Part 5

_Eve._ I hear a sound of life--of life like ours-- Of laughter and of wailing, of grave speech, Of little plaintive voices innocent, Of life in separate courses flowing out Like our four rivers to some outward main. I hear life--life!

_Adam._ And, so, thy cheeks have snatched Scarlet to paleness, and thine eyes drink fast Of glory from full cups, and thy moist lips Seem trembling, both of them, with earnest doubts Whether to utter words or only smile.

_Eve._ Shall I be mother of the coming life? Hear the steep generations, how they fall Adown the visionary stairs of Time Like supernatural thunders--far, yet near,-- Sowing their fiery echoes through the hills. Am I a cloud to these--mother to these?

_Earth Spirits._ And bringer of the curse upon all these.

[_EVE sinks down again._

_Poet Voices passing._ O we live, O we live-- And this life that we conceive Is a noble thing and high, Which we climb up loftily To view God without a stain; Till, recoiling where the shade is, We retread our steps again, And descend the gloomy Hades To resume man's mortal pain. Shall it be climbed in vain?

_Infant Voices passing._ Rock us softly, Lest it be all in vain.

_Love Voices passing._ O we live, O we live-- And this life we would retrieve, Is a faithful thing apart Which we love in, heart to heart, Until one heart fitteth twain. "Wilt thou be one with me?" "I will be one with thee." "Ha, ha!--we love and live!" Alas! ye love and die. Shriek--who shall reply? For is it not loved in vain?

_Infant Voices passing._ Rock us softly, Though it be all in vain.

_Aged Voices passing._ O we live, O we live-- And this life we would survive, Is a gloomy thing and brief, Which, consummated in grief, Leaveth ashes for all gain. Is it not _all_ in vain?

_Infant Voices passing._ Rock us softly, Though it be _all_ in vain.

[_Voices die away._

_Earth Spirits._ And bringer of the curse upon all these.

_Eve._ The voices of foreshown Humanity Die off;--so let me die.

_Adam._ So let us die, When God's will soundeth the right hour of death.

_Earth Spirits._ And bringer of the curse upon all these.

_Eve._ O Spirits! by the gentleness ye use In winds at night, and floating clouds at noon, In gliding waters under lily-leaves, In chirp of crickets, and the settling hush A bird makes in her nest with feet and wings,-- Fulfil your natures now!

_Earth Spirits._ Agreed, allowed! We gather out our natures like a cloud, And thus fulfil their lightnings! Thus, and thus! Hearken, oh hearken to us!

_First Spirit._ As the storm-wind blows bleakly from the norland, As the snow-wind beats blindly on the moorland, As the simoom drives hot across the desert, As the thunder roars deep in the Unmeasured. As the torrent tears the ocean-world to atoms, As the whirlpool grinds it fathoms below fathoms, Thus,--and thus!

_Second Spirit._ As the yellow toad, that spits its poison chilly, As the tiger, in the jungle crouching stilly, As the wild boar, with ragged tusks of anger, As the wolf-dog, with teeth of glittering clangour, As the vultures, that scream against the thunder, As the owlets, that sit and moan asunder, Thus,--and thus!

_Eve._ Adam! God!

_Adam._ Cruel, unrelenting Spirits! By the power in me of the sovran soul Whose thoughts keep pace yet with the angel's march, I charge you into silence--trample you Down to obedience. I am king of you!

_Earth Spirits._ Ha, ha! thou art king! With a sin for a crown, And a soul undone! Thou, the antagonized, Tortured and agonized, Held in the ring Of the zodiac! Now, king, beware! We are many and strong Whom thou standest among,-- And we press on the air, And we stifle thee back, And we multiply where Thou wouldst trample us down From rights of our own To an utter wrong-- And, from under the feet of thy scorn, O forlorn, We shall spring up like corn, And our stubble be strong. _Adam._ God, there is power in thee! I make appeal Unto thy kingship.

_Eve._ There is pity in THEE, O sinned against, great God!--My seed, my seed, There is hope set on THEE--I cry to thee, Thou mystic Seed that shalt be!--leave us not In agony beyond what we can bear, Fallen in debasement below thunder-mark, A mark for scorning--taunted and perplext By all these creatures we ruled yesterday, Whom thou, Lord, rulest alway! O my Seed, Through the tempestuous years that rain so thick Betwixt my ghostly vision and thy face, Let me have token! for my soul is bruised Before the serpent's head is.

[_A vision of CHRIST appears in the midst of the Zodiac, which pales before the heavenly light. The Earth Spirits grow greyer and fainter._

CHRIST. I AM HERE!

_Adam._ This is God!--Curse us not, God, any more!

_Eve._ But gazing so--so--with omnific eyes, Lift my soul upward till it touch thy feet! Or lift it only,--not to seem too proud,-- To the low height of some good angel's feet, For such to tread on when he walketh straight And thy lips praise him!

CHRIST. Spirits of the earth, I meet you with rebuke for the reproach And cruel and unmitigated blame Ye cast upon your masters. True, they have sinned; And true their sin is reckoned into loss For you the sinless. Yet, your innocence Which of you praises? since God made your acts Inherent in your lives, and bound your hands With instincts and imperious sanctities From self-defacement. Which of you disdains These sinners who in falling proved their height Above you by their liberty to fall? And which of you complains of loss by them, For whose delight and use ye have your life And honour in creation? Ponder it! This regent and sublime Humanity, Though fallen, exceeds you! this shall film your sun, Shall hunt your lightning to its lair of cloud, Turn back your rivers, footpath all your seas, Lay flat your forests, master with a look Your lion at his fasting, and fetch down Your eagle flying. Nay, without this law Of mandom, ye would perish,--beast by beast Devouring,--tree by tree, with strangling roots And trunks set tuskwise. Ye would gaze on God With imperceptive blankness up the stars, And mutter, "Why, God, hast thou made us thus?" And pining to a sallow idiocy Stagger up blindly against the ends of life, Then stagnate into rottenness and drop Heavily--poor, dead matter--piecemeal down The abysmal spaces--like a little stone Let fall to chaos. Therefore over you Receive man's sceptre!--therefore be content To minister with voluntary grace And melancholy pardon, every rite And function in you, to the human hand! Be ye to man as angels are to God, Servants in pleasure, singers of delight, Suggesters to his soul of higher things Than any of your highest! So at last, He shall look round on you with lids too straight To hold the grateful tears, and thank you well, And bless you when he prays his secret prayers, And praise you when he sings his open songs For the clear song-note he has learnt in you Of purifying sweetness, and extend Across your head his golden fantasies Which glorify you into soul from sense. Go, serve him for such price! That not in vain Nor yet ignobly ye shall serve, I place My word here for an oath, mine oath for act To be hereafter. In the name of which Perfect redemption and perpetual grace, I bless you through the hope and through the peace Which are mine,--to the Love, which is myself.

_Eve._ Speak on still, Christ! Albeit thou bless me not In set words, I am blessed in hearkening thee-- Speak, Christ!

CHRIST. Speak, Adam! Bless the woman, man! It is thine office.

_Adam._ Mother of the world, Take heart before this Presence! Lo, my voice, Which, naming erst the creatures, did express (God breathing through my breath) the attributes And instincts of each creature in its name, Floats to the same afflatus,--floats and heaves Like a water-weed that opens to a wave,-- A full leaved prophecy affecting thee, Out fairly and wide. Henceforward, arise, aspire To all the calms and magnanimities, The lofty uses and the noble ends, The sanctified devotion and full work, To which thou art elect for evermore, First woman, wife, and mother!

_Eve._ And first in sin.

_Adam._ And also the sole bearer of the Seed Whereby sin dieth. Raise the majesties Of thy disconsolate brows, O well-beloved, And front with level eyelids the To-come, And all the dark o' the world! Rise, woman, rise To thy peculiar and best altitudes Of doing good and of enduring ill, Of comforting for ill, and teaching good, And reconciling all that ill and good Unto the patience of a constant hope,-- Rise with thy daughters! If sin came by thee, And by sin, death,--the ransom-righteousness, The heavenly life and compensative rest Shall come by means of thee. If woe by thee Had issue to the world, thou shalt go forth An angel of the woe thou didst achieve, Found acceptable to the world instead Of others of that name, of whose bright steps Thy deed stripped bare the hills. Be satisfied; Something thou hast to bear through womanhood, Peculiar suffering answering to the sin,-- Some pang paid down for each new human life, Some weariness in guarding such a life, Some coldness from the guarded, some mistrust From those thou hast too well served, from those beloved Too loyally some treason; feebleness Within thy heart, and cruelty without, And pressures of an alien tyranny With its dynastic reasons of larger bones And stronger sinews. But, go to! thy love Shall chant itself its own beatitudes After its own life-working. A child's kiss Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad; A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich; A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense Of service which thou renderest. Such a crown I set upon thy head,--Christ witnessing With looks of prompting love--to keep thee clear Of all reproach against the sin forgone, From all the generations which succeed. Thy hand which plucked the apple I clasp close, Thy lips which spake wrong counsel I kiss close, I bless thee in the name of Paradise And by the memory of Edenic joys Forfeit and lost,--by that last cypress tree, Green at the gate, which thrilled as we came out, And by the blessed nightingale which threw Its melancholy music after us,-- And by the flowers, whose spirits full of smells Did follow softly, plucking us behind Back to the gradual banks and vernal bowers And fourfold river-courses.--By all these, I bless thee to the contraries of these, I bless thee to the desert and the thorns, To the elemental change and turbulence, And to the roar of the estranged beasts, And to the solemn dignities of grief,-- To each one of these ends,--and to their END Of Death and the hereafter.

_Eve._ I accept For me and for my daughters this high part Which lowly shall be counted. Noble work Shall hold me in the place of garden-rest, And in the place of Eden's lost delight Worthy endurance of permitted pain; While on my longest patience there shall wait Death's speechless angel, smiling in the east, Whence cometh the cold wind. I bow myself Humbly henceforward on the ill I did, That humbleness may keep it in the shade. Shall it be so? shall I smile, saying so? O Seed! O King! O God, who _shalt_ be seed,-- What shall I say? As Eden's fountains swelled Brightly betwixt their banks, so swells my soul Betwixt thy love and power! And, sweetest thoughts Of forgone Eden! now, for the first time Since God said "Adam," walking through the trees, I dare to pluck you as I plucked erewhile The lily or pink, the rose or heliotrope So pluck I you--so largely--with both hands, And throw you forward on the outer earth, Wherein we are cast out, to sweeten it.

_Adam._ As thou, Christ, to illume it, holdest Heaven Broadly over our heads.

[_The CHRIST is gradually transfigured, during the following phrases of dialogue, into humanity and suffering._

_Eve._ O Saviour Christ, Thou standest mute in glory, like the sun!

_Adam._ We worship in Thy silence, Saviour Christ!

_Eve._ Thy brows grow grander with a forecast woe,-- Diviner, with the possible of death. We worship in Thy sorrow, Saviour Christ!

_Adam._ How do Thy clear, still eyes transpierce our souls, As gazing _through_ them toward the Father-throne In a pathetical, full Deity, Serenely as the stars gaze through the air Straight on each other!

_Eve._ O pathetic Christ, Thou standest mute in glory, like the moon!

CHRIST. Eternity stands alway fronting God; A stern colossal image, with blind eyes And grand dim lips that murmur evermore God, God, God! while the rush of life and death, The roar of act and thought, of evil and good, The avalanches of the ruining worlds Tolling down space,--the new worlds' genesis Budding in fire,--the gradual humming growth Of the ancient atoms and first forms of earth, The slow procession of the swathing seas And firmamental waters,--and the noise Of the broad, fluent strata of pure airs,-- All these flow onward in the intervals Of that reiterated sound of--GOD! Which WORD innumerous angels straightway lift Wide on celestial altitudes of song And choral adoration, and then drop The burden softly, shutting the last notes In silver wings. Howbeit in the noon of time Eternity shall wax as dumb as Death, While a new voice beneath the spheres shall cry, "God! why hast thou forsaken me, my God?" And not a voice in Heaven shall answer it.

[_The transfiguration is complete in sadness._

_Adam._ Thy speech is of the Heavenlies, yet, O Christ, Awfully human are thy voice and face!

_Eve._ My nature overcomes me from thine eyes.

CHRIST. In the set noon of time shall one from Heaven, An angel fresh from looking upon God, Descend before a woman, blessing her With perfect benediction of pure love, For all the world in all its elements, For all the creatures of earth, air, and sea, For all men in the body and in the soul, Unto all ends of glory and sanctity.

_Eve._ O pale, pathetic Christ--I worship thee! I thank thee for that woman!

CHRIST. Then, at last, I, wrapping round me your humanity, Which, being sustained, shall neither break nor burn Beneath the fire of Godhead, will tread earth, And ransom you and it, and set strong peace Betwixt you and its creatures. With my pangs I will confront your sins; and since those sins Have sunken to all Nature's heart from yours, The tears of my clean soul shall follow them And set a holy passion to work clear Absolute consecration. In my brow Of kingly whiteness shall be crowned anew Your discrowned human nature. Look on me! As I shall be uplifted on a cross In darkness of eclipse and anguish dread, So shall I lift up in my piercèd hands, Not into dark, but light--not unto death, But life,--beyond the reach of guilt and grief, The whole creation. Henceforth in my name Take courage, O thou woman,--man, take hope! Your grave shall be as smooth as Eden's sward, Beneath the steps of your prospective thoughts, And, one step past it, a new Eden-gate Shall open on a hinge of harmony And let you through to mercy. Ye shall fall No more, within that Eden, nor pass out Any more from it. In which hope, move on, First sinners and first mourners! Live and love,-- Doing both nobly because lowlily! Live and work, strongly because patiently! And, for the deed of death, trust it to God That it be well done, unrepented of, And not to loss! And thence, with constant prayers, Fasten your souls so high, that constantly The smile of your heroic cheer may float Above all floods of earthly agonies, Purification being the joy of pain!

[_The vision of CHRIST vanishes. ADAM and EVE stand in an ecstasy. The Earth-zodiac pales away shade by shade, as the stars, star by star, shine out in the sky; and the following chant from the two Earth Spirits (as they sweep back into the Zodiac and disappear with it) accompanies the process of change._

_Earth Spirits._ By the mighty word thus spoken Both for living and for dying, We our homage-oath, once broken, Fasten back again in sighing, And the creatures and the elements renew their covenanting.

Here, forgive us all our scorning; Here, we promise milder duty: And the evening and the morning Shall re-organize in beauty A sabbath day of sabbath joy, for universal chanting.

And if, still, this melancholy May be strong to overcome us, If this mortal and unholy We still fail to cast out from us, If we turn upon you, unaware, your own dark influences,--

If ye tremble when surrounded By our forest pine and palm trees, If we cannot cure the wounded With our gum trees and our balm trees, And if your souls all mournfully sit down among your senses,--

Yet, O mortals, do not fear us! We are gentle in our languor; Much more good ye shall have near us Than any pain or anger, And our God's refracted blessing in our blessing shall be given.

By the desert's endless vigil We will solemnize your passions, By the wheel of the black eagle We will teach you exaltations, When he sails against the wind, to the white spot up in heaven.

Ye shall find us tender nurses To your weariness of nature, And our hands shall stroke the curse's Dreary furrows from the creature, Till your bodies shall lie smooth in death and straight and slumberful.

Then, a couch we will provide you Where no summer heats shall dazzle, Strewing on you and beside you Thyme and rosemary and basil, And the yew-tree shall grow overhead to keep all safe and cool.

Till the Holy Blood awaited Shall be chrism around us running, Whereby, newly-consecrated, We shall leap up in God's sunning, To join the spheric company which purer worlds assemble:

While, renewed by new evangels, Soul-consummated, made glorious, Ye shall brighten past the angels, Ye shall kneel to Christ victorious, And the rays around his feet beneath your sobbing lips shall tremble.

[_The phantastic Vision has all passed; the Earth-zodiac has broken like a belt, and is dissolved from the Desert. The Earth Spirits vanish, and the stars shine out above._

CHORUS OF INVISIBLE ANGELS,

_while ADAM and EVE advance into the Desert, hand in hand._

Hear our heavenly promise Through your mortal passion! Love, ye shall have from us, In a pure relation. As a fish or bird Swims or flies, if moving, We unseen are heard To live on by loving. Far above the glances Of your eager eyes, Listen! we are loving. Listen, through man's ignorances-- Listen, through God's mysteries-- Listen down the heart of things, Ye shall hear our mystic wings Murmurous with loving. Through the opal door Listen evermore How we live by loving!

_First Semichorus._ When your bodies therefore Reach the grave their goal, Softly will we care for Each enfranchised soul. Softly and unlothly Through the door of opal Toward the heavenly people, Floated on a minor fine Into the full chant divine, We will draw you smoothly,-- While the human in the minor Makes the harmony diviner. Listen to our loving!

_Second Semichorus._ There, a sough of glory Shall breathe on you as you come, Ruffling round the doorway All the light of angeldom. From the empyrean centre Heavenly voices shall repeat, "Souls redeemed and pardoned, enter, For the chrism on you is sweet!" And every angel in the place Lowlily shall bow his face, Folded fair on softened sounds, Because upon your hands and feet He images his Master's wounds. Listen to our loving!

_First Semichorus._ So, in the universe's Consummated undoing, Our seraphs of white mercies Shall hover round the ruin. Their wings shall stream upon the flame As if incorporate of the same In elemental fusion; And calm their faces shall burn out With a pale and mastering thought, And a steadfast looking of desire From out between the clefts of fire,-- While they cry, in the Holy's name, To the final Restitution. Listen to our loving!

_Second Semichorus._ So, when the day of God is To the thick graves accompted, Awaking the dead bodies, The angel of the trumpet Shall split and shatter the earth To the roots of the grave-- Which never before were slackened-- And quicken the charnel birth With his blast so clear and brave That the Dead shall start and stand erect, And every face of the burial-place Shall the awful, single look reflect Wherewith he them awakened. Listen to our loving!

_First Semichorus._ But wild is the horse of Death! He will leap up wild at the clamour Above and beneath. And where is his Tamer On that last day, When he crieth Ha, ha! To the trumpet's blare, And paweth the earth's Aceldama? When he tosseth his head, The drear-white steed, And ghastlily champeth the last moon-ray-- What angel there Can lead him away, That the living may rule for the Dead?

_Second Semichorus._ Yet a TAMER shall be found! One more bright than seraph crowned, And more strong than cherub bold, Elder, too, than angel old, By his grey eternities. He shall master and surprise The steed of Death. For He is strong, and He is fain. He shall quell him with a breath, And shall lead him where He will, With a whisper in the ear, Full of fear, And a hand upon the mane, Grand and still.