Classic Poem

S OENE — Heaven .

God .

E TERNITY hath snowed its years upon them;
And the white winter of their age is come,
The World and all its worlds; and all shall end.
S ERAPHIM . God! God! God!
As flames in skies
We burn and rise
And lose ourselves in Thee!
Years on years!
And nought appears
Save God to be.
God! God! God!
To us no thought
Hath Being brought
Toward Thee that doth not move!
Years on years!
And what appears
Save God to love?
God! God! God!
All Thou dost make
Lies like a lake
Below Thine infinite eye:
Years on years!
And all appears
Save God to die.
C HERUBIM . As sun and star,
How high or far,
Show but a boundless sky;
So creature mind
Is all confined
To show Thee, God, most High.
The sun still burns,
The sun still turns
Round, round himself and round;
So creature mind
To self's confined,
But Thou God hast no bound!
Systems arise,
Or a world dies,
Each constant hour in air;
But creature mind,
In Heaven confined,
Lives on like Thee, God! there.
S ERAPHIM AND C HERUBIM . God! God! God!
Thou fill'st our eyes
As were the skies
One burning, boundless sun!
While creature mind,
In path confined,
Passeth a spot thereon.
God! God! God!
L UCIFER . Ye thrones of Heaven, how bright, how pure ye are:
How have ye brightened since I saw ye first!
How have I darkened since ye saw me last!
What is the dark abyss of fire, and what
The ravenous heights of air, o'er which I reign,
In agony of glory, to these seats?
The loathsome cavern of the oracle,
O'er which ye rise in templed majesty,
Filled with the incense of all worshippers,
And echoing with the eloquence of God,
Which rolls in sunny clouds around the heavens.
Yet must I work through world and life my fate:
And winding through the wards of human hearts,
Steal their incarnate strength. Death does his work
In secret and in joy intense, untold,
As though an earthquake smacked its mumbling lips
O'er some thick peopled city. But for me,
Exists nor peace nor pleasure, even here,
Where all beside, the very faintest thought,
Is rapture. I will speak to God as erst.
Father of spirit, as the sun of air!
Beginning of all ends, and end of all
Beginnings, throughout whole Eternity;
From whom Eternity and every power
Perfect, and pure cause, is and emanates!
Originator without origin!
End without end! Creator of all ages,
And sabbath of all Being; who hast made
All numbers sacred, who art all and one!
At whose right hand the wisdom of all worlds
Combined, is only fearful foolishness
Or inarticulate madness, — and Thou, Lord!
Maker and Perfecter of all, the one!
Being above all Being, God the Life!
Who art the way whereon the world proceeds
From God, all-making, and whereby returns
The ever generated universe! —
Who rulest all worlds in the law of light,
Thy nature and their own; who art before
All ages, angels, blessed, times and worlds!
Word that in every world art safe to save
All souls, impregned with spirit, God-begot!
And Thou eternal spirit-Deity!
The sanctifier of the universe!
Being, and Life, and spirit, who dost make,
Destroyest, recreatest, makest God!
God one and Trine! Thou seest me here again;
Still, sunlike, though eclipsed, of blinding power
And fiery cause, and everness of ill;
Behold I bow before Thee; hear Thou me!

God .

What wouldst thou, Lucifer?
L UCIFER . There is a youth
Among the sons of men I fain would have
Given up wholly to me.

God .

He is thine,
To tempt.
L UCIFER . I thank Thee, Lord!

God .

Upon his soul
Thou hast no power. All souls are mine for aye.
And I do give thee leave to this that he
May know my love is more than all his sin,
And prove unto himself that nought but God
Can satisfy the soul He maketh great.
L UCIFER . Thou God art all in one! Thy infinite
Bounds Being. Thou hast said the world shall end
The world is perfect, as concerns itself,
And all its parts and ends; not as towards Thee.
So man is likest and unlikest God,
Of all existence; therefore doth as much
Resemble Thee as any act a mind.
In him of whom I ask, I seek once more
To tempt the living world, and then depart.
T HE H OLY G HOST . And I will hallow him to the ends of Heaven,
That though he plunge his soul in sin like a sword
In water, it shall nowise cling to him.
He is of Heaven. All things are known in Heaven,
Ere aimed at upon earth. The child is chosen.
S AINTS . Another soul
The Holy one
Hath chosen out of earth;
And there is none
Throughout the whole
Like worthy of his birth.
G UARDIAN A NGEL . Oh! who hath joy like mine? was I not here
When from Thy boundless bosom, as a star
Out of the air, that soul was kindled, Lord!
And given to me to guard and guide — while both,
Mid starry strains out of the depths of Heaven,
Fell at Thy feet in worship? — joy of joys!
To you, ye saints and angels, let me speak;
For ye I see rejoice with me. Ye know
What 'tis to triumph o'er temptation, what
To fall before it; how the young spirit faints —
The virgin tremor, the heart's ebb and flow,
When first some vast temptation calmly comes
And states itself before it, like the sun
Low looming in the west, above the wave
Of wimpling streamlet, ere its waters grow
To size aortal. Than the Fiend himself
There is no greater evil. Less the shame
Of yielding, more the glory of conquering,
In him, to whom he goes, this soul elect.
From infancy through childhood, up to youth,
Have I this soul attended; marked him blest
With all the sweet and sacred ties of life; —
The prayerful love of parents, pride of friends,
Prosperity, and health and ease, the aids
Of learning, social converse with the good
And gifted, and his heart all-lit with love,
Like to the rolling sea with living light; —
Hopeful and generous and earnest; rich
In commune with high spirits, loving truth
And wisdom for their own divinest selves:
Tracking the deeds of the world's glory, or
Conning the words of wisdom, Heaven-inspired,
As on the soul, in pure effectual ray,
The bright, transparent atoms, thought by thought,
Fall fixed for evermore. And thus his days,
Through sunny noon, or mooned eve, or night
Star-armied, shining through the deathless air,
All radiantly elapsed, in good or joy.
All this, for long, I marked. There grew at length,
A change within his spirit; and I feared
A fatal and a final fall from good.
God's love seemed lost upon him. He became
Heart-deadened. Watching, warning, vain, I fled
Hither to intercede with God our Lord,
To bless him with salvation. We may plead
Alway for those we love, by leave divine.
Nor knew I till this moment, with all Heaven,
That, in the righteous providence of God,
That soul was saved. Thou knowest, Lord! the mould
Of mortals, and the infinite end whereto
The souls Thou savest are predestinate;
Oh! be Thy mercy mighty to this soul,
Fiend-threatened; nor permit him who presides
O'er Hell's eternal holocaust, too far
To tempt or tamper with the heart of man! —

God .

My mercy doth outstretch the universe;
Shall it not be sufficient for one soul?
L UCIFER . I am the wrath of God unto myself,
And made by Him to do my part. Do thou
Thine! they are far enough apart I ween.
G UARDIAN A NGEL . The heaven-strung chords of man's immortal soul
Are not for thee to wither at thy will.
Bear witness, all ye blessed, to the word; —
Angels, intelligences, sons of God!
Ye who know nought but truth, feel nought but love,
Will nought but bliss, do nought but righteousness
Whose life was ere the Heavens were conceived,
The stars begotten, or the ages born;
Ye many ordered hierarchies, which are
The love, truth, justice, majesty, and might,
Dominion, glory, wisdom, bliss of God;
Ye through whose ministry of mercy — His
Immediate, ever instant, active, all
Spirits and worlds are governed — age by age
Gazing and gaining glory; ye who stand,
Stirless, before the throne, entranced in joy;
Or ye, whose life is to present all souls
Reborn to their Creator; or to search
The golden globed skies for deeds of grace;
And ye who move all Heavens, in whose names
The name of God is, as in angels' all;
The crown, the wisdom, the intelligence,
Kindness, and strength and beauty, splendor, worth,
Original and rule; and ye who move
Restless around the throne, the burning seven,
The virtue, power, salvation, fire, and rest,
Blessing and praise of God; and ye who rule
Regions or kingdoms, states, tribes, families,
Ages and times, and seasons, and events;
Systems and elements, material powers,
Mental and spiritual; or ye who bear
Souls from the heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
Ye tenants of the archetypal worlds
And spiritual spheres; and you, ye saints!
Freed once on earth into the liberty
Of the necessity which is of God;
Yours are the many multitudes of stars,
And bliss and power for ever, ye are gods!
And live an endless life, bespoken here;
Bear witness, all, that happiness succeeds
To godliness; and that, despite of sin,
The world may recognize in all time's scenes,
Though belts of clouds bar half its burning disk,
The overruling, overthrowing power,
Which by our creature purposes works out
Its deeds, and by our deeds its purposes.
L UCIFER . God! for thy glory only can I act,
And for thy creatures' good. When creatures stray
Farthest from Thee, then warmest towards them burns
Thy love, even as yon sun beams hotliest on
The earth when distant most.

God .

The earth whereon
He dwells, this grain selected from the sands
Of life, dies with him.
L UCIFER . God! I go to do
Thy will.

God .

Thou, too, who watchest o'er the world
Whose end I fix, prepare to have it judged.
A NGEL OF Earth . Let me not then have watched o'er it in vain.
From age to age, from hour to hour I still
Have hoped it would grow better — hope so now:
'T is better than it once was, and hath more
Of mind and freedom than it ever had.
I love it more than ever. Thou didst give
It to me as a child. To me earth is
Even as the boundless universe to Thee;
Nay, more! for Thou couldst make another. It is
My world. Take it not from me, Lord! Thou, Christ,
Mad'st it the altar where thou offeredst up
Thyself for the creation. Let it be
Immortal as Thy love. And altars are
Holy; and sister angels, sister orbs
Hail it afar as such. Oh! I have heard
World question world and answer; seen them weep
Each other if eclipsed for one red hour,
And of all worlds most generous was mine,
The tenderest and the fairest.
L UCIFER . Knowest thou not
God's son to be the brother and the friend
Of spirit everywhere? Or hath thy soul
Been bound for ever to thy foolish world?
A NGEL . Star unto star speaks light, and world to world
Repeats the password of the universe
To God; the name of Christ — the one great word
Well worth all languages in earth or Heaven.
S ON OF God . Think not I lived and died for thine alone,
And that no other sphere hath hailed me Christ.
My life is ever suffering for love.
In judging and redeeming worlds is spent
Mine everlasting being.
L UCIFER . Earth he next
Will judge; for so saith God.
A NGEL OF Earth . Be it not, Lord!
Thou art a God of goodness and of love;
He is the evil of the universe,
And loveth not the earth, Thy Son, nor Thee.
Thou knowest best.
L UCIFER . Behold now all yon worlds!
The space each fills shall be its successor.
Accept the consolation!
A NGEL OF Earth . Earth! oh, Earth
L UCIFER . 'Tis earth shall lead destruction; she shall end.
The stars shall wonder why she comes no more
On her accustomed orbit, and the sun
Miss one of his eleven of light; the moon,
An orphan orb, shall seek for earth for aye,
Through time's untrodden depths and find her not
No more shall morn, out of the holy east,
Stream o'er the amber air her level light;
Nor evening, with the spectral fingers, draw
Her star-sprent curtain round the head of earth;
Her footsteps never thence again shall grace
The blue sublime of heaven. Her grave is dug.
I see the stars, night-clad, all gathering
In long and dark procession. Death's at work.
And, one by one, shall all yon wandering worlds,
Whether in orbed path they roll, or trail,
In an inestimable length of light,
Their golden train of tresses after them,
Cease; and the sun, centre and sire of light,
The keystone of the world-built arch of heaven,
Be left in burning solitude. The stars,
Which stand as thick as dewdrops on the fields
Of heaven, and all they comprehend, shall pass.
The spirits of all worlds shall all depart
To their great destinies; and thou and I.
Greater in grief than worlds, shall live as now.
In hell's dark annals there is something writ,
Which shall amaze man yet. There! to thy earth
A NGEL OF Earth . There is a blind world, yet unlit by God,
Rolling around the extremest edge of light;
Where all things are disaster and decay,
The outcast of all being; no one thing
Fitting another: that is fit for thee.
Be that thy world! but not the living earth.
Stretch forth Thy shining shield, oh God! the heavens,
Over the prostrate earth, an armed friend,
And save her from the swift and violent hell
Her beauty hath enchanted! from the wrath
Of love like his, oh save her, though by death!

God .

Destruction and salvation are the hands
Upon the face of time. When both unite,
The day of death dawns. Every orb exists
Unto its preappointed end: and earth,
My creature, the elect of worlds, ere all
Is saved. The world shall perish as a worm
Upon destruction's path; the universe
Evanish like a ghost before the sun,
Yea like a doubt before the truth of God,
Yet nothing more than death shall perish. Then,
Rejoice ye souls of God, regenerate,
Ye indwellers divine of Deity;
In Him ye are immortal as Himself!
S ON OF God . O'er all things are eternity and change,
And special predilection of our God.
Thou who createst souls, as the sun clouds,
Out of the sea of spirit, sire of both
The first and second natures of Thy Son,
In whom the maker and the made make one,
Deific spirit! who in every world
Payeth creation's penalties; in all,
Is heir of God and nature, and in Thee,
And in self-worship, Deifies himself!
And you blest spirits for whom I died, for whom,
Forefated, fore-atoned for from the first,
All heaven reserves the fulness of its bliss;
Creator and created! witness, both,
How I have loved ye, as God-natured life
Alone can love and suffer! Let the earth
And every orb, the offspring of all air,
Perish; but all I die for, live for me.

God .

The earth shall not be when her sabbath ends,
In the high close of order.
L UCIFER . Heaven, farewell!
Hell is more bearable than nothingness.
T HRONES . Thou, God, art Lord of mercy! and Thy thoughts
Are high above the star-dust of the world!
D OMINATIONS . Yet o'er the meanest atom reignest Thou
Omnipotent as o'er the universe!
P OWERS . Thy might is self-creative, and Thy works,
Immortal, temporal, destructible,
Are ever in Thy sight and blessed there!
The heavens are Thy bosom, and Thine eye
Is high o'er all existence; yea the worlds
Are but Thy shining foot-prints upon space!
P RINCEDOMS . Eternal Lord! Thy strength compels the worlds,
And bows the heads of ages; at Thy voice
Their unsubstantial essence wears away.
V IRTUES . All-favoring God! we glory but in Thee.
Ye Heavens exalt, expand yourselves! they come,
The infinite generations, all Divine,
Of Deity, our brethren and our friends!
A RCHANGELS . Thou who hast thousand names, as night hath stars,
Which light Thee up to eye create, yet not
One thousandth part illumine Thy boundlessness,
Nor that abyss of Being 'midst of which
Thy countless wonders constellate themselves;
Thy light, the light we dwell in shall at last
Fulfil the universe, and all be bliss;
The consummation of all ages come.
We praise Thee for Thy mercies, and for this,
The first, and last, and greatest of all boons.
A NGELS . Thee God! we praise
Through our ne'er sunsetting days,
And Thy just ways,
Divine:
In Thy hand is every spirit,
And the meed the same may merit;
All which all the worlds inherit
Are Thine!
It is not unto creatures given
To scale the purposes of Heaven,
Alway just and kind;
But before Thy mighty breath,
Life and spirit, dust and death,
The boundless All is driven,
Like clouds by wind.
A NGEL OF Earth . Woe! woe at last in Heaven!
Earth to death is given;
The ends of things hang still
Over them as a sky;
Do what we will,
All's for eternity!