Classic Poem

With woe unutterable, and pity vast
As the still Heaven on which His eyes were cast,
That old Jew listen'd, while new voices cried,
" We too were slain because we testified!"
But as they pass'd along with waving brands
Beneath Him, He outstretch'd His trembling hands
As if to bless them, murmuring low yet clear,
" Father in Heaven, where art Thou? Dost Thou hear?"
And at the voice those Spirits cried again,
" We testified against thee and were slain!"
And never down on them His eyes were turn'd,
But still upon the silent Heaven that yearn'd
Its heart of stars out on His hoary head.

Even as a shipwrecked wight doth cling in dread
To some frail spar, and seeth all around
The dark wild waters swelling without bound,
While momently the black waves flash to foam,
Ev'n so I saw the spirits go and come
With piteous cries around me. From all lands
They gathered, moaning low and waving hands,
Women and men and naked little ones;
And some were dusky-hued from flaming suns
That light the West and East; for lo, I knew
The hosts of Ind, the children of Peru,
And the black seed of Ham; and following these,
Wan creatures bearing hideous images
Of wood and stone; yellow and black and red,
They gathered, murmuring as they came, and fled!
And all the air was troubled, as when the rain
Maketh the multitudinous leaves complain
In some deep forest solitude, with the stirs
Of tutelary gods and worshippers,
Of creatures thronging thick as ants to up-build
Strange Temples, frail as ant-heaps, faintly filled
With the first gleams of godhead chill and grey,
Then crumbling into dust and vanishing away!

Borne on a purple litter came a King
Gold-crown'd, with eager armies following
Swift-footed like the pard, crested with plumes
Of many-colour'd birds, and deck'd with blooms
Of many-colour'd flowers; and as he came
Choirs of dark maidens sang in glad acclaim,
" All hail to M ONTEZUMA , King and Lord!"
And round him dusky Priests kept fierce accord
Of drums and cymbals, till their lord was borne
Close to the Throne; and on that Man forlorn
Fixing his sad, brown, antelope's eyes, and lying
Like to a stricken deer sore-spent and dying,
He cried:
" In the grassy West I reigned supreme
O'er a great kingdom wondrous as a dream.
As high as Heaven rose my palaces,
And fair as Heaven was the light in these,
And out of gold I ate, and gold and gems
Cover'd me to the very raiment-hems,
And gems and gold miraculously bright
Illumed my roofs and floors with starry light.
The wondrous lama-wool as white as milk,
More soft and snowy than the worm's thin silk,
Was woven for my raiment; unto me
The creatures of the Mountains and the Sea
Were brought in tribute; and from shore to shore
My naked couriers flew for ever, and bore
My mandate to the lesser Kings, my slaves;
Yea, and my throne was on a thousand graves,
And Death, obedient to my lifted hand,
Smiled peacefully upon a golden Land.
There, as I reigned, and millions bless'd my sway,
Came rumours of a fair God far away
Greater than those I worshipt, till my throne
Shook at the coming of that form unknown;
And o'er the Ocean, borne on flying things
That caught the winds and held them in their wings,
Riding on maned monsters that obeyed
Bridles of gold and champ'd the bit and neigh'd,
Came this Man's followers, clad and shod with steel,
Trampling my naked hosts with armed heel
And raising up the Cross; and me they found
Within my shining palace sitting crown'd,
'Mid priests and slaves that trembled at my nod,
And bade me worship him, their pale white God,
Nailed upon a Tree and crucified;
And when upon mine own strong gods I cried,
They answer'd not! nay, even when I was cast
Unto the dust, bound like a slave at last,
Still they were dumb; and tho' my people arose
Innumerable, they were scattered even as snows
Before the wintry blast; with sword and spear
The bloody Spaniard hunted them like deer,
So that my realm ran blood in this Man's name;
And lo! my proud heart broken with its shame,
I died to all my glory, and lay mute,
Defiled, and scorn'd, beneath the Spaniard's foot,
And all my Kingdom fell to nothingness."

He pass'd, and after him came Monarchs less
Than he, yet proud and mighty, — I watch'd them fly
Like flocks of antelopes beneath the sky,
And harrying them the Huoters clad in mail
Follow'd, with cruel faces marble pale,
Lifting the Cross, and speeding fast beyond
My sight, on steeds with gold caparison'd.

Nor ceased the pageant yet. Sceptred and crown'd,
A King, with plumed legions wailing round,
Stood up and cried:


" The splendour of the Sun
Illumed the Temples where my rites were done,
And to the Sun-god who for ever gazed
With face of gold upon my realm, I raised
The paean and the prayer. Beneath my rule
The happy lands grew bright and beautiful,
And countless thousands innocent of strife
Bless'd me, and that refulgent Fount of Life.
Fairer my palaces and temples far
In sight of Heaven than Morn or Even Star,
For in them dwelt the quickening Light of him
Before whose glory every sphere is dim!
Yea, but at last mine eyes did gaze upon
A blood-star, rising o'er the horizon
Out eastward, and before its baleful ray
The Sun-god shrivel'd and was driven away;
And leagued with iron monsters belching fire,
And riding living monsters tame yet dire,
Out from the gulfs of sudden blackness pour'd
A mailed band who called this man their Lord,
And slew us ev'n as sheep, and undertrod
The shining temples of the Sun, our God:
Me too they smote and slaughter'd, offering me,
Last of the locas, to their Deity —
And Darkness reign'd where once the Light had shone!"

Wailing, he wrung his hands and wander'd on,
And after him like bleeding sheep a train
Of naked slaughter'd things that sub'd in pain —
'Midst them a dusky woman richly dress'd
Who wrung her hands and smote her naked breast
Crying, " I loved the soldier of this Jew,
And me he lusted for, then foully slew,
And wheresoe'er his Cross waved overhead
Came shrieks of women torn and ravished!"
And round her as she spake those butcher'd bands
Of women smote their breasts or wrung their hands.

" O shadowy crowds of men," the Accuser cried,
" Dark naked women, children piteous-eyed,
All manacled and bleeding, worn and weak,
How do ye testify against him? Speak!"

" Because," they said, " the radiant summer Light
Had burnt our bodies and made them black yet bright,
Altho' our hearts within were sweet and mild,
We suffered sorrow, man and wife and child;
Far in the West we prayed, bending the knee
In Cities fairer far than Nineveh,
And high as Heaven arose fair Palaces
Lit with the many-colour'd images
Of gentle gods, — but on our shores there came
Devils that smote us in this white God's name,
Our gods dethroned, our temples overcast,
And scattered us as chaff before the blast,
This Jew looked on. His Priests piled gold, while we
Were basely slain or sold to slavery;
Tears worse than blood we shed, and bloodiest sweat,
While on the soil, with blood of millions wet,
They did upraise his church that rose on high
With fiery finger pointing at the sky
Where every happy star had ceased to shine!"