Classic Poem

( A PHANTASY, IN FIVE VISIONS )

I

The F ORESEERS

H EREDITY. — Let there be answer, O Immortal One,
To me your lawful minister!
C HANCE Or me!
Lawless in all things!
Death . Or to dreaded me!

H EREDITY. For ages I have woven as you willed,
Meshing the hearts of the vast myriads,
Who peopled all this continent above us,
With peace and hope and hate and greed and love.
And many were the evils of my task
Of threading the generations to your thought,
But still I toiled, trusting the fair intent
Of all your deeds would dawn for humankind,
Yet now —
C HANCE. Now —
Death. Now —
H EREDITY. Shall this thing be?

C HANCE. Say, shall it be? this horror that now looms
So wide that even I, the all-unheeding,
Who bring to millions fortune, millions fate, —
That I faint to know?
Death . And I — who minister
And master for you when none other can?
Yet who am now astounded: Shall it be?

H EREDITY . Still you are tongueless and your emanations
Float on as ever to unwitting earth!
And yet I ask again shall all the warp
And woof of yearning ages be undone?
All the great dream of progress that has clothed
The nakedness of bestiality
In man, your highest creature? All the hope
Of human brotherhood, the one divine
And sacred vision none shall ever mar,
Save with remorse, through the arrestless years?
Speak!
Death. Yea! for I am due again on earth,
Where I must whisper it among the nations.
Shall there be Peace — or War?
The T HRONG . Peace? or this War?
H EREDITY . Break silence,
O Unfathomable One!
Before I cry you heedless — or of good
Or ill; and serve no longer — minister
No more to your immitigable mind.
C HANCE. And I! For worse than my wild-striking ways
Is this void apathetic voicelessness.
Death . And I! ... Yet stay! stay! I scent at last
Some intimation, mute, impalpable,
Coming from whence I know not, that the hour
Of revelation is at hand. ... Yet where?

C HANCE. Yea, where? ... where?
H EREDITY. O Life, at last speak! where?
L IFE . Ye importuners! seekers to foreknowledge
Of this most treasonable tragedy
That ever has befallen to earth's years,
Hush and look up, for the To-Be begins.
And, lo, its passion which shall stain all things
Sweeps even now above our haunted heads.
Now are ye answered?
C HANCE Yea!
Death . War! ... It is War!
And I must up — to ride the battlefields!
L IFE. Ai, go! For I who am the maker of men
No longer am their master — as oft-times
I've seemed. But Devastation, like a ghoul
Of the Universe, will glut now with despair
And grief and murder and all misery
Its mystic and illimitable maw.
O man, wild thorn within the flesh of God!

II

The A VENGERS

The C HILD. My mother — did my mother starve too?
I wanTher! ... Is this Heaven?
The Soldier. No, little one,
I do not think so; for it seems so dark.
And yet I do not know: perhaps it is.
The W OMAN. It is not. We are lost. Or it may be
There are so many dead, the gates that lead
To the other world are thronged and we must wait.
Or it may be that God — if still He cares —
Has yet some earth-aim for us.
The Soldier. It may be.
So many things may be. And yet it seems
That the aims of God are too like those of men.
My Emperor avowed it was God's will
That I should leave my wife and little children
To take up arms and kill.
The W OMAN. Yes, kill and ravish,
Until we kill ourselves — as I have done.
The Soldier. No, no, not that. I had a wife I loved.
The C HILD . My mother loved me. Is it far to Heaven?
Why did God let me starve?
The Soldier . Hush, little one.
The C HILD. But why?
The W OMAN. For this; to feed the German Emperor,
Who might have starved for glory had you eaten.
The Soldier . Ah, that is terrible. Do not say that.
We are dead now, and truth alone is left.
The C HILD. I did not want to starve. Why did God let me?
The Soldier. We must go on. Perhaps we shall find out.
That light may lead us to the gate we seek
Out of the world: for surely one is near.
The W OMAN. I think we are kepThere for some avenging.
The Soldier. Must even the dead avenge? God should not ask me
To kill again! I cannot!
The W OMAN. Come: let's on.

The C HILD. I could walk better if I did not hunger.
Will there be bread in Heaven? plenty of bread?
The Soldier . We cannot pass. We have no countersign.
The W OMAN. The dead need none. See, he is unaware.
To him we are invisible and soundless.
We can be known, I think, only by those
For whom we are kepThere. Come.
The C HILD . I am afraid.
Will any take our bread from us in Heaven?
The Soldier. No, little one. Ah! ...
It is my brother, Gustav.
He is with the Emperor — in the Emperor's guard.
The W OMAN. That light, then, is within the Emperor's quarters.
And now — at last! — I seem to understand.
The O FFICER. You called me, sire.
The Emperor . No, no. I did not call.
The O FFICER . Then, sire, good night again.
The Emperor. Good night ... good night.
Am I distempered still? I thought I saw them.
Will the Almighty never ease my eyes
With angels or archangels? but send ever
These dead, with their undying misery?
Is He not with me, His divinely chosen,
With me to give my armies victory?
Once more you come? Begone. What do you seek?

The W OMAN. You raped me, sire.
The Emperor . Not you nor any. Away!
The W OMAN. You raped me — and raped France.
The Emperor. Lies! it is lies!
The Soldier. No, sire; but truth. For I was made to do it,
I and my German comrades.
The Emperor . Traitor! Traitor!
Your Fatherland was ringed by enemies.

The C HILD . That is the man who took away my bread,
And let me starve.
The Emperor. No! it was War that did it!
Take her away!
The W OMAN. Yes, sire; but there will come
Others and yet others who are dying,
And who are dead, on every hour of the night —
Starved and ravished, murdered and slaughtered others.
For you shall never again look on the living
But there shall be about you, ever escapeless,
The pale, piteous, and accusing presence
Of the unnumbered dead. ...
The Emperor. Help! ... Help!
The W OMAN. Now we can find the gate out of the world.

III

The O UTCASTS

S OLITUDE. Who are ye? Speak! who are ye, one and all,
Here in this emptiness unbreathed before?
The Naiad . I am a Nymph!
The F AUN. And I a Faun!
The S YLPH. I, Air!
If still I be at all!
S OLITUDE . And who are you?
The P ERI . A stranger, but a friend! Drive me not back!
For I am terrified!
The Gnome . And I! ... I!
S OLITUDE. Of whom?
I do not understand?
Whom fear ye?
H E-WITH-THE- C ROSS. I have no thing to say, save that I too
Am one driven like these from out my place.
H E-WITH-THE- T ORCH. Nor I! For I am quenched upon the earth,
The nations have forsaken me!
S OLITUDE. The nations?
The F AUN. O yea, we have been driven from our haunts
Of sea and air and forest — and men's souls —
By a blind tide — of blood!
The Naiad. That sweeps the world!
S OLITUDE. Of blood?
The Naiad. Wild blood! It stained my wells and rivers,
Till they could purl only of grief and death!
The F AUN. My trees were crimson with its cruelty,
My brakes pestilent with its plashing pain!
The S YLPH. Yea, and my sky was fetid with its mist,
I could not wing through it ... but sank and fell!

The P ERI. And I whose task it was to build the dawns
And call the stars out was so blinded by it,
That letting go all mystery and beauty
I fled from my far ways to safety here!
S OLITUDE . But who has shed this blood? and why?
The Gnome . Who? Who?
And sent it trickling down to rot on me?
Even on me who hoped by toil at last
To rise out of the earth as fair as these?
Who? Man! the ruiner of all things! Man!
S OLITUDE. But know ye what ye say? Has God not globed
The earth for man? and sent him His own Son?
The -F IGURE-WITH-THE -C ROSS. Alas!
S OLITUDE . Why do you say alas?
The F IGURE . I am
That Son!
S OLITUDE. The Christ! it cannot be! noThe!
These might be driven by blood-flow away,
But never He!
The -F IGURE-WITH-THE -T ORCH . Yet even Him it hath.
For I am Truth, who, outcast too, attest it.
He could not stay, but like to these fair dreams
Quivering here — distenanted of all —
Is driven forth!
The F AUN. Woe, woe!
The Naiad. Ai, woe!
The S YLPH . Woe! ...
S OLITUDE . And what now will ye do, so, homeless here?

What will ye do?
The -F IGURE-WITH-THE- C ROSS. I answer for us all.
We shall await — until the tide has ebbed.
S OLITUDE. And then return?
The S YLPH. Never!
The Naiad. ... Never!
The F AUN. ... Never!
H E-WITH-THE- C ROSS. Children of Beauty, yes!
For other place
In all the universe is not prepared
To us, save upon earth and in men's hearts.
For we are healers, cleansers, and uplifters,
Hierophants of Love and Hope and Joy,
Or we are naught. And when the tide has ebbed
There will be more of misery and guilt
To wipe away into oblivion
Than ever again shall cling to humankind
Through all the flooding vastity of time.
The F AUN .
So be it then! ...
The Naiad . Ai, so! ...
The S YLPH . Ai!
H E-WITH-THE -T ORCH . Even so!

IV

The U NBORN

The F IRST . Myriads!
The S ECOND . Slain and starven!
The T HIRD . Slain and frozen!
And drifting out of life — to which we go!
Drifting there, on the dark winds of death
Whose void is deeper than the Universe.
It should not be. It is too horrible.
The S ECOND . Birth into bitterness — then death and drifting!
This womb, that is before the womb, is better,
Though here we know but pallor and premonition.
Have we sought life that we should suffer it?
God should not send us to it.
The T HIRD . He should spare us.
Yes, spare us birth — that leads only to death.
So shall we, who are humanity-to-be,
Shall we, oh souls unborn, not dare to tell Him?
Some . yes, we will tell Him!
Others . He shall pity us!
Humanity should vanish — it is inhuman,
A deathward stream of cruelty and woe.
Y ET Others . We cannot tell Him. He has forsaken us.
His Immanence is as a wind that was.
Some . Where is He? where?
Others . Tell us! Is it for ever?
F IRST L EADER . He has withdrawn a little while to earth.
S ECOND L EADER . To drive these drifting millions so to death?
The F IRST . You speak so, thinking life is pain alone,
Nor see how in these faces swept and swirled
Innumerably there is an ecstasy
As of immortal dreams: a hushless hope,
A beauty of great daring and enduring.
Is there not some transcendence then of life,
Some anodyne that makes its agony
Dearer than our dim void of impotence?
M ANY . No, no, life is despair. From the beginning
The unborn have shrunk from birth, and to the end
They will shrink.
M ANY Others . And that Darkness is for ever!
The dead but drift the deeper into it.
Let us rebel and ask extinction now!
S ECOND L EADER . Yes, let us rebel! let us rebel!
For God's impenetrable aspiration
May destine some to happy planes of beauty
Above the beat of pain, but we are many
Who bear ever the weary mortal weight
Of the world's vain and universal woe.
C RIES . Where is He then? where is He?
Others . Where! for ... Oh!
Perhaps He never was!
S ECOND L EADER . So! It is so!
He never was! There is no God! There is none!
From birthlessness we are swept into birth,
Where Chance alone invests humanity
With duping spirit-tentacles to cling
To life with — Chance alone! There is no God!
Some . What shall we do, then? what?
Others . Let us be free!
Let us, eluding life, leap to the dead,
Forth through the suicidal universe
Of Darkness!
Others . Free! free! Let us leap free!
The F IRST L EADER .
Ignorant is your deed and unavailing.
Never shall any reach in coward ways
To mastery — or to end — of his existence.
And lo, the prescient moment of our birth
Is trembling out of eternity — is here.

V

The R ESTORERS

L IFE .
The last shot is fired,
The last blood shed!
Death has retired —
C HRIST . The world is new led!
H EREDITY . Everywhere, everywhere,
Men are returning
Back from red slaughter
And rapine and burning!
So with new flax
I weave a new race!
C HRIST . And I a new God
In the old God's place!
T RUTH .
And I — whose torch
Flame has rekindled —
Will burn away error
And fog and lies!
Till Peace, brave Peace.
Which once they dwindled,
With a new light
Shall fill men's eyes!
The N YMPHS .
Ai, ai! So give us
A million flowers
And let us scatter them over the vales!
And grain! —
For the slain,
Who lie in the earth,
Who died, died for their fatherlands,
Yearn now to push up,
Into harvest-birth,
Blossoms that spring for their children-bands.
The F AUNS .
And give us the planting
Of fruitful trees,
Whose shady limbs, from the noontide sun,
Shall shelter the shepherd
And gently ease
The toil of the peasant, never done.
The S YLPHS .
And give us the cooling.
Of winds in the South!
And give us the warming
Of winds in the North!
Let us be master
Of chill and drouth,
Of cloud and tempest and heat, henceforth!
The GnomeS .
And we, who are glad
To feel no more
Warm blood trickling
Beneath the ground,
Ask but to whisper
To men the place
Where riches in veins of the earth are found!
For wealth will be needed —
The N YMPHS . And flowers! and grain!
The F AUNS . And shade —
The GnomeS . To give men
New courage again!
A LL . Ai, ai, to give men new courage again!
L IFE .
Yea, children of Beauty,
They shall be given!
For now you are more than creatures of joy.
You help the world on —
And that is heaven:
Immortal is such divine employ.
C HRIST . Yea so! it is so!
And now I shall win
The world from its misery way at last.
For these are ready —
And Truth joins in —
The N YMPHS . To serve, serve
Till the need be past!
C HRIST . And so my Cross
Shall blossom with roses,
And never a thorn of it grow to prick
The brow of my lovers,
Till Time closes —
H EREDITY . Or till all poverty, wrong, and shame
Shall be as a grief-remembered name!
A LL . As soon they shall be!
For now we are one
So let us spread over earth, fleetly,
And enter the hearts of men completely,
Till red wars are done!

Let us break cannon,
Let us melt hate —
And mould them into a higher might!
Let us disarm
Wild Fear — and mate
Its courage to faith in immortal Right!

Then let us gather
The wisest of earth
Into a Council of heart and mind;
Where not a word
Shall be held of worth,
Save it be spoken for human-kind!

Save it be uttered
To give the poor
And backward and barbarous right to Life —
Right to be ruled
By a Law, made sure
Through world-consent, against greed and strife!

Right to be fed;
Right to rejoice;
Right to be clothed; right to love
The raiment of earth —
Each fairy voice
Of all its spirits below or above!

Come then, let us
Away, fleetly!
Much has been done, much is to do;
Let us go sing
Of our task so sweetly
That the old world, sick of its crime,
Shall give its heart for a new!