Classic Poem

" No tidings yet from Ahab — yet no news
Heard from my summoned priests. Why were they summoned?
Unless with supplications to bring rain
Unto the burning bosom of the earth.
Three mournful years, and still no rain, no dew;
But every herb scorched up; all living things
Dying of hunger and excessive drought!
Lo, I am blind with tears, am hoarse with cries,
Am weary with long watching for the clouds,
That come not, but, instead thereof, the sun
Hangs flaring in the fiery firmament.
Oh, Baal, blot the sun from out the heavens!
Hang all the heavens in black, the livery
Of death; since without death's lent livery,
Soon all that live must die."

So spake sad Jezebel, half pride, half grief;
Then, turning, listless gazed into the west;
Till, as on sudden rises at a gust
The idle awning of a milk-white tent,
Her bosom heaved, her gaze grew keen, her face
Beamed in its pallor like the great, full moon;
And with disparted lips she stood; and still
The westward scanning with deep-searching eyes,
Thus to herself enquiringly resumed: —

" Surely the blue relents; the void is void
No longer, but a cloud — a little cloud —
Comes like a chariot driving from the sea; —
Or is it but a mote before mine eye,
A mocking mirage? No, it is, it is
A cloud, a little cloud: — Joy, joy! clouds come,
And with them welcome darkness hurrying on.
Baal hath conquered; Baal sendeth rain.
Hark, how the wind awakes; it bends the trees: —
Baal bends their stubborn, stately tops, and makes
Them do obeisance; Baal comes, he comes; —
Behold, the waters come, behold the clouds,
Fraught with the fulness of the outscooped sea!"

And round she looked exultant, radiant strode
Across the chamber, and, elate, exclaimed:

" Where now is Ahab? Let him quick return,
Or ere the rain arrest him. Ahab, come;
Come to my side, as son unto his mother's;
And let me point thine eye to yonder clouds,
That surge as may the coursers toss their manes,
As drag they here thy chariot: — Ahab, come!"

And even while she called her husband entered;
Her husband, Ahab, whom she thus salutes: —

" Oh, Ahab, welcome home! Our horror ends;
And famine flees like to a hovering wolf,
Scared from the fold. Observest thou yon sky?
With overwhelming brows of sable clouds,
Hung fold on fold, and slowly curtaining
The heavens with a canopy of darkness? —
But wherefore is thy countenance as dark
As is yon sky? Light up thy countenance,
O Israel: Lift up thine eyes, and see
How comely black-browed shadow may appear,
As to his father's eye, the Ethiop's son.
Oh, Ahab, look, behold, it blacker grows!
The billows of the darkness deepen till
Midnight dethrones mid-day. The pregnant vault
With fulness overfilled, is at the birth,
And, even now, with huge, presaging drops,
Makes good the skyey promise. Lo, the lightning
Thereunto sets its seal, and, for an oath,
Peals the reverberant thunder. I am drunk
Methinks with joy; and thou shalt drink ere long
Deep in the due delights of trouble passed,
And the drawn wine of ruddiest revenge
On lost Elijah: — we will find him yet,
The hoary traitor; he who swore that there
For years should be no rain to feed the springs;
Neither for years should be allowed to fall
Dew to anoint the ground: — but, soft, my love;
Where hast thou left my prophets?"

" At the foot
Of Carmel," answered Ahab.

" Carmel!" she
Exclaimed, " And wherefore do they there abide,
To bear the imminent tempest, that fast brews,
And will not wait their leisure? 'Tis at hand!
The abated blue is blotted from the sky;
For calm comes chaos, and loud grows in rage
The rattling thunder, while the lightning leaps,
And plays before us midst the firmament,
As plays the fiery-eyed Leviathan
Amidst the floods; the floods now swift descend,
And in their blest abundance soon shall turn
Samaria to a sea. Again, what do
My prophets?"
" Sleep."
" How? Thou art pleasant. Sleep
They in such pleasant weather? They should play
Amidst this deluge, as do dolphins play
Amidst the sea: How sleep?"

" Most soundly: they
Will wake no more;" ejaculated Ahab;
" Soundly they sleep, for they are dead — are slain."
" Slain?" cried she, startled, and her eyes upflashed,
As from the flint should be outstricken fire.
" Slain?" echoed she; and, " slain," re-echoed Ahab;
Who, turning from her in mixed fear and shame,
Wept, and with wringing of his hands, exclaimed:
" Slain are thy prophets; slain, alas! all slain.
Oh, Jezebel, this dear, descending deluge
Is bought with deluge of thy priests' shed blood!"
And, as he sobbed in his outbursting grief,
She thus replied in deep, denouncing tones:
" Oh, bloody bargain, that in blood shall be
Full soon rebartered! Say, who slew them, thou?
Caitiff, cease trembling, and declare thy guilt:
None but thyself could do it; art thou not
The King of Israel? Ahab, try me not;
Speak, let thy words run rapid as yon rain;
Let blow thy story, as now blows the wind, —
Fool! — madman! — speak, — nay, jest not with me, love;
I was not tempered to be jested with,
No more than to be fondled was the serpent.
Slain! slain! oh, slaying word! thou liar, slain?
Who slew them? speak; who dare, save thou? and thou, —
Oh, horror! if thou hast, — but tell me swift."
" I will."
" Nay, nay; thou shalt, for, by great Baal,
I'll have it all, and quickly, — and as quick
When thou hast told me will I launch revenge."
" Calm thee," responded Ahab.
" And is this
A theme for calmness?" cried the crazed queen:
" No, I will rage like yonder crashing thunder,
And my red wrath shall fall like yon bright bolt. —
All slain! my priests! linger no longer, weakling;
Disclose thy secret; man, unlock thy lips,
And let thy story rush out like the rain,
That now comes headlong from the bursting skies."
So spake these two; she frowning; whilst he cowered,
And deprecatingly and hoarse responds:
" Nay, urge me not: — Oh, Jezebel, yon lightnings
Do scare me less than do thy scornful eyes."
" Proceed," said she, " for I am mute: thou wentst
From here to seek for herbage. What didst find?"
" Elijah."
" Ah! returned? that traitorous viper,
That ancient, haughty troubler of the land.
Where is he?" she demanded; and she panted,
Like to a tigress at the smell of blood;
While Ahab, quailing:
" He did gird his loins,
And ran before my chariot."
" With its wheels
Thou shouldst have crushed him to the earth!" she shrieked: —
" But soft; he is thy prisoner, so mine; —
Mine to be tortured."
" Nay."
" Say me not, nay:
I am not in the mood to be denied.
Ahab, where is he? I will have him rent
Piecemeal before me; and Samaria's dogs
Shall fill their slack and famine-wrinkled hides
With his torn carcass. Bring him forth to me;
For, by my gods, his hour at length has come."

" Oh, horrid woman! hungry tigress!" groaned
The stricken Ahab; whilst she at him shoots
Out arrows from her eyes, as doth the sun
Upon the festering carcass pour his beams;
And still she cried, " Where is thy prisoner?
Where is Elijah? where my prophets? where?
Elijah, come; come hither, miscreant, come;
Come to thy speedy death."
" Aye, call on him;"
With sullen sadness Ahab slow replied;
" So called thy priests upon the sleeping Baal,
Who answered not, no more than will Elijah."

" He shall reply; and thou shalt answer too,"
She said, and stamped her foot; and still she cried: —
" Where are my priests? Of thee will I require them;"
And still she cried with threatful iterance, —
Nor went without response, for Ahab, now
Made bitter, saucily thus answered: —
" Ask
Of Baal, him, thy father's faithless god,
Who did forsake them in their hour of need;
Although they prayed with frantic vehemence
From morn till noon, and leaped upon his altar;
And gashed themselves with knives, and still besought
The heedless god, and still upon themselves
In vain inflicted torment."
" Tell me not,"
She interrupted, " tell me not of this;
Nor taunt me with my father's god, but say
Who dared to slay my prophets? for as deep
As hell shall be my sought revenge, and high
As heaven will I soar, should there be need,
To reach the doomed Elijah: it was he,
'Twas he who slew my prophets."
And she stood
Glaring upon her husband, who replied:
" Consume me not with thy grim, scorching looks.
Although thine eyes play on me burning brands,
As from the firmament the flames came down,
Thou dread diviner, I will tell thee all.
Thou guessest right, it was Elijah slew
Thy pampered priests; t'was he who challenged them,
That they should call on Baal, — they, four hundred;
He, only one, should call upon Jehovah;
And whoso answered from the heavens by fire,
Should be acknowledged God."

" And thou consentedst?
Oh, most ignoble truckler!" she exclaimed;
And cast again upon him withering eyes.

" Nay, but the people did compel me to it,
Who were that hour as king; — what could I do?"
He urged upon her in appealing tones.

And she, with scorn: " What couldst thou do? Is this
The language for a king, who can do all
Things that his aggregated realm can do: —
Who can condemn or pardon, as he lists;
Say, " live, " or, " be cut off. " Thou didst discrown
Thyself. Unmonarched man! But tell thy tale.
What next?"

" Baal answered not" —
" Why should he answer?
By Baal's self, this thing will drive me mad!
Why should he answer?" she infuriate cried;
And he responded:
" Not by fire — "

" Fire! no,
Declaimed she, looking wickedly and wild;
Jehovah hath sent fire for these three years, —
And with it famine: Baal now sends rain.
Which is the better god? Baal sends rain,
In pity, but Jehovah fire, in fury.
Three years Jehovah gave us up — three years,
Three weary, wasted, melancholy years —
To the intolerable sun; — but give
Me up, thou baleful bringer of ill news,
The end of this interminable tale,
Whose telling seems to be a burthen to thee,
As hath Elijah long been unto me,
But shall be little longer."

" Lone he prayed,
At time of evening offering," said Ahab,
" And while he lifted up his voice, fire fell
From heaven and consumed the sacrifice;
Devoured the altar, too, and at one gulp,
Licked up the water in the thirsty trench."

" Which thou didst fill with blood of my slain prophets;
The veins of my four hundred thou didst empty,"
Replied the savage queen, and thus pursued: —
" Now may the gods as much do unto me,
And give, like theirs, my body to the butchers,
If I allow this monstrous massacre
To go by me unpunished. Benoniah,
What, ho! come hither, Benoniah, ho!"
And Benoniah entered, and there stood
Obsequious.

" Haste," she said, " make haste,
And know, thine utmost speed will lag behind
The spurred impatience whereon rides my soul
Before thee to my purpose; haste, I say;
Haste to Jezreel, and say unto Elijah: —
" Now all the gods of Zidon do to me,
As thou hast done to Baal's slaughtered prophets,
If by this time to-morrow I make not thee
As one of them whom thou hast basely murdered,"
Away now with thee."

And the servant sped
Out of her sight; and, turning to the king: —
" Now do I feel me better," she exclaimed;
" Go to thy chamber, and therein seek rest;
But ask me not to follow. I will know
No rest until Elijah's hither brought,
Then shall my sight-soothed eyes, sleep-weary, wink;
And to my ears his distant groans shall come,
A lullaby to hush me on my pillow."
She said, and went, and Ahab sought his couch: —
Sought sleep, and found it, little troubled he
With dreams, at blood of Baal's prophets shed: —
Way-weary, soon he slept: and, all that night,
Fell over Israel abundant rain.