Drifted and blown and unsubdued,
To all our lonely brotherhood
That waits the cry none cares to give,
Heartening the perishèd to live,
As I then hearkened, marble-pale,
Omniscient to the phantom wail,
Unbroken in the silence.”
To all our lonely brotherhood
That waits the cry none cares to give,
Heartening the perishèd to live,
As I then hearkened, marble-pale,
Omniscient to the phantom wail,
Unbroken in the silence.”
“Death was this,
No snow-like metamorphosis,”
I vouchsafed to him, “Hadst thou lain
Until upon this earth again
The golden age delirious
Her shawms and cymbals rang to us—
The whole of heaven filled with birds,
Leaping articulate to words,
Had joined thee then. But One there was,
Since thy long sleep had come to pass,
Who drove the antique fiery mirth
Forth from this mute and dreaming earth;
Who, crowned with thorns and soft as air,
Bade the Elysian world despair;
Hopeless and bitter, dusk and brief,
With great eyes brooding on his grief,
And vast heart burdened by such things,
Unknown to thy imaginings;—
He conjured Hell!”
No snow-like metamorphosis,”
I vouchsafed to him, “Hadst thou lain
Until upon this earth again
The golden age delirious
Her shawms and cymbals rang to us—
The whole of heaven filled with birds,
Leaping articulate to words,
Had joined thee then. But One there was,
Since thy long sleep had come to pass,
Who drove the antique fiery mirth
Forth from this mute and dreaming earth;
Who, crowned with thorns and soft as air,
Bade the Elysian world despair;
Hopeless and bitter, dusk and brief,
With great eyes brooding on his grief,
And vast heart burdened by such things,
Unknown to thy imaginings;—
He conjured Hell!”
25
