in His heart Unto His watching hosts He cried Ha ! Ha ! For He is one that having not ever sown Shall reap the harvest. And He was consumed, When He beheld great Babel, as with fire Is the dry flax. Then did He smoke with rage, And in His dark and monstrous heart decreed That those who sweat, who bled, who died, should cry To Him, enthroned in the eternal ease, * Behold, God did it ! And He said to me, * Lo, now thou art confounded and cast down. Go thou into the chamber and on the stone Write thou Jehovah s name. " . . . . Then Bathsheba Arose before him and upon him shone Her pale and awful beauty. Her large eyes Cast darkness forth upon the air and filled it With premonition of a doom august. And she spoke to him as the Sovereign Night NIMROD 8 1 Utters forth stars that shape the destinies Of other worlds. u Lo, who shall war with God ? Hast thou such spears as those that from the sky Cleave earth straight through ? Hast thou a war horse shod With flame ? Whose mane is thunder ? Canst thou shake The stars with murmuring ? Or by thy nod Confound great waters ? Canst thou do this ? My Lord, Thou art vainglorious. Think upon the flood. Remember Adam. For upon my dreams Such awful portents ride as meteors Astride the blast. I see ! I see ! I see ! And there is doom upon the land and wailing, And direful confusion ! Make peace with God. Else where this citadel is reared to-day, To-morrow wolves shall haunt and hooting owls Shall lodge them in the ruin. Then thou, cast out, Shalt stretch thy hands into a windy air And cry Lord, Lord ! J upon an empty plain. Go thou, and on the brightly polished stone Write thy Lord s name." . . . Then Nimrod went from her. He passed beyond the brazen door and stood 82 NIMROD Upon a massive landing flanked with stone, Bright paved with various-colored stone and arched With moon- white marble, hushed with many a shape Of pale and dancing creatures carved in light ; Blossoms and garlands ; wild and starry forms That ran soft-footed through the tender stone; Deep fruitage, shadowy grapes, apples of snow, White shining pears, pomegranates richly pale ; Dim hands and silver flagons and anon, Blushing with sweetness, all the soft white stone Smiled like a rose, where vaguely seen as though From some profound and spiritual air Their fair immortal shapes had melted through, With laughing eyes, with soft and cloudy hair, Angelic faces smiled and dimly shone. The portal was blood red and it was carved With haloes of fierce angels, burnished bright With glowing ribs of deeply crudded wings. And on the left a brazen cherub stood With locks outspread. His pinions were blood red. His breast was alabaster and his eyes Of topaz, flaming fearfully. In his hand He poised a jewelled spear before the Lord. And on the right a brazen cherub stood With locks outspread. His pinions were blood red. His breast was alabaster and his eyes NIMROD 83 Of topaz, flaming fearfully. In his hand He poised a jewelled spear before the Lord. Twixt massive balustrades of thick carved gold Downward there swept a huge Olympian stair Of grave, celestial whiteness like the moon. It swelled abroad, calm, beautiful, and bland. Descending into beauty yet more vast, It moved as some white-bosomed awful god Slowly matures his shape upon the air. So with large curves it did embody space. With godlike love embracing emptiness, In austere nuptials it sank down in bliss. For lo, there swelled upon the mortal sight A vast, a spheral chamber, as did seem The breeding place of immortality. Young angels here might lay a soothing hand On space made infinite and grieved time Become eternal. Here such calm was spread As doth inhabit greatness. The rich air Conceived such splendors as appeared to sweep Like divine blazing eagles the huge roof. From column unto column space swept on, Breathing, enraptured, god-like and austere Music made visible. And Nimrod gazed. And when he saw, globed forth beneath that dome, All human beauty sphered before his eyes, Even like mortality shrined in one tear ; 84 NIMROD When he bethought him how upon a night He with imagination was consumed ; Yes, even he that haunted with the wolves Among the rocks, naked upon the plain, Was seized with such great awfulness of dream As blows mortality from off our souls And leaves them to a high and god-like doom; And how even upon him, the warrior chief There swept upon his spirit, burning, bright, The knowledge of that chamber beautiful; Then he stretched out his arms upon the air And stood as one astonished. For behold, Spread like a glassy sea the radiant floor Was smoothed in golden pools of deep delight. The blazing walls of fierce and polished brass Were bright as bosoms of the cherubim, And angel-shaped strong columns lifted up A solemn dome of arched and blood-red wings. Then Nimrod moved along the placid floor Till, in the center of its vastness, set Upon a pedestal of blackened bronze, He came upon a huge and polished stone Like the shield of a great angel. On each side Two dreadful cherubim in brass did flame And their bright swords were crossed above to bid The Powers of Heaven hide before a name Soon to be graved forever upon stone. NIMROD 85 And Nimrod looked about him and he saw The dim and dove-like smoke of incense, rising, Float palely in the air before the shrine. And he beheld the fiery spread wings Of those four blazing cherubim, and read Upon the pedestal of bronze, strange script, That being translated cried, " Angels, Archangels, Ye generations of men ; hereon is writ The name of him who built great Babel. Lo He is our stronghold. In the wilderness Our sweet well water gushing from a stone, Our sword, our buckler, and our blazing shield, Our rose in a fair garden." . . . And behold, That radiant chamber rushed upon his soul Like a great host of angels and he spread His gaze about him. And when Nimrod saw How empty was the broad and blazing space, And how no eye disturbed the air, he turned And on the polished stone wrote his own name. PART IV Then did the powers of the air breed forth Sight in no mortal shape involved that flew Furious as eagles blazing in mid noon And snatching Heavenward that naked deed 86 NIMROD Swept up its prey, screaming, into the sun. Then was there heard upon steep slopes of air, Like fearful rushings of invisible steeds, The trampling of innumerable eyes, That mounted up to God, angry, amazed, Terrific, smoking, furious and appalled, By earth affrighted. But when around the Throne Vast multitudes of angels robed in wrath, Displeased and splendid, gazed into God s face, The Lord looked down upon great Nimrod s deed And seated in large silence, pitied him. Then from His breast a blazing angel came And looking down upon the earth he cried, " Oh blind, oh fatuous, knowing not thyself! For I that am in God am thine own soul, Thine own deep Self unutterably real. But thou wouldst build thy towers and threaten us And snatch from out the Book His secret Word. Yet at thy voice I will come down to earth, And I will sphere before thy mortal sight His midmost Truth, God s utterance crystal clear, Shape of angelic substance that contains The stars of destinies, astrologies, Prophecies, histories, retributions, spells, Births, crucifixions, resurrections, dooms, And God s own heart that ever burns therein, Made visible. Lo then, thine eyes shall see ! NIMROD 87 And thou shalt know how through thy walls are stretched High Heaven s bastions ; how angels mighty feet Tread deep thy strong foundations and their great arms Uplift thy arches ; how their heavenly breath Bears up thy highest turrets, and how thy domes Are symbols of their passing. Gazing on me, Made wise with Truth, thou shalt grow glorious. And I will shine through thee as does the flame In sacred vessels burning before the Lord. A Prophet and a Saviour thou shalt be. And thy great citadel shall open lie To bright celestial guests and thou shalt walk Among our sacred and dark groves ; but if I do not please thee, smite me with thy sword, And I will leave thee and to Heaven return." Then, from His inmost bosom, God sent down That angel unto Nimrod. And the King, In Babel, made to Bathsheba a feast. For he had marshalled hosts of armored men In that great hall ; and when Bathsheba moved In silent radiance down the snow-white stair There swept among them a vast murmuring And a low roaring as of ardent flame. Behold, she walked among them, and her feet 88 NIMROD Were bound in golden sandals. The robe she wore Was scarlet ; and her face was pale. She came. Then those that gazed upon her, being abashed, Could lift their eyes no longer. But she moved As does the sunset on an empty plain. Beautiful and alone she walked unseen. Only great Nimrod s eyes were not made blind, But he observed the pageant of her face. His shaggy warriors, bright as burning trees, Blazed like deep forests all on fire, and lit With smouldering helmet and with flaming shield The air with conflagration ; but their eyes Fell down like flaming leaves, while over them In the broad sky two eagles soared and met And, mated in mid air, fledged on the gale Great golden birds of love. So swiftly paired The eyes of mighty Nimrod and the Queen. Unwatched, unseen, amid vast multitudes, She melted in his arms and on his breast Laid down the awful splendor of her face. And Nimrod saw the Angel, and his brow Was pale, translucent ; and a garb of light Concealed the burning softness of his shape; And he was mild and glorious and his eyes In deep obedience smiled and as he shone, Immortal doves were bred out of his sight NIMROD 89 And flew among the thousand columns of gold. Like some strong diver he plunged down through light, Through gulfs of quiet and eternal seas Of such delight his bosom swelled with bliss, And his large pantings shook the silvered deep. With heaving sides he swam beneath the flood And drenched with beauty floated into sight. So Nimrod gazed upon him and he saw Such rich benevolence as warmed the air Like a celestial orchard deep with fruit Of milky substance, bounteous and mild. And the translucent brightness of his iimbs Was all inscribed with prophecies and dooms, With retributions, ecstasies and dreams. How starry was his substance, and his shape How chastened unto beauty! How austere! For he was lovelier than the Milky Way; More ancient than the moon; more white than stars ; And glories, dying from some fairer clime, Did palely swim along his silent smile Like great white singing swans. And Nimrod knew His own deep self, unutterably real. And in his hand he held an awful sphere, A monstrous globule shaped like the full moon, A dreadful brightness, stranger than a star. 9 o NIMROD Eternal, beautiful, orbed in golden light, A vessel of pure fire it flamed serene, More fearful than clear water when tis still. Eternal beauty solved into one tear It laid a shape upon unshapen air, And, as the radiant moon reveals the sun, Held up to mortal vision the unseen. And Nimrod saw it and he cried aloud. And from his limbs, as out of gnarled trees, Slow heavy drops exuded; and his sweat Dropped from him like thick amber and he fixed Upon that spirit astonished, staring eyes And cried unto the angel, " It is the Word." For lo, made visible to mortal sight, Strange mingled colors swam upon its shape. Like skies at noon its pure angelic substance Contained all stars and they engendered forth Prophecies, histories, high astrologies, Falls, crucifixions, resurrections, dooms, Portents and charms; bright times, like ripened fruit, Fell from its surface; seas and shifting lands Were hurried from its face; vast nations rushed And circling round it in mad hurricanes Chastened its limpid stillness. Then, all gone, Closed in its central sweetness, sphered in calm, Blushed the perpetual smile of God. NIMROD 91 Then spoke That Angel unto Nimrod and he said, " See in my hand God s awful Hieroglyph. This is His secret Utterance, the Word Which thou dost seek, in prayers that thou hast shaped And raised to Heaven in thy domes august, Thy soaring towers and thy spires that dream. Take it from me. I am thy Spirit s Truth, And we are one another, and from thee Shall future times beget me. Thou shalt grow Mild, ancient, and at ease, eternal, wise. A prophet and a saviour thou shalt be. And thy great citadels shall open lie To bright celestial guests and thou shalt walk At will among our sacred and dark groves And thou and all thy sons shall be as kings. Stretch out thy hand. Lay hold upon God s Word." And Nimrod gazed upon that Utterance. And from it streamed such splendor as lit up Bathsheba s face, inclined on Nimrod s breast. And they perceived the galleries of the hall Uplifted on the shoulders of archangels And how amid the thick and blackened bronze Was spread their hair and how their powerful shoulders Supported Nimrod s bulwarks and their breath 92 NIMROD Blew forth round domes like bubbles and their eyes Bred out of earth his battlements, as the sun Bids forests into growth ; and they beheld Strong Gravitations that with gigantic knees Forced down his bastions while ethereal hands Lifted his pinnacles ; and they perceived That through the ramparts of that mighty town Were stretched sweet angels wings and how mild eyes Gazed at them from the stones and the great arches Were lifted on the backs of angels, bent To lift that joyous burden ; and bright feet Were spread amid the rock and rushing raiment Of splendid spirits roared along the stone For Nimrod when he built. And they perceived How Cherubim had beckoned, and behold, The city had grown upward ; winged steeds Were chained to drag the stones and forms unseen Had built among the laborers on the plain. And she remembered what God said to Nimrod, And looking on the polished stone that stood Between great brazen angels, she saw it hid In purple cloth. Then Bathsheba drew down Great Nimrod s face unto her own and said, " Son of Almighty God what hast thou done ? Tell me, great Nimrod, hast thou kept His word? For I remember how I bade thee go NIMROD 93 And write upon the stone, even as He said. And if thou didst not do it never more Can I in solace lean upon thy breast. No more can I learn from thine eyes, or say Unto my soul, This man shall lead thee forth And marshal thee to God But I in grief Would cloud my presence even to thy face. Tell me, what didst thou write upon the stone ? Oh ere I come to thee again I say Was it God s name ? " And Nimrod turned and saw That burning shape, bright as the breast of God, Gaze at him from the air and unto him That Utterance spoke. " What has thy soul con ceived ? What thought has taken thee ? Oh, in thy heart What strange imagination has sprung forth ? What speech is this that thou reflectest on ? If thou dost speak it, thou shalt be accursed. Tell her what thou hast done, else with thy hand Cast down the Word of God." . . . And Nimrod turned. And gazing on Bathsheba he beheld The pale and awful beauty of her face. Then he cast down God s Word before her feet, And said, " Upon the stone I wrote God s name." 94 NIMROD PART V That night the angels in their citadels, The great mild-eyed, whose snow-white innocence Was soft upon them and like plumage deep, Moved forth for pleasure and their gliding step Peacefully on the radiant pavement shone. Their silvery feet like doves beneath the sun With tender pacing bred ethereal sound Which in the melodious substance of the stone Throbbed with the pulse of many an echoing tone, As in the sunlight sweetly sunken moons. Some walked in the warm gardens where they ate A placid fruit, milk white, whereof the taste Increased in them their wisdom. With delight Some camped beneath the trees and in deep groves Played secret lovely games that left the air More innocent with mirth. Some from the lips Of Awes and Terrors and Powers and Blazing Thrones Learned that which passeth speech. Some stretched through space Gigantic limbs or plunged into the void To try their strength with nothingness, and some, Through gazing upon beauty having grown Miraculously quiet, wrapt in calm Received the silent ecstasy of sleep. NIMROD 95 Some, wardens of the barricades, high up Upon the ramparts of God s citadel, Gazed from the parapets and saw how smooth The plains of pure and undisturbed bright thought In shining levels lay twixt them and man. But as they gazed upon the eternal ways, Lo, Heaven itself was shaken. Then mid air Was split asunder. Then was the void struck deep With blackened precipices and stern cliffs. Then space was made astonished and was rent. Then dreadful whirlpools of dark, thundering time Swept forth their reeling floods. From jagged steeps Plunged shrieking shapes of stars on fire. Then thought, That once had stretched a lucid interval Twixt God and man, convulsed with darkness, broke In fearful chasms, gorges of despair, Fathomless seas, sharp-peaked and distant heights, Sheer walls of distance, deep and echoing flumes, Untrodden plains and jungles of dark air, Where fierce monstrosity and brutish rage Devoured each other. With anguished meteors pained, Eternal hurricanes of grief disturbed The deep arboreal forests of black night. Then struggling up the dark abyss they saw 96 NIMROD An urgent spirit whose white angelic shape Was poised for an instant on the cliff Of utter darkness, like the morning star; Then plunged again into the black ravine^ Then forth once more; then, fearfully obscured, Rushed up through trackless distances, pursued By howling furies; then followed the harsh trail Which skirted the high citadel; then leaped Across the blazing bulwarks, up the heights. So swept among them, of his splendors stripped, Great Nimrod s angel! Anguished, bleeding, bright, Exhausted, beautiful, aggrieved, appalled, He beat the air with large astonished eyes. Then, like a steed gone frantic, forward plunged, And like one burning cast himself abroad. Pale with celestial anguish his body shone Like the white spirit of eternal flame, While wildly throbbing on the angelic stone Spread the crushed splendor of his beaten wings. Then once again he reared himself and stood Enraged and potent with a blazing front And cried with such a voice as shook the air " What has been done on earth ? What has been thought ? What dreamed of? What conceived ? How shall I speak, NIMROD 97 That come as witness to you from that orb Which is man s habitation ! With what voice Shall I cast knowledge, howling, through these streets ? Shall I confound your presence ? With my speech Shall I your bleeding brightness so afflict, Your bodies shall melt forth in tears ? Oh ye ! Ye Spirits, that dispersed upon the air Feel Nature trembling ; Angels, that so close Are driven to one another by the gales Of earthly devastation, ye surge like seas Of troubled radiance ; ye august Archangels, That lift complacent, towering in the sun, Your glacier beauty of precipitous wings; Oh ye almighty Thrones whose blazing eyes Breed forth astonishments, dominions, powers ; Ye principalities that in the air, Fearfully spread in conflagration bright, Consume the darkness of the void ; Ye Wars Beautiful, shaggy, bristling, circumstanced, That ride with thunder and with cohorts vast March forth with Dominations ; Oh, all ye Times, Ye fearful Times, ye Half Times ! on this day I say man has accomplished a strange thing, And on God s altar there smokes up to Heaven The savor of unnatural deeds. For when At dawn, in Eden, underneath the trees, 98 N1MROD Eve, slumbering at peace in Adam s arms, Enraptured, docile, in her sleep conceived A dark monstrosity direful, new Man s disobedience; when fatuous Cain Gazing into his brother s living eyes, With hate ecstatic, first conceived of death ; Or when before the flood the sons of men Whored fearfully and of adulterous flesh Bred frightful progeny ; I say that then There was a speech in Heaven and it declared Man s dark inventions to the stars. But now What word shall shape before you this new thing ? For never yet has man, who fashioneth Great cities and great progenies of dust, Created a new virtue ; but his wit Conceives unnatural monsters of misdeed And fierce original crime. I came to him Through skies of lovely thought. Oh, like a star Singing athwart the dawn, I swept the air Of his clean spirit, morning fresh. I came, Beautiful, wrapped in light, beyond all dreaming. What he had not imagined, I shone on him, His own deep Self unutterably real. And in my raiment were his secret dawns. Pale was my substance with the spiritual stars That were the fires of his ancient prayers. My body poised in the air did sing NIMROD 99 Like silvery strings with music, and he gazed, And knew how beautiful I was and saw His own deep Self, unutterably real, But in his heart preferred an alien thing. Oh, can ye in this citadel conceive What Nimrod plotted ? How shall I make plain Without vast ruin blackening these halls His spirit s dark achievement ! For he wrought A harsh invention and a blind machine, And from his lips there sped an iron word A direful engine that did bring to waste The gardens of his being. Then on his brain Seized black negation. With a staring eye, His thought regarded emptiness. He groaned. Then he stretched forth a groping hand upon Annihilation, and swart nothingness He drew about him with its ancient chill. I saw his senses swim, dizzy as clouds Dispersed upon the ethers of his soul. Then did his mortal presence ail. His flesh Melted upon his bone. His eyelids pale Were cold and sweated heavily. His eyes Started and were astonished. In his breast He felt protesting nature with huge throes Endeavor to escape and leave him strewn, By all the elements cast out. Aghast, His snow-white flesh was shaken like a city ioo NIMROD That cracks upon the gale ready to fall. And from his deep disease such vapor smoked As if a fire in the groins or breast Were prophesying ruin. Not like a man Turned Nimrod unto me, but some wild shape Reared of disaster, built of empty ash. So sorrowed he before me and with tears Large in his godlike eyes, he gazed at me His spirit s Truth and groaning heavily, With devastation shaking his huge frame, He spoke forth monstrous syllables and cried What was not true before the Lord ; then cast The Word of God upon the barren stone, And from great Nimrod s lips emerged pale death." Then was the silence of that listening host Congealed, as when beneath the Northern blast Deep solemn pools their quietness increase. And stillness lay among their glittering spears Like snow in a deep forest. But once more That Angel lifted up his voice and spoke. u Lo then, I waned from out his mortal sight And sank myself into the golden air That was his spirit wherefrom I had dawned. His own deep Self unutterably real. But oh, that world of thought not any more Lay pure, transparent like a shining sky, Betwixt his world and ours. It had grown dark, NIMROD 10 1 And on his soul s horizon many shapes Foreboded tempest. Then was split in twain His spiritual earth. Dark gulfs of thought Swallowed up his peaks of radiance. Hideous forests Besieged his intellect with shaggy growth Wherein roved many a wandering, livid beast Of rage and hatred. In the evil air Were floating idiocies and blank despairs, Insanities and disembodied palsies, Fright, and such leprosies as in the waste Of his soul s desert howled among the tombs Or at the town s gate, smelling out the feast, Entered the helpless citadel of flesh. Through these I rushed and from my substance waned The beauty of his spiritual stars, Until the fires of his ancient prayers Seemed almost out. Then did I set my face Against the whirlwinds of his deep despair, His rage, his privy council, his muttering, His peeping spirits perched upon the gale. I rode on Revolutions and I leaped From mammoth time to mammoth time. I clung To gorgeous wheels of cycles and was whirled forth From them into mid air. I sat astride {62 NIMROD Event and guided it. Over vast plains I drove his chariots of change ! Look ! Look ! Am I not wounded ? Am I not aghast ? For I have ridden on his soul s eclipse Unto the uttermost reaches of man s thought. A thousand centuries lie beneath my feet His own deep Self, unutterably real." Then to the bulwarks that great angel leaped And gazing down into the nether air Lit up the darkness with his blazing eyes. With arms outstretched and with exalted brow, He cried, " Lo now ! Upon this town shall fall An ending and a devastating doom ! For in its streets and mighty citadel Truth reigns no more. Wherefore no more shall Truth Be its chief servant. Ye doers of foul deeds ! Manipulators ! Hiders ! Plotters of schemes ! Runners on dark errands ! Creepers on unshod feet! Oh ye that dwell in Babel, breeders of lies ! Have ye not heard of that unholy spawn That eateth its progenitors ? Lo, now ! Soon shall ye be devoured. Never more Shall God s high angels lift your mighty walls In their serene great hands. Not any more Shall they upon their shoulders heave your domes! NIMROD 103 Ye are forsaken utterly. Shake ! Shake ! Ye mighty citadels ! Ye are not built Upon a real foundation. Ye shall sink Amid soft brass and sickly dreaming stone. Fall, ye high towers ! Oh all ye constellations Of domes resplendent, like a thousand moons, Ye are eclipsed forever. Ye bright walls, Whose rugged armaments drive against God s hosts, Mailed in magnificence, ye shall be as dust. Oh thou great Babel out of nothing reared Shake ! Crumble utterly ! Be thou dismayed ! For God is wroth upon you and to Him Thy citadel is as a voice at night Thy brazen bastions built of empty wind. Thou art abolished fearfully. His feet Are darkly spread among you. Ye shall go Afflicted and confounded. Ye shall rage In scattered tribes. God s strong and awful wars He will send down upon you. And no man Shall to his brother lift a cry of peace. Words shall be taken from you. On your lips Your utterance shall be confused. Your breath Shall sicken in your nostrils and send forth A stench upon this land. With wailing voices Ye shall breed forth new words and every one Like old death-bearing Cain shall breathe out death. 104 NIMROD Your tribe henceforth shall speak a various tongue, And there shall be a curse upon your speech." Then from that stellar orb that is the earth, Rose such a lamentation that it vexed The listening brightness of the zodiac. And many a star fell from the sky that night With mortal grief afflicted. Meteor-eyed, Eternity watched a new epoch dawn Upon that furious planet set in time. Then in high heaven all the angelic host, Beating about God s ramparts like a tide, Swelled terrible with glory, and the eyes Of no Archangel could range forth so far As to declare the end of that vast sea. But bright with billowy radiance they heaved Their rugged splendor underneath the sun And surged against the battlements. For, lo! There shot among them fires that were such thoughts As never more should blaze upon the earth, Whose terrible radiance was the garb of speech. Breathed in by Heaven, swept back God s beau teous words To the eternal peace from which they came. Burning, they plunged into the Angel s hands. They sunk their glowing shapes into his brain. NIMROD 105 They shouted in his thighs, and in his feet Raised paeans of delight until he leaped Before the Lord with prophecy enraged. They foamed upon his brow. They swam serene Through the translucent whiteness of his breast. Amid his spiritual substance, fires shone With moving splendor and interior flame. They made soft music in his throbbing plumes And on his finger tips did sweetly sing. But never more on earth those orbs of light Choired truth along the orbits of man s brain. And with them rushed swart algebras, disturbed From their deep lairs of stone ; and numbers swept Their wings from earth until material things Groaned, crumbled, were no more. Swift accu racies, Smooth-limbed and beautiful with flying feet, Fled from their bright abodes of tower and wall And, poised in high air, looked down amazed To see huge towers stricken by their flight ; Lines, whirled about the heavenly ramparts, swung From ancient straightness into anguished shapes They had not dreamed of, arcs, and angles strange, And terrible spirals. Many a tortured curve, Unwoven from arch and dome, was stretched in pangs Of pained and frigid straightness. High in air io6 NIMROD Moved mournful, calm and stern geometries Pale priests of space that from their ancient hands Loosed the old order and, at God s altars bowed, Laid down their sacrifice of beauty. Then A murmur rose among the radiant ones, And they grew turbulent in Heaven, for lo, The angel had gone down. His terrible wings, That with bright comets bristled as with eyes, Did shake the atmosphere like living wars. Blown through his hair were strong bright meteors Consuming as with flame. His thundering feet Ploughed up the earth till fearfully she rocked And groaned as chaos did of old. His eyes Blazed like volcanoes from pale peaks of air And prophesied destruction. His screaming voice Perched like an eagle on white cliffs of the sky And snatched earth s vision Heavenward. His brow Passed judgment on the universe. His robes With conflagration burned the gale. Oh then There was a cry in Heaven, for all the host Of bright magnificence, with thundering voice, Shouted abroad in Heaven, " Great Babel Falls." Then that bright sea of plunging radiance Ebbed back to silence and eternal calm. NIMROD 107 PART VI Three days, above the plain, the setting sun Moved over Babel ; and its thousand courts, Ruined beneath the sky, lay silently Like pools of blood. Its devastated domes Shone forth no more but blackened on the ground, Rent into shapes gigantic. Its vast walls, Spread fearfully, lay swart upon the sand, Cleft in deep chasms, gorges of dark bronze, Black, wind-swept cliff and brassy precipice. Its towers had ceased like thunder. Its temples huge, Convulsed in mammoth shapes, crouched on the plain Like anguished gods doomed and forever dumb. For, with its spirits gone, what tongue can tell The speechless agony of aching bronze, The groanings and convulsions of strong stone. Bed rock was heaved from earth. From dungeons deep Emerged pale waters that, in mighty halls, Spread glassy lakes beneath the shattered domes. It seemed eternal ruin. No voice broke That death-like stillness and not any man Looked forth to query where his home had been. io8 N1MROD But the gaunt wolf skulked slant-eyed from the plain, And when the sun was set the jackal whined Down empty echoing corridors of stone. Under the roofless pillars the night owl Flew among ruined arches and the wind Sighed through disconsolate forests of black bronze. But when upon the third night the full moon Shone on the plain, a dark and awful shape Loomed forth upon the rock and spread abroad Its shadow in the waste. For a long time It crouched, squat in the sand, nor moved at all, But its huge bulk was like a bowlder cast In the eternal idiocy of stone. At length that sombre entity did move, And with colossal labor without sound Heaved up its groaning ruins ; and the moon Revealed the shaken semblance of a man. With vague spread feet, gnarled knees and shaggy sides, With bulging eyes and large, astonished face, With matted locks of horror-whitened hair, Gigantic in the waste he towered alone, That once in Babel was a mighty King. He stared abroad, as if a diver, lost Beneath deep waters, gazed on a sunken town. NIMROD 109 Then with a vacuous eye he seemed to search As for a thing forgotten that being found He would remember it. And he moved on, Desolate in the silence and he saw Unearthly crawling monsters of slow stone, And buried in a sea of livid light Black on the sand, unutterable shapes. Through ruined vaults and roofless corridors He moved with stealthy step. Sometimes he came To empty chambers open to the sky Whose lone inhabitant was the windy owl Wheeling his ghostly shadow to and fro With melancholy hooting. Much amazed At these unearthly ruins he moved on, Turning his steps along a corridor That promised him the end he sought and seemed As when along an insane countenance A look of recognition strangely creeps. But at the end it led him to a place Made imbecile with ruin where not one thing Preserved its ancient contour. Sometimes he beat Against a barricade of rock or rushed Like one gone frantic to some parapet Or from a ruined casement stared far ofF Upon a sea of moonlit waste. At last, Not knowing where he went, he turned his steps no NIMROD Among the ruins of that mighty hall Where once great Babel held her festival, And his bright warriors, shaggy as burning trees, Blazed forth like conflagration. Nimrod strode Under the sky and on that ruin gazed. For lo those walls, graven with mighty shapes Beautiful, old, occult, were spread abroad In gorgeous devastation. And he gazed On awful effigies of sculptured bronze. Cast from their habitations they appeared With frigid gestures to forbid or warn. Carved out of purple marble, slit-eyed, straight- lipped, With gold set in their nostrils and their mouths, With hands upon their knees, about to speak, Yet dumb forever, stared swart images. Hewn out of uncouth rock, old sacred beasts, Elephants, lions, monsters terrible, Dragons and birds that flew before the flood With scaly wings of brass, grotesquely shaped, Stared at him from those devastated walls, Shaken with thunder each one from his niche Of lawful meaning. As if the shining beasts That rage with love and splendor about God s throne, Beneath His hand unutterably good, Being cast to earth returned to natural wrath NIMROD in And whined or whinnied, bellowed, roared or screamed, Each after his own kind, desiring flesh ; So these immortal symbols, fallen from grace, Unspiritual, brutish, uttered death. Monsters of twisted bronze, griffin or sphinx, Strange mythologic beasts no eye had seen, Beneath the moon, in effigies of hate, That once in ordered harmony had choired With golden mouths a psalmody of love, Stared at him as he moved and with mad lips Cried dissolute meanings that were not the truth. Then his flesh cowered before old hieroglyphs Of chronicles forgotten gods asleep That muttered forth sad dreams and vaguely spoke Into his soul, dark, unimagined crime And uncreated horror. Letters strange Leered at him wildly and with insane eyes Told tales abominable of an earth They saw not well. But some were chastely made, More lovely than the white and ancient moon ; But like the moon they ever turned away An occult fire from the eyes of man. Others of more intelligible shape Seemed beautiful to him but oh, how dumb, Like mouths of speechless angels lost syllables, That had no meaning for him, yet did seem ii2 NIMROD To have that in them which should ease his grief If his soul s eyes could read their outlawed script. Adamic spellings, palely glimmering runes, And broken shapes of ancient alphabets ! He seemed like one who argued with the speech Of furious madmen for upon the night They worked such images as with fearful shapes Floated upon the air in horrors pale. Insanities, that in the shadowy wind Beat round his face like harpies and befouled His spirit s sustenance! Contagious fear Begot abomination where it was not, And having sickened all things, on his soul Cast off its trembling and diseased sweat. Murder sat throned on emptiness, and hate Was soured in the air s stomach till it spat A living venom around Nimrod s feet. Wrath shook his marrow. Floating idiocies, Like watery jellies in voluptuous shapes, Swam through his brain ; and disembodied lust Fearfully drifted towards his dreamy flesh. Then panic seized him and on his body cast Disintegration, till what time should do By terror was accomplished. Palsy shook The virtue from his bone. His flesh distilled In unseen waters. He stretched forth withering arms. NIMROD 113 With vacuous eyes, with horror-whitened hair, He might have lived innumerable years. Awful he stood, unutterably old. But as he groped for some remembered sight, His tranced eyes grew suddenly awake. He came upon a crumbling arch, carved deep With cunning skill and devious workmanship. Beneath its shadowy arches, beating thick, Bats throbbed athwart the darkness with shrill cries Or in warm dusky garlands hung festooned. Then gazing underneath that arch, he saw A ruined marble stair, monstrous, snow white; Upon the left, over the sunken steps, A roaring torrent ; shattered on the right Huge fragments of a golden balustrade, Wherefrom hung shining coils of mighty snakes; And at the top a barred and brazen door. Then Nimrod groaned. And plunging up be sieged With breast and hands that portal. It was carved With haloes of bright angels and burnished red With glowing ribs of deeply crudded wings. And on the left a brazen cherub stood With wings outspread. His pinions were blood red, His breast of alabaster and his eyes n 4 NIMROD Of topaz, flaming fearfully. In his hand He poised a jeweled spear before the Lord. And on the right a brazen cherub stood With wings outspread. His pinions were blood red, His breast of alabaster and his eyes Of topaz, flaming fearfully. In his hand He poised a jeweled spear before the Lord. Then Nimrod with huge clamor beat the door, With shouts and speech of anguish ; old great cries He had not yet forgotten ; Adamic prayers ; And prehistoric signals of the flesh When it was pure in Eden ; tribal calls Of spirit unto spirit; ambrosial speech; Curses that Cain once taught unto his sons In his great city ; Paradisal words Ineffable to us, rich syllables That fed the soul, calm as angelic milk, With deep and immemorial tones of love. And lo, beneath his violence that door Groaned, yielded, gave, and fell, and its harsh sound Echoed through the reverberating halls. But Nimrod, gazing from a windy cliff, Beheld the floating clouds and the dark sky. Over a sunken ruin sailed the moon. Cast far below he saw Bathsheba s towers Flung forth in natural shapes, fantastic cliffs, NIMROD 115 Caverns of bronze, or promontories steep; And pale with ghostly splendor in their midst The polished silence of a smoothed lake, Until that night by no man ever seen, Paved with such bitter whiteness of the moon A brazen dragon well might dance thereon. Then Nimrod turned. But now not with huge cries He broke the stillness, but his glassy eyes Rolled forth on nothingness. Round his large face Floated vague locks of horror-whitened hair. Down that great marble stair he swept as if A temple fell and in the ruined hall, Gorgeous in devastation, groped among His monstrous images. Then suddenly, Shaken with palsy, with a staring eye, He pointed down among the shattered wings Of crumbled brazen angels, and plucked forth A slab of polished stone on which was writ A name of might. This, seizing in both hands, He raised high in the air, and on it shone In letters bright, a disobedient word " Great Nimrod." Then he cast it in the dust And raised to Heaven a primeval cry. And at that cry dark shadows dimly stirred From obscure places, and as snuffing hounds Seek to the prey, vague human beings moved Among the shaken ruins and appeared n6 NIMROD From secret haunts where they in anguish hid. Slowly from vaults and echoing corridors They dolorously crept and were aghast Seeing him white with age; and still they came And huddled round him. But speechless through the night Loomed the great King. Repulsed upon his lips His words did sit like dark-browed effigies In sculptured silence and he did not speak. About their sombre chief they studded the dark As when God s whisper spake into the sky A thousand planets. So there appeared in sight, In fearful resurrection, hosts of men. And Nimrod lifted up his voice and spoke. And from his lips his mighty arguments Did lock their shoulders like great struggling gods In the clear fierce arena of mid air. For he alone of all that lived in Babel Remembered the old God-like words nor yet Had lost from off his tongue that ancient speech. " Oh ! Oh ! Ye men of Babel ! Wherefore then Do ye stare round about with dog-like eyes That beg the sop of charity from me ? There was a man that once on Shinar s plain Built such a lordly city as not yet Had Heaven looked upon. ... I am not He. . . . Oh ! Oh ! Ye men of Babel ! Get ye hence, NIMROD 1 1 7 Out of this ruined city to a strange land, And build new towns upon a distant plain. They said that Nimrod was a mighty man. His garments were like thunder. His head shone With fleeces of the sun, and his bright lips Flashed javelins of persuasion. . . . Where is He? ... Oh ! Oh ! Ye men of Babel ! I say that God Is terrible on earth, and if our speech Shall make a stench in Heaven, we are cut off. Obey the Lord. ... I would ye had a king ! . . . But if ye love me, if ye have no fear Of mine affliction, lest I bring a curse Upon your tents and lest your women s milk Be dried from out their breasts because of me, Then place chains on my wrists ; and on my brow Write slave, and drive me with an iron scourge, Bearing your burdens like the patient beast, While ye shall wax like cedars in green plains. If ye would have me with you, cry to me ! But if ye fear me, silently depart." But they, with looks askance, heard Nimrod s speech, Not understanding his great ancient words. And, being full of wrath, thinking he said Unnatural, grievous things with angry eyes And sullen aspect they silently moved away. n8 NIMROD That night they traveled forth upon the plain, Nor unto Nimrod did his sons return. But venerable Assher stayed with him, The ancient, the white-haired, and his true friend, That once had loved him for his bounteous youth. And when he saw how health had left the King And he had grown unutterably old, The tears fell from his eyes ; and Nimrod said, "Lo now, thou art my only and true friend." But when he heard that speech, old Assher thought The King was mad and answered unto him, " How can I serve thee ? " Then was Nimrod s mind Bewildered utterly and he conceived That Assher hated him and with a cry Of wrath and anguish, lifted up his sword And smote him in the breast. And Assher fell, And the blood flowed. And Nimrod stared at him, Fearing lest curses crouched in hostile eyes Spring from their lair and slay him who had slain, But Assher, raising vaguely on his arm And breathing heavily, gazed up once more In Nimrod s angry eyes, and ere he died With a loud voice he cried an unknown word. Then was great Nimrod shaken grievously. And from the shadows moved a dreary shape And settled mournfully at Nimrod s feet, NIMROD 119 Unnoticed. For from Nimrod s anguished lips Swept words like planets. Golden and full orbed They rode the silence as the throbbing stars Rehearse the centuries or foretell new days Or move through Heaven prophesying woe. " Spirit of truth ! Oh, how shall I make peace With thy enraged great nature ? I am one Who having bid his tribe unto the feast Pollutes the bread. Have mercy upon me. For lamentation seizes on my flesh And in my soul there is a deep disease. Ye purities that in the wind and rain Shall dredge the air of foulness find out a way To cleanse me! Never! Never shall I be clean. Then cast me in the purging fires of Hell And in eternal flames let me be burned. Let me be damned. But oh, from out my soul Let this ripe sickness somehow be consumed. For if it were a horror of the flesh That had unseasoned me how quickly then Might Nature work in me her ancient cure. Then she might rend my body off from me And cast its fevers in the air, and turn Its leprosies into the earth, and fling My spirit forth, a creature clean and bold. But this strikes deeper. When I die, my soul Shall howl outside the citadel of God, izo NIMROD And with rent garments cry Unclean ! Unclean ! * Thou happy flesh, that when distressed too far Melts off in vaporish airs and is no more ! Oh, for some power that swiftly should unlock The atoms of my spirit, that they might fly Asunder once for all, and all my thoughts Be cast abroad under the windy stars, Blown off in gulfs of nothingness. Then no more, Fixed in immortal entity of woe, Should I ejaculate to mine own grief That syllable of god-like torture I. What doom has come on me that I must go Seeking mine own soul s death, yet find it not ? But still my spirit, breathed of God, must bear Its ancient and intolerable shape. Thou gaze of Truth, that, sphering forth my soul, Still keeps me focussed for one moment lift That splendor from me ! Then I 11 plunge out in dark And be no more a self . . . Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Who am I ? What ? . . . Once did I have a name ? Ye blocks of nothingness that, hewn by me, Built up in dungeons dreadful and unseen, Immure my soul in darkness ! I, no more, Shall feel upon my spirit that sweet breath Of ancient freedom. I, no more, shall plunge NIMROD 121 Like droves of horses up my thoughts steep plains Nor in deep coverts hunt out mighty prey Of fearful knowledge Huntsman before the Lord. Nor perched upon some mighty spiritual cliff Shall I snatch down the lightning out of Heaven To be unto my sons a flaming sword. When I was young and in my spirit s health, I dreamed such deeds as great archangels dream, Such that astonished cherubs plumed in flame Bent down to listen to my murmuring sleep. I plotted triumphs beautiful and great, With battle calls and singing clamor sweet ! Then, like mellifluous pipes with silver sound, By mine own soul my flesh was blown upon ! Where is my clarion ? On what inner hills Blows my shrill trumpet ? When shall my host return ? And oh, ye sweet and many-voiced pipes, To what harsh discord has your music gone ! I have so frightened nature that her milk Has lost its sustenance, and when I turn To her rich bosom she yields unto my soul A food that palsies and a drink that kills. Where shall I go? What shall I do ? What hearth Shall warm me now with flames ? Is there a roof To shield me from the tempest ? No ! No I say ! 122 NIMROD For I am not as one that being thrust Out of an alien door goes forth alone Cursing his hostile tribe, but in the plains Habits in some dark cave with lynx or owl, Befriended by nutritious earth ! I am A wandering vacuum by space cast out, Abhorred by nature and by God accursed. Oh thou appalling universe ! Thou hast No darkened cranny wherein I can hide From mine affliction. What will ye do to me ? Ye crouching, hostile, savage entities Of earth, air, water, wood, flesh, spirit, stone ! There s not one grain of sand upon the plain But from its breast such furies are unleashed As hound my spirit forth it knows not where. Oh, while I live on earth, each thing that is Shall scourge my soul with its identity, Accusing, awful, unutterably real. Ye fierce existing things, how shall I make Peace with you ever ! Brand upon my lips, Thou Spirit of Truth, some burning word, so deep Pain cannot shake it thence. Then I will go Shouting it forth. But let my people turn On me in wrath and scourge me for my speech ! Yes, stone me to the dust ! Yes strip from me My clamorous flesh and send mine outraged ghost NIMROD 123 Breathing forth vengeance and a shout of truth! So might ye be appeased, ye things that bear A shape upon you and mine own soul might feel A solace to its grief. It cannot be ! But when I die and leave this earth I 11 go An ancient wanderer through the universe, Hounded by meteors, cast off by the stars, Plunged into chaos. Oh ye musics huge That deepen into splendors with rich suns Or wane with dying moons never by you Shall I be comforted but yet more damned Because ye are so real. For I am one With such deep contradiction in my soul That when God to the void cried Let there be I, unto groaning chaos, shouted, No. Ye giant harmonies that in deep space Build up proud architectures not with you, Shall I in sounding chambers of delight Seek shelter from the intolerable waste. Not in your shining palace may I dwell, Who raised myself amid the howling waste A small and evil tent of the unreal. Ye powers that drive upon that falling roof Your blazing weapons be merciless to me. With your strong, glittering spears stab me clean through. 124 NIMROD Let not my dangerous spirit rove at large. Fix me forever on some shuddering orb, Sad and for ages doomed. For if I go, Sweeping through space my pale terrific ghost, Against mine own deep will I shall afflict The duteous orbits of the stars ; shall drive My hounds of fierce negation forth with howls, Devouring living entities, until The world shall reek with carcasses of thought. Or I might snatch from Heaven its accuracies That twist and wreathe and wonderfully bind His seasons and His planets ! Whirl them forth Shuddering, beautiful, voluminous, bright, Then cast them hissing underneath my feet With all their cunning gone ! Then, then indeed, God s whole creation fearfully shall rock ! Or if with spells of hate and mutterings deep I snare his numbers forth from midmost air So that his strong foundations crumble quite! Think, think, ye angels ! with what eyes of grief Ye would survey your aching atmosphere, If I should snatch their poles from the swift orbs Or casting grief upon the air whirl forth Great shrieking circles that my thought had flayed Of their circumference or if my hand Stripped time from off the stars then Send me peace! NIMROD 125 Thou blasting light, shine not upon me so That I should see the face of mine offence. Thou burning Truth ! How fearfully lit up Is my own thought before me, as when dark crags Jutting from off a mountain s thundering peak, With blazing lightning sheeted in living flame, Glow terribly apparent. Oh, if from out my spirit there had sprung Some great new virtue someunimagined good Such as the angels of the choiring spheres Might gaze upon with love and breed it forth For their delight like great, melodious doves ! Then should this cruel splendor show me plain, Set on time s promontory where men s eyes Gazing upon me ever should behold Eternal beauty on my breast. But now, With haggard front and a bewildered eye, With barren countenance and shaking bone, They see me lifting in accursed hands A fearful offering of archetypal woe, Deep in my breast an everlasting shame, And on my lips an immemorial lie. Yet shine, shine on, thou awful Truth, and make My deep affliction deeper. Let me know Full well what I have done. Yes, let me sit For centuries staring at this deed of mine, So I may see on it thy fearful light 126 NIMROD Nor wholly lose thee from mine eyes gone blind. Increase my woe. Let me behold thee more. Oh, not with slow recessional of light Subdue my anguish in me. Ease me not With lesser wisdom. But upon my soul Beat down thy full and devastating light. So I shall mourn for aeons, eternal, sad, Original, disastrous, inventive, stretched Upon the starry wheels of cosmic pain, Tremendous and afflicted, huge, chastised, Greatest among the anguished gods of wrong I will preserve my planetary throes Nor yield my nature unto smaller pains." But lo, ere he was done, upon the peaks Of his soul s mountains, thunder roared and shook The hidden regions of his mind. The spears Of multitudes of angels flashed and plunged In his deep substance, as the fiery bolt Buries itself in stone. Then from God s eyes Swept forth a cloud of darkness, such as cast His consciousness in foggy night. Bright thoughts, Like stars in the deep heaven of his mind, Tore their fixed bodies, screaming, from that sky, And flashed away to emptiness. Oh, then Was Nimrod seized with violent grief that shook His giant limbs. He reared, he plunged, he bent. NIMROD 127 He filled the air with such harsh cries as when Wild horses deep in forest fires, raise Upon the shuddering night, unearthly screams. He swerved this way and that, and falling prone Like a huge herd of cattle, beat the dust. Then, raised aloft, he flung his groaning bulk Into the air and dizzily swept through space Circles of anguish as if a falling orb Wheeled through the heavens on vast curves of pain. Then, drawing back his thousand agonies, His shakings, sweatings, terrors, dreads, despairs, His furies, retributions, rages, griefs, He bound them as the fearful hand of God Locks fiery whirlwind into speechless stone. Silent he spread, to helpless earth appalled, And Babel s curse fell on great Nimrod s tongue. Then, then, his spirit s golden bastions shook! His starry dome of high philosophy Flung down its meteors, and the columns huge Of stately logic crumbled. In his soul The shining architectures of sweet tone Were spread in ruin. Down the corridors Of his dark brain plunged wild and gusty shapes Of syllables affrighted. Routed forth, Flared great white faces of astonished words. From chambers of music and deep vaults of sound 128 NIMROD Where they had hidden, wild and lovely dreams, Clothed in a virginal vesture of sweet song, Went mad with discord. Then forgetfulness Swept its slow fogs on mighty Nimrod s brain. Awful aphasias, with their bleeding whips, Scourged from its palace sweetly singing speech, Beautiful symbols out of music made, Syllables lovely, metaphors sweet shaped That, floating brightly, danced before the Lord ; And from their altars many a priest-like word They drove from ceremonials of high thought. Then guiles and crafts, wreathing like thick black snakes, Choked meaning like snared birds and creeping lies Soft, thick and shining, monstrous and snow white, Coiled palely round the struggling limbs of speech. Then forth upon the air, not to return, There leaped from Nimrod s lips terrific sounds Driven by God s anger. Verbs like men at arms Charged battling forth ; and bold and blazing nouns Like chariots, fury ridden ; adjectives That spread their fiery bellies in the sun Till all their quivering wings as copper shone ; Ejaculations huge, deep tones of woe, Thundering gutturals, hissing sibilants Of fire-breathing serpents every sound NIMROD 129 That once had ministered to dream or thought, Plunged from his shouting lips and shook the air, Blazed brightly on the shadowy gale and then Swept up to Heaven. When Nimrod saw them g He stood confounded, and upon him fell Vacuity, that numbed with aching sleep All he had ever known. Then did he seem Like one whose will, in bitter conflict plunged, Grapples with thought, but with a flaming shield That Heavenly warrior to the Lord returns. Then from those lips that once had moved the earth And swayed God s ramparts with their prayers, there came First accents of a speech before unheard ; Faint murmurings, and sighs and querulous breaths, Mutterings, peevish whispers, babble wild, Bewildered utterances and whimpering cries Like those of bleeding curs. And fiercer notes Of astonishment and wrath shook from his lips, New fearful curses, shoutings of dismay, Alarums, prophecies of dire events, And wild deliriums of mongrel tones. But when he strove to lift his voice to Heaven And cast with splendor before the Golden Throne 130 NIMROD His great and ancient prayers then his vague lips Loose, stammering, uttered speech against his will, Terrible laughter, crazy emptiness And a thick mumbling blurred great Nimrod s lips. Then did he speak no more. But knowing now What he had done before God s face, he stood Refusing from his voice those lesser tones That like the Titans had pursued the Gods From his Olympian lips. Silent he grew, Choosing instead to be forever dumb. Thus Nimrod stood and the slow night wore on, And her dark patience wasted into dawn. But when that august silence on his lips, Unbearable, unending, seemed to draw Her soul up to him, as the old dead moon Bids up the sombre tide, the huddled shape, That had so long been crouched at Nimrod s feet, Heaved heavily and underneath his eyes Spoke syllables he did not understand. But when upon his glassy eye there shone The pale and awful beauty of her face, Once more the tranced waters of his mind Shone with the glimmering radiance of words, Reflections of such thoughts as in the sky Of his soul s Heaven hung like spiritual stars. And a vast cry issued from Nimrod s lips, NIMROD 131 A primal utterance and an ancient word. Then did eternal silence seize his tongue And there was heard no more upon the earth The solemn beauty of that elder speech. PART VII And they that went from Babel were a host Of mighty men. And with them they bore forth Monsters of bronze and grotesque images Cast from the walls, and wandering in the plains They worshiped these false gods and unto them Were terror and disaster. For since God s hand Cast down the vessels of their lying tongue, Men dwelt no more in brotherhood, but built Cities against each other, breeders of war, And spoke with differing and hostile speech. And they were scattered westward on the plains And built up mighty cities known of old, Dark Nineveh ferocious Babylon. But ere they left the desert sands they turned, And pointing back beheld upon the plain, Besieged with glittering armies of the sun, The ruins of great Babel. And that town Lay in vast stillness. In the silent halls No human voice broke the empty air. No human footfall when the dusk was cool 132 NIMROD Left desolate sound upon the echoing stone ; But in the deep, reverberating gloom Down thundering gullies heaped of gold and bronze The bell-like roaring of the unicorn And in far courts the windy satyr screamed ! At night with mournful voice the gusty gale Searched through dark corridors of ruinous bronze. With ghostly shout and supernatural cries It filled the air with desolate shapes unseen. When noon was hot, the desert lion came And slaked his thirst at many a quiet pool. Hyenas laughed where once sweet courts were green. The flying serpent with his sighing tune Beat the hot sunshine with metallic wings. Through hideous gorges and down sounding flumes That had been streets in Nimrod s mighty town, Deep rivers roared or snow-white cataracts plunged. Dragons were in their pleasant palaces Grey wolves howled down the corridors unseen. Over hot fragments of smooth paving stone In bright mercurial arabesques there flamed The glimmering viper, and in colonnades, With brassy columns or columns of black bronze, Huge snakes in cruel stupor darkly hung Their bulky richness, fierce, arboreal. The bat beneath the arches made his home. NIMROD 133 And all alone in melancholy halls, Over a windy shadow, swept the owl. Eve after eve, through jagged clouds, the sun In blood-red splendor gazed upon the flumes, The gorges deep, the terrible ravines Of those deserted ruins. It did not seem Within the years of man, but might have been Some fearful ravage of primeval gods. For like a ruined god whose fearful shape Had been appalled to everlasting stone, Rock-like in devastation, with his beard Moss-like upon his bosom, and his hair, With horror whitened, the only moving thing Upon the air of night, great Nimrod reared His shattered bulk. Gigantic, Nimrod stood, Flanked with majestic ruin. But his gaze Was set against the darkness and the wind. Huge monsters huddled round him wrought of bronze. He had not moved since from his lips that last Great ancient word had broken, but he stood With arms outstretched and mighty palms pressed down, Bulwarked in anguish and in grief composed. His solemn strife besieged the midnight gloom. Nor might that shape crouched darkly at his feet Shake down the solid bastion of his woe. 334 NIMROD For since the moment when gigantic grief, Bracing his bulwarks war-like against time, Heaved up the mighty derricks of his bone He was as one in spirit so enthroned Beyond mortality that never more Might he know grief, save of his spirit s throes. As if an anguished angel on a star, Throbbing with golden immemorial woes For cosmic wrong, heard not upon the earth In jungles dark the howling of the beast So, fixed upon his starry orb of grief, He gave no heed unto the brutish rage That shook the mortal forests of his flesh. But he was not more silent than the shape Of earth-like devastation at his feet. He did not cry to her nor moved at all When in the night the rolling clouds immured The brightness of the moon and in the dark Obscured the staring whiteness of her face. Nor when the heavy thunder of God s throne Split into fearful chasms the black night And he was sunk in dizzying gulfs of rain. Nor when the lightning swept him forth once more In speechless patience, as if burning wheels Had whirled him up from nothingness accursed, Stretched on a vast circumference of flame. NIMROD 135 Nor when with huge and fiery bolts he seemed Struck through and through with such large pangs as gods Nailed against empty chaos might endure The great progenitor of a new crime, Doomed to immortal grief and cosmic pain. For still his crag-like presence flanked the gale Like a calm precipice, nor did he shake His citadel of woe. But when at last The whirlwind of God s chariot rolled away, With shuddering sinew and with groping hand, With frightful palsies and Teachings of dumb pain, He plucked the woman crouching at his feet, And pointing to almighty Heaven, he stretched A hand upon her, turning to the sky The pale and watchful beauty of her face. For poised aloft out of dark wracks of cloud, There flamed amid the fastness of the sky A monstrous globule, a soft shining sphere, A fearful brightness, stranger than a star. A vessel of pure fire, it moved serene. Eternal, beautiful, orbed in golden light The moon shone over Babel and it seemed As if an Angel, before celestial hosts, Raised in mid Heaven the eternal Word of God. THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN I ORDER is a lovely thing; On disarray it lays its wing, Teaching simplicity to sing. It has a meek and lowly grace, Quiet as a nun s face. Lo I will have thee in this place ! Tranquil well of deep delight, Transparent as the water, bright All things that shine through thee appear As stones through water, sweetly clear. Thou clarity, That with angelic charity Revealest beauty where thou art, Spread thyself like a clean pool. Then all the things that in thee are Shall seem more spiritual and fair, Reflections from serener air Sunken shapes of many a star In the high heavens set afar. II Ye stolid, homely, visible things, Above you all brood glorious wings THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN 137 Of your deep entities, set high, Like slow moons in a hidden sky. But you, their likenesses, are spent Upon another element. Truly ye are but seemings The shadowy cast-off gleamings Of bright solidities. Ye seem Soft as water, vague as dream ; Image, cast in a shifting stream. Ill What are ye ? I know not. Brazen pan and iron pot, Yellow brick and gray flag-stone That my feet have trod upon Ye seem to me Vessels of bright mystery. For ye do bear a shape, and so Though ye were made by man, I know An inner Spirit also made And ye his breathings have obeyed. IV Shape, the strong and awful Spirit, Laid his ancient hand on you. He waste chaos doth inherit 5 138 THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN He can alter and subdue. Verily, he doth lift up Matter, like a sacred cup. Into deep substance he reached, and lo Where ye were not, ye were; and so Out of useless nothing, ye Groaned and laughed and came to be. And I use you, as I can, Wonderful uses, made for man, Iron pot and brazen pan. V What are ye? I know not; Nor what I really do When I move and govern you. There is no small work unto God. He requires of us greatness; Of his least creature A high angelic nature, Stature superb and bright completeness. He sets to us no humble duty. Each act that he would have us do Is haloed round with strangest beauty. Terrific deeds and cosmic tasks Of his plainest child he asks. When I polish the brazen pan THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN 139 I hear a creature laugh afar In the gardens of a star, And from his burning presence run Flaming wheels of many a sun. Whoever makes a thing more bright, He is an angel of all light. When I cleanse this earthen floor My spirit leaps to see Bright garments trailing over it. Wonderful lustres cover it, A cleanness made by me. Purger of all men s thoughts and ways, With labor do I sound Thy praise, My work is done for Thee. Whoever makes a thing more bright, He is an angel of all light. Therefore let me spread abroad The beautiful cleanness of my God. VI One time in the cool of dawn Angels came and worked with me. The air was soft with many a wing. They laughed amid my solitude And cast bright looks on everything. Sweetly of me did they ask That they might do my common task. i 4 o THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN And all were beautiful but one With garments whiter than the sun Had such a face Of deep, remembered grace, That when I saw I cried "Thou art The great Blood-Brother of my heart. Where have I seen thee?" And he said, " When we are dancing round God s throne, How often thou art there. Beauties from thy hands have flown Like white doves wheeling in mid air. Nay thy soul remembers not? Work on, and cleanse thy iron pot." VII What are we? I know not. DREAM BUT now the Dream has come again, the world is as of old. Once more I feel about my breast the heartening splendors fold. Now I am back in that good place from which my footsteps came, And I am hushed of any grief and have laid by my shame. I know not by what road I came oh wonderful and fair. Only I know I ailed for thee and that thou wert not there. Then suddenly Time s stalwart wall before thee did divide, Its solid bastions dreamed and swayed and there was I inside. It is thy nearness makes thee seem so wonderful and far. In that deep sky thou art obscured as in the noon, a star. 142 DREAM But when the darkness of my grief swings up the mid-day sky My need begets a shining world. Lo, in thy light am I. All that I used to be is there and all I yet shall be. My laughter deepens in the air, my quiet in the tree. My utter tremblings of delight are manna from the sky, And shining flower-like in the grass my innocencies lie. And here I run and sleep and laugh and have no name at all. Only if God should speak to me then I would heed the call. And I forget the curious ways, the alien looks of men, For even as it was of old, so is it now again. Still every angel looks the same and all the folks are there That are so bounteous and mild and have not any care. But kindest to me is the one I would most choose to be. DREAM 143 She is so beautiful and sheds such loving looks on me. She is so beautiful and lays her cheek against my own. Back in the world they all will say, " How happy you have grown." Her breath is sweet about my eyes and she has healed me now, Though I be scarred with grief, I keep her kiss upon my brow. All day, sweet land, I fight for thee outside the goodly wall, And twixt my breathless wounds I have no sight of thee at all ! And sometimes I forget thy looks and what thy ways may be ! I have denied thou wert at all yet still I fight for thee. THE WARRIOR MAID THEY bade me to my spinning Because I was a maid, But down into the battle I marshalled unafraid. Brightly against the sunbeams I shook the flaming lance. Then out I swept to gather With the red and royal dance. The war was stately in me, And in my heart was pride Fierce moods like neighing horses Most terribly did ride. Deep as a sea of scarlet I saw the banners roll And then the great war terror Laid hold upon my soul. I laughed aloud to feel it And royally did cheer: I strode amid my tremblings And did not fear to fear. THE WARRIOR MAID 145 A warrior rode against me. I laid him to his rest. I could not stop to gather The bright sword from his breasto But on I drove in splendor, I that was but a maid With piercing calls of triumph And I was not afraid. But once, beneath my charging, A face shone up below. Dead in the bloody furrow, A stranger white as snow ! The foe rode close behind me ! I lost the day for this I sprang from off my stallion And left on him a kiss. The sword that pierced his bosom With jewelled splendor shone. I snatched it from him bleeding, And lo, it was my own. The spears blazed thick around me When I leaped forth again. 146 THE WARRIOR MAID But jubilant they found me To face a thousand men. Bright-voiced was my laughter, I that was but a maid ! And when the sharp gyve bound me, Then was I not afraid. Ah, hadst thou lived, my warrior, Among the glorious ones, I had borne thee savage daughters And beautiful fierce sons. ERE THE GOLDEN BOWL IS BROKEN HE gathered for His own delight The sparkling waters of my soul. A thousand creatures, bubbling bright He set me in a golden bowl. From the deep cisterns of the earth He bade me up the shining daughter And I am exquisite with mirth, A brightening and a sunlit water. The wild, the free, the radiant one, A happy bubble I did glide. I poised my sweetness to the sun And there I sleeked my silver side. Sometimes I lifted up my head And globed the moonlight with my hands, Or thin as flying wings I spread Angelic wildness through the sands. Then, woven into webs of light, I breathed, I sighed, I laughed aloud, 148 ERE THE GOLDEN BOWL IS BROKEN And lifting up my pinions bright I shone in Heaven, a bird-white cloud. Then did I dance above the mead, And through the crystal fields would run. And from my scarlet splendors breed The golden thunders of the sun. Beneath the whitening stars I flew And floated moon-like on the breeze, Or my frail heart was pierced through With sharp sweet flowers of the trees. Of giant crags I bear the scars, And I have swept along the gale, Such multitudes as are the stars, My myriad faces rapt and pale. As savage creatures strong and free Make wild the jungle of the wood, The starry powers that sport in me Habit my silver solitude. From out my smallness, soft as dew, That utter fastness, stern and deep, Terrible meanings look at you Like visions from the eyes of sleep. ERE THE GOLDEN BOWL IS BROKEN 149 I cannot leap I cannot run I only glimmer, soft and mild, A limpid water in the sun, A sparkling and a sunlit child. What stranger ways shall yet be mine When I am spilled, you cannot see. But now you laugh to watch me shine, And smooth the hidden stars in me. Lightly you stroke my silver wing The folded carrier of my soul. A soft, a shy, a silent thing, A water in a golden bowl! CONNECTICUT ROAD SONG IN the wide and rocky pasture where the cedar trees are gray, The briar rose was growing with the blueberry and bay. The girls went forth to pick them and the lads went out to play, But I had to get to Stonington before the break of day. And when I came to Stonington, she was a town of pride. 41 Come in," they said, "and labor, and be at home and bide. For gold shall be thy wage," but t was past the hour of morn And I had to get to Jordan while the dew was on the thorn. There is a girl at Jordan, she sweetly smiled at me, As pale as are the berries on the gray cedar tree. And " Oh," she cried, " thou traveler, come bide awhile with me," But I had to get to Lebanon while light was in the tree. CONNECTICUT ROAD SONG 151 The pale church spires of Lebanon shone sweet upon the sky. The Sabbath bells were ringing, the parson passed me by. " Oh wait, traveler, wait, for you Ve need to say a prayer," But I had to be in Wallingford while noon was in the air. The road that leads to Wallingford, it runs through mire and stone. I was parched with the dust, I was bleeding and alone. u My lad, you will die, if you do not tarry here." But I had to get to Killingworth while day was on the mere. And when I got to Killingworth I heard the people say u He has come to bring the news from a hundred miles away." But I had not any news and not any time to stay, For I had to be at Jericho before the end of day. And when I came to Jericho I heard the people call, " Do you run to save a city that you will not wait at all ? " 152 CONNECTICUT ROAD SONG " I run to save no city, yet must I leave you soon, For I have to be in Windsor with the rising of the moon." And when I got to Windsor, then was I spent for bread. " Come in," they cried, " poor traveler ! and be thou comforted. What strange great need is on thee that makes thee journey so ? " But I had to be in Coventry ere yet the moon was low. For a strange great need was on me that I should hunt the rain, And take into my body a breakage and a pain ; That I should tame the sunset and goad the hurry ing plain, And that the leagues behind me should lie a thousand slain. Wherefore, ye men of Coventry, if ye desire to stay, Lay not your curb upon me, that love the open way. For I want to smell the dew, the blueberry and the bay, And I have to get to Colchester before the break of day. SO I MAY FEEL THE HANDS OF GOD How swiftly, once, on silvery feet I saw thee bound beneath the sun ! Oh, savage innocence ! The fleet, The wild, the sweet, the glistening one ! God made in thee the gentlest sound To win for thee the dear caress. Like flowers growing in the ground We heard that trembling daintiness. Thou art strange Nature s subtlest child, The offspring of her alien mood. Now age has come on thee, the wild, And stricken thee, the simply good. Animal sweetness, when it goes, Leaves emptiness behind. Dear, thou must wither like the rose And dimness take thy creature mind. No more we laugh to see thee run The innocent, the fierce, the sweet ! Thy snow-white dancing in the sun ! The rushing of thy happy feet ! 154 so I MAY FEEL THE HANDS OF GOD The hearthstone and the friendly touch, Thou art grown needy, now, for these. How strange that wanting them so much Thou hast forgot the arts to please. Oh, creature age ! creature distress ! The haunting, old, and dim surprise ! Would I might charm with tenderness The grief from those bewildered eyes ! Thou hast no more, at love s commands, The simple sweetness of a purr. Then let me comfort with my hands The saddening of thy shining fur. When cold afflicts thy piteous sod Then let me warm that need of thine, So I may feel the hands of God Laid over thee more close than mine. TO AN ENEMY I SAW thee once. I shall know thee ever. Beyond the frantic mesh Of thy wild sorrowing flesh, Oh, thou wert beautiful ! Let me be dutiful To thy high spirit. Knowing thee great and wise Let me inherit All the calm Paradise Hidden behind thine eyes. II Never again shall any way, Or look, or word of thine deceive. I saw thee once. I must believe The vision of that day. How shall I say What splendor and what awe Seized on my eyes that suddenly they saw, Beyond all praise or blame An angelic creature shaped of snow and flame. 156 TO AN ENEMY in Oh, shame on me If I should ever be A traitor unto thee ! If I believe thy lying flesh that says "It was not so." Or if its wrathful and complaining speech Make me forget the secret lovely ways Of thy soul s ritual ... if I should forego My memory of thy grace Or how in a strange inner place Just for a moment I saw thy face. IV I saw thee once. I shall know thee ever. Swiftly my earthly sight Shadowed thy lovely light, Then thy mortal semblance gazed On me with sullen eye. I wept and I was sore amazed At thy deep hostility. But oh, I did not blame thee When thou didst rend and shame me. I said, "The wrong s my own That was so dazzled at thy spirit s throne I could not bear the splendor and the might. TO AN ENEMY 157 Why shouldst thou not accuse me, Yes, terribly refuse me, And scourge with splendor for my lack of sight ! " But yet I saw thee once and I shall not forget. Faithful, oh faithful will I be To thy more starry nature sunk in thee, That bright, mysterious guest, To thine own thought not yet made manifest. I will do thee service lowly Because thou art so holy. VI What can I think of to do, Beautiful, because of you ? Exquisite actions unto thee, Deeds that thou wilt never see, Hidden from thy mortal sight ! And God will praise thee for the deeds I do, Knowing that somehow they were done by you, Yes, it shall be my sole elation That when I light my flame Saying, u In thy name " That deed will somehow count to thy salvation, 158 TO AN ENEMY VII Then, when thy mortal self shall scorn and hate, And from thy lips shall fall Harsh condemnation, Therefore I will exult, nor will abate My joyous carnival, That so I more may prove My deep and ardent love. VIII I will set a flower to grow Where flowers never grew at all ; Down low In the thick grass, or covert of the wall. Then beauty will have come to pass. I will drop a pebble in a stream So it will quicken and gleam And brighten all alone A joy unto none. Still it will be Secretly beautiful and all for thee ! Because thou art ! So will I make thee more than human, Set thee in Heaven s deepest heart, One of God s laws, Of loveliness the being and the cause. TO AN ENEMY 159 IX Once I wished my mortal self to be Of my own deepest self the fair expression. Now I yield it unto thee To be thy glad articulate confession. Once I could loiter, growing beautiful, And serving mine own soul could take mine ease. I serve thee now. I must be dutiful. Constant as sky is, urgent as the seas, More swift than time, as patient as the trees, I must be robed in natural majesties. Yes, shouting to the cities and the skies Show thee to mortal eyes. How easy heroisms are, Now I have seen thy face ! My will can bind them as God binds a star, In my soul s orbit. Never any more Do they plunge forth, escaping me in night. They have grown docile now, and with delight Attend me ever, brightening my brow. Oh, in my breast I hold their throbbing spheres, My spirit sings with laughter, achieving now What once it did with bleeding and with tears. 160 TO AN ENEMY XI Beauty in many a secret place I will make for thee. Because I saw thy face I will manifest thy grace And thou shalt be A visible splendor on the earth, A festival of mirth I XII Though men shall see thee not and none shall praise Thy beauteous hidden ways, Still I will not be daunted. My spirit shall be haunted With thy more starry nature, Thou high and blessed creature! SELENE Bur when Endymion, wandering alone, With youth and love of loveliness forlorn, Being greatly sorrowful with beauty, came Upon the silence of a moonlit lake Deep in a sacred grove ; and when he saw How in the water a pale presence shone, So he might touch that ancient loveliness, Yet never lay a hand upon the moon ; He cried aloud, " Oh, Spirit of this earth, That in the flame and cloud, water and wind, Hast shed thine image, yet art never seen ! Invisible ! Where art thou ? " Then to him Selene from her fastness in the air Spoke, with no mortal voice in his ear, But to his soul and as a goddess speaks With divine utterance. " Oh, Watcher ! Thou, Mover among innumerable shapes And lover of my shadow, many years With shining substance have thy hands been rilled And pleased with lovely changes. But on me Thy flesh has not laid hold. Not with thine eye Hast thou perceived my smoothness and thine ear Has heard me never. Underneath a tree 1 62 SELENE When hast thou found me sleeping ? To what spring Have I come down to drink ? In what dark groves Have my feet led thee, shining among leaves ? Thou hast not seen me dance among the nymphs Nor sport with fauns at dusk. For in this world I say there dwells a spirit and she lives Hidden even from the gods, and of her face Zeus has not dreamed. She is consuming, fierce, Beautiful and withheld. She layeth waste The gardens of men s flesh and I am She. I am the fearful Huntress. With my hounds I all men must pursue until they seek My silent altar in an ancient place No man has thought on and no eye has seen. I am the Runner. I am the goddess chaste. If with thy fleshly eye thou shouldst perceive Mine angry whiteness, swiftly would I slay. For I am set apart and spiritual, And me in spiritual ways thou must discern. Oh, not with doves or bleeding snow-white hinds Or incense burned or harvest of wild grapes Shalt thou appease me. But thou shalt lay down Upon my shrine the shadow and the sound, The sheen and whisper of the tender earth, All shapes and brightnesses and music sweet, And soft mysterious touch, the breath, the look SELENE 163 The beauty changing ever. From thine eyes All loveliness shall pale. Then not for thee Shall Aphrodite from the golden wave Blush rosily nor from the snow-white foam Float like a star before thee. Not for thee Shall the soft nymphs their shining dances weave In places sweet with loveliness. But then, Out of the hollow of thy hand shall fall All lovely substance that has ever pleased Thy finger tips with shapes, all curves that shed Sweet music in the concave of thy palm As in the sky the orbed planets sing. Thy sense shall be obscured. Thy austere touch Deny the chilly sweetness of the dew That cools the apple plucked at early dawn Or whitens the blue grape. Never again Shall thy smooth body plunging between waves Divide the hard bright water nor thy brow Flush in the noonday sun nor thy feet cling To the bare rock when thou dost climb high hills. Thou shalt forego the tenderness of hands Nor ever feel upon thy human cheek The sweetness of a mortal breath. No kiss Shall leave its softest shadow on thy lips, But thou shalt find thyself in a still place Where light nor shade nor forms of visible things Nor sense of things perceived with hands shall wake 1 64 SELENE Thy heart in thee not one least sound at all i As when the shadow of a cloud shall drift Dim music from a lonely lake. Not then Shalt thou love voices, oh, Endymion ! Then not for thee strong laughter and the shouts Of boys beside the sea cliffs dragging in Their nets at yellow evening ; not the cries Of girls on the brown beaches ; nor the speech Of mortal love. I bid thee light for me A blazing fire on my shrine all flames Of suns and moons and stars, such glories as burn In sunset and the rose, all loveliest hues That on this earth glow brightest. In their midst Cast down the vision of thine eyes as one Snares from the sky a bird whose radiant plumes Burn amid sacrificial flames. Oh, Thou ! Give me the sound that in thine ears doth make Earth good to thee. Relinquish from thy hands All feelings of fair things, sweetly entwined With votive wreaths of flowers. Yet not in death Yield me thy body s sweetness, but alive, Rapturous, alert, with thy desires swift, Warm, breathing, upright, in thy bourgeoning youth, With consecrated purpose and with will Cast in my flames thy sense and make of it A fragrance to the gods, and of thy flesh SELENE 165 A vapor of light smoke. For I am one That once suspected shall not ever more Let go of thee, but being invisible Must needs disturb thee ever. Never again Shall earth seem simple to thee, beautiful With shapes familiar and with readable signs, But thou shalt move a stranger in the land And thine own threshold seem an alien thing And thy hearth fearful. Earth shall complain to thee. Then all things shall be haunted and the stones Shall falter words obscure, like men in dreams, Of things unguessed by thee. The dust shall utter A bright foreboding. Sound shall prophesy, The air grow thick with shapes unseen, thy hands Lay hold on wonder and thy heart shall break For mystery of this earth. But thou must be Unto thy kindred as a man unknown, Unheard of, in thy village, and thy words Explain thee to them never. I shall lie About thy spirit with my ancient mirth And vex thy soul in secret, disturbing thee With hurrying brightnesses that come and go And are not unto others, but to thee Obscure dull earth with beauty. Thou shalt sus pect A presence in the solitude, a light 1 66 SELENE Where no light is. This world shall be to thee A voice that cries c Behold ! So all seen things Shall drive thee to my bosom, mine that men Flee from in terror, hating me, the strong, The ancient, the eternal, the wide spread, The many-breasted mother, the Unseen ! Dreadful am I to them; yes, feared the most Of all the gods whom Zeus from the beginning Made separate and supreme, relentless, fierce, The great avenger, scourger of men s souls, Flesh-eater ! Aye ! Me do they hate indeed. And they would slay me in my secret lair And smite me with sharp whips and bleed with swords And drive me to the market branded c slave, Me, the fierce Woman, mistress of living men ! This would they do and nudge each other and cry 4 Well done to one another. But I am set Beyond the reach of hate. Not any sword, No, not the sharpest, can search out my breast Here in my silence where I sit and watch With my eternal laughter and disdain And scorn unspeakable. Justly they fear, For I am goddess of the bow and strike With my bright arrows all who know me not. Yes, with my darts pursue them till they pluck SELENE 167 From out their breasts the bleeding barbs of sense And cast them underneath their feet and fall With faces in the dust crying, Pity us, Oh, Vanquisher of all things ! Ease in us Our sharp affliction, heal our wounds and take Thine anguish from us. Them do I heal indeed. But those who see, yet heed not, being unwise, How this earth trembles and brightness ails and time Blows all things from us like a mist disturbed By silent air; all those that having perceived My dangerous presence have not sought with gifts My altar, and from consecrated urns Pour no libations of rich tears, I scourge With my sharp rods and I unleash my hounds And set them on them, dividing their frantic flesh, And drive them into Hell. For I am queen Of earth and of the shades, and of the gods The dark mysterious mother, and the dead Worship me in deep places. So I set My anguish on them, until they fill the air With lamentation and cast themselves abroad Like men who burn. But thou, Endymion, Hast sought me ever and art not afraid, Feeling earth reel beneath thee, seeing the rocks Soft as dissolving cloud and the strong hills Not more substantial than vague dreams when I 1 68 SELENE Steal forth upon thee. Thou art not dismayed At my strange brightness when I lay my hand Upon the dust and turn to vanishings All that has pleased thee. Thou hast not turned away, Hiding thy face, for fear thou shouldst perceive My shrine, built in the air, that once being found Men worship me forever, and their flesh Floats from them like pale smoke. But I have seen How thou hast sought me, yearning unto me, And all things grow distasteful and thine eyes Weary of all things. I have watched thee ail Among thy kindred, seeing they have grown Alien to thee, not friendly to thy tears, Marvelling at thy laughter and at thy speech Nudging each other ; for thou seest cause For solitary mirth when in their eyes The tears are heaviest. Thou art cast down When they are brave with gladness. Beauty strange Comes on thee unaware and lures thee forth Under their very eyes to a far land That lies betwixt two breaths, and is as deep With hidden beauty as Olympian vales. Then seek me ever, where in a secret place I have for centuries waited, aye, all time SELENE 169 Have waited for thee virgin to the gods, Untouched, unseen of any. Hunt me forth ; Yes, spy upon me in my hiding place Behind the branched forests of the stars In my deep lairs of silence. I would be found, Yes, feel man s eyes upon me and a breath Laid on my eternal sweetness, richly chaste. Rend from me all the shadowy veils of sense That men in the beginning wrought for me In terror lest my loveliness, left bare, Should strike them dead. For I am beautiful, And to men s ways destruction, and to their flesh A menace always. Wherefore do I wear My robes of brightness, spun of gorgeous dyes, Woven of waters and pale stars and hills And lovely sky, and wrought with devious sound And weavings of dim music. Strip from me My mantle of the sun and moon and earth, Seasons and earthquakes and fierce thunderbolts, Heavy with deep mid ocean, soft with tears, Sweet colored with rich buds and mellow fruit, Aglow with mortal smiles and floating hair, And flashing with innumerable eyes. Rend it in twain. Lay hold on it, I say, For what ye dream is solid and stout earth, Is mine apparel, fluttering like smoke About mine inner fire. Oh, be swift, 1 7 o SELENE And watchful with thy spirit, for on hills Invisible to man, in forests deep, Unthought of by the gods, I hunt men s souls, And rush upon them with sharp savage cries. Reach forth thy mighty hands and rend from me The mortal garment, hiding from thine eyes My deep immortal beauty. Unswathe the light. Then, then, Endymion, with what rich reward Shall I delight thee ? With what circumstance Shall I uplift thee to the eyes of the world, A flaming pillar set in a pillar of cloud ? This will I give to thee ; thou shalt be struck With blinding awfulness, and beauty fierce Consume with splendor every mortal dream From thy soul s tissue. Thou shalt sink unsaved From anguish into anguish. Yes, shall drift Like spiritual ashes in a wind of flame. But when I see thee cleansed with beauty, fresh As tenderest mist of morning, mild as dew, With wisdom infantile, helpless as cloud, Lovely as starry water, beneath mine eyes A placid well that knows not anything Save to be bright ; then will I shine on thee. Thou shalt receive my beauty in thy soul As the clear lake accepts the radiant moon ; And I will lead thee to a pleasant land Whose greener vales no eye has ever seen." SELENE 171 But now Endymion stretched his mighty arms Up to the starry heavens and the hills And to the whirling clouds and cried aloud : u How shall I rend this earth in twain or snatch From thy pure being the sky with all its suns, And its strong meteors ? How shall I strip from thee The mountains and the violence of wars, And human breath and mortal loveliness, Woven with spells ! Magical ! Beautiful ! How shall I rid thee of it ? Should I slay Thousands of doves, nature would have a mind To breed again innumerable wings. Shall I stab water at its source ? Unweave The solid earth beneath me ? With what sword Shall I divide the sky and with what chains Bind into slavery the snow-white cloud ? Oh, what is man that he should rend the earth And tear its webs of splendor ? Yet on me Has this desire fallen ! I must turn To ways unheard of and with spiritual hands Unswathe the veils that hide thee, goddess strange, Loved always, terrible. Wherefore I say, Ye sights and sounds of earth, I will deny Your presence to my spirit. I will forbid Touch to my hands and vision to mine eyes. Yes, I will lift my radiant senses up, 172 SELENE Burning with sweetest odors at thy shrine, Like golden vials, to be filled by thee. Thee will I worship only. Never more Shall my thought covet earthly loveliness That is thy vesture, but my will shall turn My spirit to things spiritual. I will rend Thy mortal garment, hiding from mine eyes Thy deep immortal beauty. Lift the veil And from thy secret brightness, unswathe the light. Then lead me forth into a pleasant land Whose greener vales no man has ever seen." But ere his words were done, upon his eyes A flaming spirit rushed, wearing a shape Of virgin nothingness, whose whiteness shone Like frost on fire. She was beautiful Beyond men s prayers for beauty, and she drew Her silvery flesh out of the starlit air And her cold sweetness from the midnight dew. Virginal was she, loveliest, austere With visible purity. A godlike love Swathed her soft shape in plumes of snow-white flame, And unto him she cried " Endymion, What hast thou sworn ? Behold how in a shape I come to thee and out of substance weave A visible semblance for thee of my soul. My flesh is breathed out of the glittering air SELENE 173 And fragrance of the night. I come to thee With beauty terrible to the gods austere But unto thee on fire with love. Lo now, Shall I not tempt thee from my own soul s plea, I that am in her image, beautiful ? Wilt thou refuse me ? Shall my splendor ail Before thee and my loveliness blow out Before thy blindness like a midnight gale ? Lo now I am embodied, lord, for thee, Of sight and sound and sweetest, shyest earth. Wilt thou forswear my visible loveliness For my far spirit, consuming and unseen ? Me thou canst master ! Me thou needst not fear For all my fearful shining ! Me thou canst drive Before thee like a slave, humbled and bright, Meek with afflicted beauty. Thou canst scourge My magic powers to do thy will and I Shall have no word before thee but to cry 4 Master beneath thy hand. But She, my bright And Heavenly Spirit, thou canst not subdue, But she will rule thee always, and thou shalt be Helpless before her. While the moment waits, Wilt thou deny me, whom the gods in vain Have wooed on high Olympus ? Chase me, I say Hunt me, as she has hunted thee, with hounds. Heed not my godlike screams when in the vales 1 74 SELENE I run from thee in terror lest thy breath Shall burn my hurrying whiteness as it flees. Rush on me, seize me, rend me with thy hands Streak me with blood and cast me on the ground Throbbing beneath thine eyes like a white hind Slain by the hunter. Then thou shalt comfort me And lift me to thy bosom, of fleetness shorn, As a wild bird of wings, and pitying My godlike terror, with thy mighty arms Bind my deep pantings back into my breast." But when Endymion saw how beautiful She paled before him, poised in the air Like music amid silvery strings, he cried, u Oh Divine Ghost, that from an invisible shrini Communed with me in secret, save me ! Save My helpless spirit from thy beauty seen. Oh not with wrath avenge thy semblance cast Forth from thy vision, if I shake thy dews Of mortal sweetness, hissing among flames Of sacrificial fire ! Oh sight ! Oh sound ! Oh Beauty seen, begone ! For I am sworn To one invisible ! " . . . Then from the savage precincts of mid-air Rose laughter of disdain and ghost-like tones That uttered things unspeakable and strange. And the Shape wavered like a snow-white cloud SELENE 175 Dispersed at morning. Fearfully she shone, Out of a brightly changing vapor. Then Her starry presence melted on the gale And her pale substance mingled with the stream. But at Endymion s feet in ruin lay All of earth s beauty, and the watchful nymphs Wept in their fastness. Brightness had withered. Shape Was crumbled into dust. From leaf and bough And star and hill and sky, the glory waned. All of earth s splendor, beating round about, Fell back before his sightless eyes as foam, Dashed from the sharp rocks, sinks into the sea. All things whereon his eyes that night had gazed With mortal longing, lay about his feet Like planets dead, while he, obscured with dream, Seemed gazing on some inner thing. The earth Smoked palely forth in curling wreaths. The rocks Swam dizzily. The solid mountains gleamed Like the unsteady sea. Upon the air Melodious ashes blew of music burned. Then did he stand like a god blackened and charred Amid the ruins of the world, transfixed By things invisible but unto him Visible now forever. Only once He seemed like one in traps of anguish snared. 176 SELENE His introspective eyes, in a far place, Fought battles with fierce visions and laid hold Of spiritual horror, nameless and unknown To any man on earth. His body wept Great drops of living tears and his pale flesh Quivered, as if upon an altar lone, They had stretched him bare amid a fire to burn. Once, in the silence, great Endymion groaned. Then did the nymphs with their pure eyes dis cern Another world grow visible. It gleamed Upon the circling vapors of stout earth With sudden brightnesses of tower and dome. Great blazing cities changed upon the gale. Fair courts and blossoming gardens, lovelier groves Than had by mortal eyes been seen. The night Was full of rushing gods, whose large white feet Sloped up the midnight gale. Bright swarms of eyes Flashed in the air like multitudinous stars. Prophetic voices screamed upon the wind. Then from a place, beyond all countries far, Beyond all beauty, beautiful a land Of pleasantness divine, a land unseen There came a godlike and exalted cry And a great voice proclaimed " Endymion ! " But on the bank beside the glittering lake SELENE 177 Sank great Endymion, his limbs, moon-charmed, Stretched in the moss. And the moon sunk and day Reddened and lo out of the glen stole forth Full many a silent-footed wondering nymph To watch his dreaming loveliness. For now His blossoming splendor breathed such fragrance sweet As divine roses yield. His body seemed Like garlands of cool flowers lightly twined About a heavenly fountain of clear flame. His chasted substance shaped of burning snow Shone rose and silver. For a godlike change Had come on him in slumber and he lay In youth eternal, exquisite with dream. Now from his spirit ever and anon A ghostly beauty floated into sight And like a lily in a lake moon-pale Swam in the placid silence of his smile. Then did the nymph who hovered near his sleep Cry to the dryads, " Tis Selene s kiss." Now from his shape divinest odors rose As if a golden casket set in flames Breathed out sweet vapors on a shrine. Warm shades Hovered about him, tender hues obscure And mothlike splendors of invisible wings I 7 8 SELENE Whereby men s eyes had never yet been pleased. Now from the lyre of his exalted flesh Music exhaled, unutterably strange. Now from his secret fountains of delight The radiant smiles up welled and then the nymph Feared not to lean her cold and virgin mouth And sip the scarlet bubble from his lips. All nature fed on him. She cried, " Behold Thou fount of golden loveliness ! thou spring Of silvery sweetness flowing ! thou basin bright Wherein life pours with solemn melodies The music of her waters ! let me drink Of thy immortal presence and not die." But when a goat-herd, wondering that his flocks Were prospered and that they each night returned, Their udders plenteous with fragrant milk And with such odors clinging to their flanks It seemed the nymphs had dressed them with sweet wreaths, Sought out the pastures, wandering at dusk, And in the moonlight stole upon the glen And saw Endymion lying and beheld Him beautiful with slumber and alone, Solemn as alabaster, as austere, Effigied on the silent tomb of night ; Carved in the magic marble of pale sleep ; And saw the unearthly splendor of the grove, SELENE 179 How dark and deep and radiant its trees Swathed in the mystic terror of the night ; How shadowed with black grapes or glowing pale With amber-colored grapes ; and saw strange fruits Strewn on the ground as if invisible boughs Had shed their glories at his feet and saw How from the bee-loved crevices of rock Streamed the warm honey ; and beheld his herd Crop the deep grass whereon Endymion Had shed the fertile shadow of his sleep ; He was affrighted, and stealing silently Out of that grove, god-haunted, he went his way Back to the village and there he told strange things, So that thereafter if a herd grew fat They said, " It is Endymion s." And that land Was prospered like the secret vales that lie In the footholds of Olympus, and they knew The river of Endymion s sacred sleep Had overflowed the valley and blessed its fruits And made its harvests bountiful. But when, Once and again, some vision-haunted youth Would seek the glens and forests and alone Commune with the high gods, they warned him, saying, " Be thou content with thine own kind. At home, i8o SELENE Love thine own thatch and at a quiet hearth Grow old like us, in peace, knowing not much, But living as men live, and at the last Dying as men die, underneath a roof. Commune not with the gods. They give to thee Strange gifts and alien and on thee will bring A doom unhuman." Thus spake they, of their kind, In the small village, fearing the unseen. THE WEDDING FEAST PART I OH who art thou thou fearful guest Too burning bright, too strangely fair ? u / am the deemon of unrest, From the kingdom of the air" Brightness, I bid thee from my door. Off! off! I say, with spur and goad ! " / have come" he cried, " to drive the bride Over a lonely road" But where ? But where ? In earth or air Where would ye hurry me ? u To a bright place we must repair Where She would have us be. " Her power this night is on us both, And I am sent by Her. Pale wandering shape, thou shalt obey Her flaming messenger" Oh let me be for a single night. For a single night, lord, let me be. 1 82 THE WEDDING FEAST The torch is lit, the feast is bright, My love has come to marry me ! u / cannot wait for a single night ! Her voice calls. Jfe must be gone ! Her feast is set with lovelier light And She is whiter than the sun" Oh let me be for a mortal hour, For a mortal hour, lord, let me be, That I may bring my lover the wine And that he may break the bread with me. " / cannot wait for a mortal hour. Her splendor calls us from afar. She fain would sup from a living cup Her radiant hands have lifted up Like the brightness of a star" Oh let me be for a breath of time, For a breath of time, lord, let me be. I shall run more warm through cold and storm If my love has given a kiss to me. u I cannot wait for a breath of time. There j many a league for us to run^ Through brake^ through mire y THE WEDDING FEAST 183 Through frost, through fire, To Her palace of the sun." What shall I do in her palace bright ? Why should she bid me there ? " Love waits outside Her door to-night In Her citadel of air. " Unto Her breast He fain would come, But Him She will not see, Unless the bread She sets for Him Shall of thy body be." She is a witch, bright as the devil. She shall not lay her spells on me. She is a bubble, blown of evil, Pale foam of an unholy sea. u She lifts a goblet from her breast. Like a star She holds it up. She will not bid Him in to feast Unless thy soul is in the cup." Witches feet shall never tread From my soul its precious wine. Her Love shall not go comforted With holy blood of mine ! 1 84 THE WEDDING FEAST " Her lips shall never be the throne Whereon shall rule Her great Love s kiss Unless I snatch theefrom thine own And whirl thee through the dark abyss. " If She lose what She desires Her sufferings will be more than human. She is wrought of Heavenly fires, Greater than any mortal woman. u She would ravage wide and high, Dashed from Her orbit out of space. Meteors should not burn the sky More than the stars Her face" Then let her lose and let her bear Alone her strange and mighty grief. I will not shed a single tear To bring her soul relief. " Thou wilt not ? Nay beneath Her eyes Thou art a helpless creature. She is the music of the skies And thou art wanton nature" Is she of the land of faery, That she should be so brightly cruel, THE WEDDING FEAST 185 In a ghostlike palace airy, Cloud built, set with many a jewel ? Is she charmed and is she spelled ? Is she of magic softly woven ? I will pray to my Lord God. He shall rule her with his rod, The way betwixt us twain be cloven. u She is charmed and She is spelled. She is not of the land of faery. Tes She is brightly cruel Ghostlike^ in a palace airy^ Set with stars like many a jewel. Pray to thy Lord God. She is of such wild magic woven He will not rule Her with His rod Nor shall the road to Her be cloven" Oh goblin bright, thou fierce-eyed sprite, I fear thee with thy spur and goad ! " I am Her Will that drives thy fight On Her appointed road" But who is she whose magic will Seems such a fearful thing ? Tell her I rule my kingdom still, The daughter of a king. 1 86 THE WEDDING FEAST u Thy kingdom is of sea and land, Unstable as the glittering wind. She rules thy nature with Her hand In the kingdom of the mind" Who is she and what is she, That I should follow as night the noon ? " She is deeper than the sky And taller than the fire-white moon, " The sunsets of the eternal years Yield unto Her their mellow wines. The sunrise of all living spheres Her breast incarnadines" I hate her that she shines so bright. I hate her for her elfin dower. I hate her that she rules this night With an unearthly power. Who is she and what is she, Thou blazing, bright, mysterious elf? u She is the empress over thee Thy deep, eternal Self. " As time from out the skies shall thresh The stars with all their ancient fires, THE WEDDING FEAST 187 She bids me scourge from out thy flesh The throbbing of its deep desires. " Wherefore beware ! Wherefore beware ! Her will upon this night be done. I V/ drive thee forth into the air And we will dart into the sun." PART II With fires bedight that magic sprite Leaped upon my back to ride. He was a creature fierce and bright. He struck his spurs into my side. "Oh leave me to my mortal mirth ! I am afraid of that bright spirit. I am too young to quit this earth. Nay, let me this sweet earth inherit. u If I should gaze upon her face A fearful change on me would come. Then I should be estranged with grace, An alien in my home. "When at the hearth I drive my loom And my love gazes in my eyes, 1 88 THE WEDDING FEAST He will see powers and thrones and doom And suns and stars and ancient skies. " Then, when he reaches for my hands, No smallness will he comfort there, But he will touch the seas, the lands, The seasons and the throbbing air. " When from her splendor I return And in the flesh dwell once again, Too mystic warm my heart shall burn To please the hearts of men. " Unearthly bright my brow would gleam To them that hate all brightness still. My laughing calm to them would seem Like snow upon a hill. " They would resent my high emprise, My haunted speech, my echoing mien. I could not shake from out mine eyes The visions they had seen. " I should be charged with errands high, Strange roads should bind my speeding feet. Then I should be a voice, a cry, A portent in the street. THE WEDDING FEAST 189 " I fear her call. I fear her face. I fear the silent, shining change. They will stone me in the market place For uttering lovely things and strange ! " But oh, not they, with living whips, Shall scourge from me my folded wings, Nor burn with flames from off my lips Murmurs of dread ecstatic things. " But yet, abhorring when I go With gracious gifts, sweet as the sky, They in the dust will lay me low, And at the last will crucify. " Lord, let me keep these eyes that weep, This heart that breaks, these wounds to bind, These limbs that leap, that dance, that sleep, And nearness to my kind ! " He laughed aloud, as in a cloud A meteor beats and clings. So in my thought his voice was wrought. He flashed his bright, melodious wings. " Too late ! Too late ! Thou canst not choose. She calls thee from Her radiant spheres. 1 9 o THE WEDDING FEAST What thou dost now with tears refuse To-night thou shalt beseech with tears. u For thou must come to Her with blood, Purged brightly clean with mightiest grief \ With chastened longing and a mood Humble beyond belief. " / // show thee many an empty sight. Through many a void shalt thou run, Until thou wailest for the light In the city of the sun. " Until, deep panting for the light, Thou layest down thy mortal nature. Then shalt thou be transformed and bright, Eternal and angelic creature." PART III That god rode forth upon my mind. He perched upon my affrighted wit, As meteors bristling in the wind Amid their shining plumage sit. I felt his glance around me stream. His flaming hair flew over me. THE WEDDING FEAST 191 His eyes laid hold upon my dream And made me see as he did see. When like great steeds appalled at night My astonished eyes would rear and run, He set his bit upon my sight And made it drive into the sun. He scourged it down into the dust. He drove it down into the stone. It ran as ridden creatures must On magic journeys bound alone. With blood and sweat my wits were wet. He raced them through a solid wall. It was a dream I might forget, A dimness that was not at all. A soft, a pale, a silent thing, My face did cleave and set it by, And underneath its cloudy wing I heard its separate atoms sing Like the great stars in the sky. For what is large and what is small To spiritual eyes ? The great Lord careth not at all For the dream that men call size. 192 THE WEDDING FEAST But what thou dost, that art thou. Lo, The atoms that rehearse Their orbits in the stone are vast As an aeoned universe. The pebble has a curious will That in my hand doth lie. It seems as motionless and still As the zenith in the sky. It seems to make not any sound. It does not hum nor sing. It keeps a helpless simple round Yet is a fearful thing. Its molecules weave in and out, They leap, they plunge, they dive. Up from dark gulfs they whirl about As if they were alive. They live, they dance, they burn, they dit Their Judgment Days draw on apace ! Between their smallest atoms lie Oceans of darkest space. Those atoms ache, they groan, they quake, They hiss, they plunge, they roar ! THE WEDDING FEAST 193 And I that hold a silent stone Lift up a living war. It does not burst, it does not shake, Nor fly dispersed in grains of sand. Its shape is folded over it, Like a divine great hand. It is the hand that lies so still ! It never sets them by. A shape serene, but under it Those whirling atoms dance and flit Like the quick stars in the sky ! This earth, it is not as it seems. It is the strangest place ! Once did I run on solid stones, But now I trod on space. On empty gulfs of space trod I ! Worlds were beneath my feet, And many a brightly speeding sky And heaven spreaded sweet. "Thou magic sprite, fearfully bright, Now have I wandered far. What are these gulfs of roaring night I 9 4 THE WEDDING FEAST Wherein whirls many a flaming star? u Substance, before thy mortal sight, Shows all things as they are" u What is this world so green, so fair, That hovers brightly over me ? " u // is the atom in the air Too small for human eyes to see. u Behold, its forests and its lakes, Its mountains and its rugged scars, And like a bristling mane it shakes Lights of innumerable stars. " // has its sunrise beautiful On shining mountains morning pale. And many a praying temple stands In many a quiet vale. " Its magic towns are brightly set Amid the spacious air. Your heavy earth is the varying breeze That sweetly hovers there, Tour mountains and your solid seas To them are purest air. u Their casements open on the gale But none of them are seen. THE WEDDING FEAST 195 Another earth, another sky, Strange gardens sweetly green ! u No siege to them was ever laid. Unseen their bulwarks are. With gulfs of nearness are they stayed As distance stays the star" u You cannot see their flashing eyes. Their songs and prayers you cannot hear. Oh they seem further than the skies Because they are so near. u A world within your world doth lie, Hidden from mortal men. Another world in that is furled And a thousand worlds again." The solid air around me there Heaved like a roaring ocean. And far and wide on every side I saw the smoking planets ride In waves of angry motion. All faces of all living men Among those waves did glide, A moment palely floated, then Were gulfed amid the tide. 196 THE WEDDING FEAST Amid the gleaming, swimming sea I saw my love drift dimly by. " Oh lure him up, bright sprite, to me, Or I of grief shall die. " Out of this fluid flashing earth Let one thing solid be. His beauteous body that God made, Lord, let it comfort me. <c 1 reach to thee with my hands, my love. On lightnings I lay hold ; On clouds and citadels and domes And kingdoms dark and old. " Through unseen flesh of secret tribes That no man s eyes may see, Through wrath and hate and love and death I lay my hands on thee." I touched his garment and it seemed A mantle wrought of cosmic pain ! Of sighing worlds and dying moons And many a stellar hurricane. For he was clothed in day and night, And aching chills and chaos cold, THE WEDDING FEAST 197 And groaning worlds and mortal blight And all things terrible and old. Then was I far that would be near, And substance was a fearful thing. I was appalled and full of fear, That was the daughter of a king. I plunged to him through whirling night. The stars, the times, I swept aside. Once more, upon his bosom bright, I lay, his own anointed bride. " Oh, let me kiss his lips once more, His sweet lips, or I die. So near they are no gulf, no star Betwixt our breaths shall lie." " Nearness, thou art a fearful thing, And no man sails thy ghostly tide, But angels with a flaming wing On thy strange gulfs can glide. Spirits, that walk on shining feet, Can reach the other side. Across the ocean will we float. Thy kiss shall be a living boat ! " My radiant daemon cried. " My eyes shall leave a fiery trail, 198 THE WEDDING FEAST My spread wings be thy bellying sail^ I will be thy guide." His face gleamed palely at my prow, His spread wings were my sails. His screaming voice bestrid the air As a meteor rides the gales. His glances streamed about my sides, With light they burnished me, Among the sails and in and out His hovering vision flew about As bright as it could be. " What is this ocean, goblin bright, This silent, smooth and crimson sea ? I have sailed all day and sailed all night, Is there no port to left or right Where I might harbored be ? " Above the prow, with happy brow, I saw that radiant daemon shine : " This is that nearness that divides Thy true love s lips from thine. " What is great and what is small ? What is near and what is far ? Unto the Lord that made us all The mote is equal to the star" THE WEDDING FEAST 199 "What is this shore to which I come, Where sunrise reddens into day ? It seems a sweet and pleasant home Where a wanderer might stay. " Laughing folks move to and fro, A gentle tribe are they. The flutes they sing, the pipes they blow, The harps they sweetly play ! " Upon my prow they lay their hands, They draw me swiftly to the shore. What are these heavenly happy lands Where no man ever was before ? a They twine their garlands on my prow. They clothe me in a garment fair. With laughing flowers they crown my brow, Then into happy vales repair. * The goblin spoke that fierce-eyed sprite He swayed me with his spell : " These are thy gardens of delight That in his lips do dwell. Through many a Heaven shalt thou rove In the mystic flesh of him you And many a fearful Hell, 200 THE WEDDING FEAST " His mortal flesh, It is a mesh Of worlds and space and time. A universe, it doth rehearse Old chronicles sublime. u Made in the image of the Lord, Of moons and stars and suns, And round about and in and out His Heavenly nature runs. " And thou art lit into a star That on his lip doth flame. But yet thou art so far more far Than the world from which you came? Amazed, I gazed upon the ground. I looked upon the air. White clouds were floating in the sky And the wind was everywhere. u Why did they greet me when I came And garland me their queen ? " " His substance is thy living land, Thy sacred own demesne." " Thou magic sprite, thou goblin bright, These sweet vales blossom so, THE WEDDING FEAST 201 And forth to gather garlands green The men and maidens go. The flutes they sing, the harps they play, The pipes they sweetly blow ! u // is the joy of bis heart , That keeps perpetual Spring. In him lies furled full many a world, And all rise up to sing. They all rise up to sing to sing Meadow and hill and lea ! His body glows like a sweet new rose Because he dreams of thee" " Thou fierce-eyed sprite, daemonic, bright, The singing season goes. A barren waste, a faded tree, And withering of the rose ! "The maidens with their flowering wreaths Are shedding bitter tears. Their eyes that laughed, their mouths that sang, Are nebulous with years." " It is the passion that devours That eats his flesh away. His youthful gardens glowing green 202 THE WEDDING FEAST Are blasted with decay. Where once they kept their festival, Lo now, the bloodhounds bay, And in his sweetest pastures rove The wild-eyed beasts of prey. This hast thou done that lured too far The urgence of the clay" " The earth is cracked, the sea runs dry, The mountains sink into the ground ! " " // is the wreckage of his flesh From his spirit s grievous wound." " Whence came these priests with eyes austere ? They lay on me their hands. See I am bled with cruel gyves And bound with sullen bands." " Their ancient god in angry mood Looks down on thee with wrathful eyes, Until on altars red with blood Thou art the sacrifice" " Who is that ancient god ? " . . . " His Soul, The great, the high, the superhuman ! He is beautiful and far. THE WEDDING FEAST 203 He is throned upon a star, Waiting for a mystic Woman" " Master of light, thou daemon bright, Now dawns the Judgment Day ! The earth that once did shine so bright Is withered all away. The earth and air and all the skies Are folded up like scrolls, And from the pit in which they cry Comes the wailing of lost souls. * "// is the wrath his Spirit feels For what His flesh has done. He turns to a diviner feast In the city of the sun. In lovelier lands thou canst not see He seeks a cosmic bride. Beneath Her face He gathers grace, He casts His flesh aside. " For thou art Eve and thou dost tempt And lead astray since time began. But She is Mary and brings forth The perfect Man." " But who is she and what is she, Thou blazing, bright, mysterious elf? " 204 THE WEDDING FEAST u She is the empress over thee, Thy deep eternal Self. " Throughout thy flesh He seeks Her face. Her lips He fain would kiss. Wherefore He runs through roaring suns And many a dark abyss" " Thou magic sprite, daemonic, bright, Lay then on me thy goad ! For if he seeks her face to-night I will pursue the self-same road. " Through moon and sun I 11 run. I II rove Through solid earth and flumes of fire ! But I will be his only love, My breast, the end of his desire." " Then shalt thou search through thine ownjlesh Thou shalt not find Him there ! For /<?, V is an enchanted mesh Woven of unearthly air." That goblin bright, that fierce-eyed sprite, Loud and long laughed he. He laid his bit upon my sight And made me see as he did see. THE WEDDING FEAST 205 The atoms of my body stirred, Chanting cosmic tunes. Through gulfs of time they wheeled and veered Or through deep spaces dipped and steered, Like great white separate moons. In the caverns of my brain I saw fierce planets whirl and dip, Burn in the hollow of my hand Or slide along my finger tip. Where once my flesh was wont to be, Great comets swept their fearful wars. My bone, it shone with fires and seas, My body shook with stars. Sunsets with gold and scarlet crest Through my flesh did gleam, did glide ; Through flashing hair and swimming breast, Melting forehead and trembling side. Brightness, I see a shape that runs. I see it sink ! I see it rise ! Sometimes it clings to gorgeous suns And now it drowns in dizzy skies." Thee He searches through and through, Every world that in thee lies^ 206 THE WEDDING FEAST Seeking for a Heavenly Woman In an ancient Paradise" "But who is she whose spirit face Appears to him so fair, so high ? Is she clothed in deeper grace ? Is she more beautiful than I ? " u She is enthroned on high afar. Moons are wreathed about Her brow. She shines brightlier than a star, She is more beautiful than thou" " Who is she and what is she, In her citadel of air ? Where can her secret bosom be, That I may stab her, heavenly fair ? " " She is hid in a palace of light, Deeper than the midmost sky. If thou shouldst wound Her breast to-night, Swiftly, swiftly, wouldst thou die." Who is she ? . . . What is she ? Thou blazing, bright, mysterious elf!" u She is the empress over thee, Thy deep eternal self . THE WEDDING FEAST 207 " He follows Her through cloud and star, He follows Her through death and dream, Into a land lovely and far ! Her kingdom holy Is lit with a spiritual gleam. " With blessed food They shall be fed, In Her citadel divine. Thy flesh shall be the immortal bread, Thy soul the everlasting wine." "Let me gaze upon her face That is so beautiful, so far. Let me behold her blinding grace Throned upon her midmost star. "I will rend her with my hands Hostile, bright, fearfully high. I will wound her where she stands. Then swiftly, swiftly, let me die." " Beware ! Beware ! I say beware ! Her eyes shall burn thee like the sun. She is fierce and She is fair, Her will upon this night be done" 208 THE WEDDING FEAST PART IV What strange pavilions builded bright Shine in the upper air! Scourged with sharp rods of living Iight 5 How swiftly was I there! She was more radiant than the noon, More innocent than the gentlest sky, Taller than the fire-white moon ! She was more beautiful than I. Her garments, blown about my breast, Were music in my heart and brain. They were more exquisite than rest, More terrible than pain. Before God s eyes She met Her mate. Not yet They throbbed with single bliss. Their silent lips, austere, elate, Dreamed of the great forbidden kiss. " Never, never shall it be! They shall not go comforted, Until They strain Their wine of thee, And eat thee for Their daily bread. THE WEDDING FEAST 209 " If They lose what They desire, Greater than mortal man or woman, They shall be dispersed in fire. Their sufferings shall be superhuman" All about on every side I saw the blazing planets go. Ashes of Judgment Days did ride On gales as white as snow. Many a laughing Paradise Stricken in the air did ail, And many a spent and anguished moon Blackened the midnight gale. Each to each with grievous cry, Withered from its living mesh, And well I knew that they were I, The weavings of my mortal flesh. She could not rule them with desire Nor bid them from their eternal pain, Until my breath had blown the fire By which they should be purged again. "Lay me in Her altar flame, Thou blazing, bright, mysterious elf. 210 THE WEDDING FEAST She is the empress over me, My deep eternal Self. " Splendor, let me be Thy wine, Crimson, in a starry cup. Let me be Thy drink divine. Pour me forth and drink me up. " Seize me, Splendor, where I stand ! On my substance be Thou fed. Break me with Thy radiant hand Anguished and nutritious bread. "Then no more, not any more, Shall I hate and worship Thee ! But Thy kiss, shaped of my death, Be the utter end of me. u In Thy citadel of air Fearful art Thou, like the sun. Thou art fierce and Thou art fair ! Thy Will upon this night be done." PART V At last from dreamless sleep I came, The seeds of fire were in my eyes. THE WEDDING FEAST 211 I seemed to come from blood and flame As from a sacrifice. Oh in that sleep where had I been, What fearful pathways had I trod? What had i done? What had I seen ? That I should feel so near to God ! Upon an altar had I lain. With snow-white fire they wrapped me round. I can remember that vast pain, Spiritual, profound. For centuries in a speechless place I was a spent and anguished thing. They drifted flame upon my face. I was a sacred offering. I waked and peace was in my eyes, And happiness did me enfold; A single sleep had made me wise, Serene, immeasurably old. My mortal dream I had laid by And no desire had I now. Wrapped in eternal calm was I And peace was throned upon my brow. 212 THE WEDDING FEAST Strange was the place where I had been. It seemed to me like deepest Hell. Lo, now I glistened, brightly clean, Detached, immutable, and well. And oh, I was not any more As I had been, unhappy, human, But beauteous as I was before, Greater than any mortal woman. The sunsets of the eternal years Poured forth for me their mellow wine. I felt the sunrise of the spheres My breast incarnadine. All abroad, on every side, Singing stars did shine and beat, And they were messengers of joy On beautiful swift feet. Then with my looks I bade them move With laughter down the sweet blue years, And they were globed of loveliest love, Roseate and angelic spheres. Each to each did cry and sing Out of their bright melodious mesh. THE WEDDING FEAST 213 And lo I knew each laughing star Was spun into my earthly flesh. Beautiful, before my eyes Strangest light they did receive. Orbs of sweetest Paradise ! Gardens where God walked at eve ! For I was come into a place Wherefrom all things are wrought, I shaped my body forth in space In myriad orbs of thought. Upon the earth, in her father s hall, I saw a simple maiden stand. A thousand worlds, I held them all, Her mystic body, in my hand. Sweetly to me my great Love came. "Love, I have waited long," He said. I poured for Him the mystic wine. He gave me white angelic bread. Then did we glow with rapture high ! We felt a deep, ethereal bliss. He laid me on His breast. I gave To my great Love, a holy kiss. 214 THE WEDDING FEAST PART VI No more no more not any more Those daemon eyes were bent on me. I was a maid as I was before. My love had come to marry me. They knew not of my spirit s flight, Guessed not my starry wandering. The torch was lit, the feast was bright, For the daughter of the king. In at the door my true love came. Trembling, I looked into his eyes. I saw the stars of memory flame, Eternal as the skies. I cried, " When I abroad did rove You saw me shine, exalted, strange. Lo now, the miracle of love In me, a silent, shining change. " Forevermore my wings must reach And in fair skies must brightly spread. My mouth must utter beauteous speech, And stars must shine above my head. THE WEDDING FEAST 215 " A change has come on me. Mine eyes Are spiritual and I must see Another world and stranger skies Than ever used to be. " Nothing is now as once it seemed Before I ran with the daemon bright. Beauty has out of terror streamed, All in a single night ! " I cried, " What change has come/ on death, That I no more corruption see, But breathe a keener breath ? It is a change in me ! I have grown ethereal, Exalted, immaterial, Wiser and merrier than I used to be. u When I regard the church-yard dust And touch the grain of dead men s bones, My sight, as spirit vision must, Sinks through the melting stones. " I seem to hear upon the air A sweet, a multitudinous sound ! Ten thousand creatures dancing there Make beautiful the ground. 216 THE WEDDING FEAST u The fountains leap ! The fountains spring ! They heal me with their cool delight ! I weep, and merrily I sing, A creature passionately bright. " I feed upon the loveliest fruit That ever shone on any tree. I bite its mild mysterious root, I dance in ecstasy. Gleaming softly in and out Calm dead people move about As happy as can be. " I cannot grieve ! I cannot weep ! I cannot see an unholy thing ! Behold a corpse laid out to sleep. Death swathed it in a living wing, And underneath that snow-white plume I heard a happy creature sing. " For now love s breath is in my hair, Mine eyes have seen the greater bliss. My smiling lips shall always wear The splendor of my great Love s kiss. u Now must they be deep wells of truth, Wherefrom a fount of beauty springs. THE WEDDING FEAST 217 The mouth, whereon His lips were pressed, Shall murmur dread ecstatic things." I laughed aloud " Love, we are gods, Beyond all earthly bars ! And underneath our feet the sod Is suns and moons and stars. " We gather meteors in our hands, We drink the bubbling spheres. Our bread is seas and lands. We breathe The cyclones of the years. " Our garments bright are woven of light, Of golden stars and whirling air. And times and change and histories strange, And Judgment Days, are acted there. " Thy shape is white with murmuring moons, Woven of strong stars thy body is. Thou art those flashing orbs my soul, Their ancient melodies ! " Now are we one before God s sight, Purged brightly clean with mightiest grief, With chastened longing and a mood Humble beyond belief. zi 8 THE WEDDING FEAST " Love, thou art Priest at Heaven s shrine ! The Truth thou knowest, cry again ! My breasts are beautiful with milk. I am mother to all living men ! " DOMINUS VINEAE; SPIRITUS AGRICOLA 1 Once more among our archangelic hills The streets of this old, grave, and gracious town Throb with renewing vigor as when Spring Rushes upon the forest and through it spills Her ancient rapture. Now the campus thrills With feet that run and voices that sing. It is the College in her bourgeoning ! Happy are we Returning homeward that we still can see In the old places The tenderly remembered kindly faces Of those who taught us wisdom in our youth; In faith established, having made plain the truth Of beautiful friendship, honorably proved ; Yes, in a chastened and a lofty mood Of thoughtful gratitude Seeing once more in the accustomed ways 1 This ode was read at the assembly of alumnae, held June I4th, 1910, in commemoration of the thirty-seven years of service of L. Clark Seelye, first president of Smith College, 1873-1910. 220 DOMINUS VINEAE Him whom we come to praise, Presence revered and loved. Ever among life s solemn things Are such rejoicings. Beneath the laughter and the song there fall Rich silences, And stronger cadences, And deeper voices call " Ending is here " and cycles new and strange Sweep through the air a solemn undertone. Deeper than depth beneath all things are blown The rushings of the invisible wings of change. Not ours to know His deep rejoicings When with strict vigilance and with secret pains He turned to visible gains Hard and invisible things. Not ours the solemn splendor of those wings That in his sombre vigils of the night Seized him with visions excellently bright. Not ours the speechless grievings, The glorious believings, When with a glad surmise He saw the future with prophetic eyes. Not ours to know, DOMINUS VJNEAE 221 During laborious years, The downcast moment or with what aching need He watched upon the bursting of the seed ; Nor the interior spiritual tears That are the bitter waterings Of all heroic things ; Nor amid what savor of his midnight prayer The Spirit came upon him with a mood That drove him forth into the solitude Of sleepless, holy watching. And he went. And beholding a vision wonderfully fair He wrestled with the Lord before the tent. But ours is the harvesting, The joyous bringing-in, The drinking of the wine That is the vintage of his thought benign. Ours is the glory won ! What ritual shall be done ? What shall be said ? Ye feasters upon bread Made of nutritious grain, The very kernel of his faith and pain ! Upon this day There is accomplished a great deed, A beautiful fruition From the small sowing of an early seed. 222 DOMINUS VINEAE Behold, a work is brought into completion. Let us rejoice, for we have need I say, Of every praiseful speech and loving word, Knowing that when night falls upon this town A good man has laid down His fruits upon the table of the Lord. Behold the Pioneer ! Stout-hearted, with keen eyes, of vision clear, A natural searcher for such land as lies In distant seas and under alien skies. Would I might trace The courtly quaintness and the austere grace, The angelic shrewdness of that kindly face, Inscribed with characters, as if lightning-struck God s gracious scripture was engraved on rock. A son of our New England stock, Serene, high-souled, and exquisitely plain As mountain air is, after a cold rain ! But yet with no severity In his sweet austerity ! So charitably mild I think that any child Would run to meet him if he only smiled ! I like to muse On his first simple strenuous days DOMINUS VINEAE 123 And the high-hearted girls that greatly kept Their great companionships With sages, prophets, poets. With what glad eyes They tripped, girl-wise, Through many a blossoming Paradise ! In flower-sweet vales where dreaming Pindar slept The bees left honey on their lips. In classic porticos of thought, By Grecian boys befriended, With lofty speech and young imaginings They jealously attended High counsels held on spiritual things, Angelic human. Still by mankind forbidden, they eagerly sought What Diotima unto Plato taught And Socrates learned from a mystic Woman. Yes it should be our glory and elation That among the earliest women of this nation They vowed themselves to that great exploration. How many a girl has set Her face against the unhuman wind that blows From the imperishable snows Of mathematical glaciers and beheld Such fierce auroral splendors as not yet Have shown in gentler climates, but flash forth Out of the frozen north 224 DOMINUS VINEAE Of ultimate thought that has not any pole ; Or has explored the regions of the soul And from some philosophic precipice Has swept Her innocent vision over the dark abyss Of mortal night ; With spirit lowly And with dreaming eyes Has guarded well the sight Of visions lovely and holy, And half a child, in solitude, has kept Her solemn watch beneath the infinite skies. Look we arise Before the elder daughters gathered here. Scanning young faces with gaze steady and clear, They search them and require A spiritual accounting and a just. " How have ye answered to the sacred trust ? Before the lamps we lighted have ye slept ? Have ye forsook the service ? or have ye kept Your spirits constant and your minds austere ? Out of our vessels have ye spilt the wine ? Are ye troubled with a spiritual yearning ? Are ye dream-enchanted ? What are your visions ? Are your souls star- haunted ? DOMINUS VINEAE 225 Speak, in the fennel is the fire still burning? Is the incense good ? Is the fragrance pungent and fine? What prayers do ye breathe over it ? Ye unknown daughters of this generation, In sacred places is the service fit ? And with the old mysterious elation, Ye younger vestals, have ye kept the shrine ? Oh, is the flame upon our altars lit ? " Last night among our academic trees Gleamed golden bubbles, globes of scarlet light, Blue stars, and moons diaphanously white, As if great comets blew through our mortal night A fiery and a planetary seed. Then was there laughter and such sights indeed As once we never dreamed. It seemed As if the altar spirit had been spent In delirious merriment. Amid the ancient falling of the dew Flashed spirits white, the very maddest crew That ever charmed the grass with dances new. Like morning stars singing in the deep skies ! With silvery halloo and gracious cries Of friendship ! Why, in such a magic air, 226 DOMINUS VINEAE One looked no more for any mortal thing, But for such faery pageants as were seen When Vivian dressed in green Charmed Wisdom into strange imagining. Then, as of gay and friendly fauns, Were daintiest skippings on the lawns, Bright screams and singing calls Of innocent Bacchanals, While through the darkness in delicious swirls, Sport beguiled, Delicately wild, Swept lightly frenzied girls. Sedulously the elders catechize, But to the watchful query of their eyes Gaze back young eyes as clear. u Before the lamps ye lighted we have not slept. Still, still do we behold with ritual lowly Visions and things unutterably holy, And with strict pain and vigilance have kept Our spirits constant and our minds austere. Even as of old our spiritual waters Are troubled with the angels. Oh, believe ! Now, as of old, communing with His daughters God walks among these gardens in the eve." Now, as of old ! Still do the orchard trees DOMINUS VINEAE 227 Bear fruits for ardent girls. In Paradise Forget-me-nots still look with childlike eyes. To the intimate skies Point familiar towers. It is no alien grace That mocks from a strange face. Unspeakably ours ! But the old Spirit, with influence divine, Is worshiped still upon this mystic shrine. Happy are they who in their youth inherit That vast and lovely Spirit To whom our steps are led The invisible, scarce dreamed of, superhuman, The Ultimate Woman The moon of Heaven is underneath Her feet And twelve bright stars are orbed about Her head. Oh, let it on this day of him be said, He had the sight, The interior vision, and he saw such things, As John the Beloved dreamed on. And he came, And raised a holy altar in the night, And that Her presence should be known by flame He set upon Her shrine an eternal light. So did the Seer remind us, Lest the new morning blind us, 228 DOMINUS VINEAE That beauty and youth and youth s own spiritual yearning, All loves and aspirations, Hard labors and elations, All passionate learning, Should be the oil to that holy burning. Wherefore let us wisdom take And of it make A garment innocent and fair Radiant as the early air. Let us turn it into Spring : Out of ancient, alien dust Wake a joyous blossoming ; With a heart of ardent trust Refreshing earth with untouched dew, Cultures exquisite and new, Praising him, if praise we can, That in a time when men on Customs lean, By a great man, Womanhood has been beautifully seen. Oh man of battles! Hero in God s sight ! Zealous fighter for the right, Stout wielder of the sword, Lover of things desirable and hard ! DOMINUS VINEAE 229 How beautiful he goes ! As graciously as a rose Unfolds its sweetness to a larger light ! The work achieved and with the Lord put by, He goes to other deeds, Fulfilling unseen needs, To greatnesses hard and high. By his influence benign, And by his battles at the great redoubt, By his purged and chastened sight, That saw a Woman raised upon the night Oh by his faith divine, And the pure flame he set upon Her shrine, Let not that light go out. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. DEC 2 4 tt75 DEC 21976 LD 21-100m-9, 48(B399sl6)476 I D I 0; 25 304235 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY