Scene 7
Scene VII
A WORLD IN DELUGE.
CAIN .
Sounds strange and dreadful howl within mine ears,
Like the fierce roar of brutes in agony;
Whirlwinds cleave by us on invisible wings;
The stars are hidden; mountainous peaks shoot forth
Abrupt, from gulfs of eddying mists; I hear
The hollow sound of rushing deeps; I see
Vapour and cloud.
LUCIFER
Now!
CAIN .
God, or what thou art,
Aid me! — I sink.
LUCIFER .
All have their paths ordained;
Thine is forewritten.
CAIN .
Lo, yon waters sweep
Above the world, as if, having strangled it,
Their wrath would waste itself upon the air.
What shapes of life are heaved o'er their wild ooze!
Trees, rocks, are hurled together; unknown forms
Rolled weltering along, to find no shore.
The din of wrecks and roaring surges drown.
The war of thunders; the red sun is hidden;
A leaden circle shadows forth his crown,
And lurid lights gleaming through clouds attest
The path of the destroying Angel. Where
Are they, the dwellers? were there here who lived,
And whither are they gone? —
LUCIFER .
Destroyed; their life
Melted again to its first elements.
Behold yon peak that overlooked the world,
The last uncovered, lowering while you gaze.
CAIN .
I see the foam drift over it like smoke,
But nothing further.
LUCIFER
Look on it again!
CAIN .
A living thing, a human shape is there,
A solitary Man, or doth he live?
He stands fixed as the rock behind him, looking
As if he were the lord of elements
That howling, claim him as their sacrifice.
A woman motionless lies at his feet;
Her arms stretched out in stony lifelessness!
Yet, happier she, watched o'er and loved by him.
He looks toward the clouds as if he dared
Their wrath, as if nothing could move him more.
LUCIFER .
Power dwells with him in his abandonment,
The element subjected to his will.
Spirits, as worlds, pursue their paths ordained;
He forms his own, and sinks, a conqueror,
Amid a sinking world. If thou dost feel
The great truth, thou in spirit art as he.
CAIN .
He raises her, and, ere the waves o'erwhelm,
He meets them midway; they have plunged within
The great deep; they have sunk together.
LUCIFER .
He
Weakly lamented not his end; he fought
And fell in silence.
CAIN .
I have seen how man
May rise and fall, the past and future shown;
I would resolve my thought into repose.
LUCIFER .
Thou near'st the world of rest; behold it there.
CAIN .
Calm ether melts into a purple glow,
Shed from yon orb that looks tranquillity.
I hear no sounds of strife; it glides through space
In motion that is silent melody;
It is a world, or forming, or unmade.
LUCIFER .
It opens its new being, flower-like,
To yonder sun, the expansion and decline
Alike the same.
CAIN
Is it inhabited?
LUCIFER .
Wouldst have it desert?
CAIN .
But by life like ours?
A WORLD IN DELUGE.
CAIN .
Sounds strange and dreadful howl within mine ears,
Like the fierce roar of brutes in agony;
Whirlwinds cleave by us on invisible wings;
The stars are hidden; mountainous peaks shoot forth
Abrupt, from gulfs of eddying mists; I hear
The hollow sound of rushing deeps; I see
Vapour and cloud.
LUCIFER
Now!
CAIN .
God, or what thou art,
Aid me! — I sink.
LUCIFER .
All have their paths ordained;
Thine is forewritten.
CAIN .
Lo, yon waters sweep
Above the world, as if, having strangled it,
Their wrath would waste itself upon the air.
What shapes of life are heaved o'er their wild ooze!
Trees, rocks, are hurled together; unknown forms
Rolled weltering along, to find no shore.
The din of wrecks and roaring surges drown.
The war of thunders; the red sun is hidden;
A leaden circle shadows forth his crown,
And lurid lights gleaming through clouds attest
The path of the destroying Angel. Where
Are they, the dwellers? were there here who lived,
And whither are they gone? —
LUCIFER .
Destroyed; their life
Melted again to its first elements.
Behold yon peak that overlooked the world,
The last uncovered, lowering while you gaze.
CAIN .
I see the foam drift over it like smoke,
But nothing further.
LUCIFER
Look on it again!
CAIN .
A living thing, a human shape is there,
A solitary Man, or doth he live?
He stands fixed as the rock behind him, looking
As if he were the lord of elements
That howling, claim him as their sacrifice.
A woman motionless lies at his feet;
Her arms stretched out in stony lifelessness!
Yet, happier she, watched o'er and loved by him.
He looks toward the clouds as if he dared
Their wrath, as if nothing could move him more.
LUCIFER .
Power dwells with him in his abandonment,
The element subjected to his will.
Spirits, as worlds, pursue their paths ordained;
He forms his own, and sinks, a conqueror,
Amid a sinking world. If thou dost feel
The great truth, thou in spirit art as he.
CAIN .
He raises her, and, ere the waves o'erwhelm,
He meets them midway; they have plunged within
The great deep; they have sunk together.
LUCIFER .
He
Weakly lamented not his end; he fought
And fell in silence.
CAIN .
I have seen how man
May rise and fall, the past and future shown;
I would resolve my thought into repose.
LUCIFER .
Thou near'st the world of rest; behold it there.
CAIN .
Calm ether melts into a purple glow,
Shed from yon orb that looks tranquillity.
I hear no sounds of strife; it glides through space
In motion that is silent melody;
It is a world, or forming, or unmade.
LUCIFER .
It opens its new being, flower-like,
To yonder sun, the expansion and decline
Alike the same.
CAIN
Is it inhabited?
LUCIFER .
Wouldst have it desert?
CAIN .
But by life like ours?
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