22
A DRAMA OF EXILE.
Against whose hand? In this last strife, methinks,
I am not a fallen angel!
Gabriel.Dost thou know
Aught of those exiles?
Lucifer.Ay: I know they have fled
Wordless all day along the wilderness:
I know they wear, for burden on their backs,
The thought of a shut gate of Paradise,
And faces of the marshalled cherubim
Shining against, not for them! and I know
They dare not look in one another's face,
As if each were a cherub!
Gabriel.Dost thou know
Aught of their future?
Lucifer.Only as much as this:
That evil will increase and multiply
Without a benediction.
Gabriel.Nothing more?
Lucifer. Why so the angels taunt! What should be more?
Gabriel. God is more.
Lucifer.Proving what?
Gabriel.That He is God,
And capable of saving. Lucifer,
I charge thee by the solitude He kept
Ere He created,—leave the earth to God!
Lucifer. My foot is on the earth, firm as my sin!
Gabriel. I charge thee by the memory of Heaven
Ere any sin was done,—leave earth to God!
Lucifer. My sin is on the earth, to reign thereon.
Gabriel. I charge thee by the choral song we sang,
When up against the white shore of our feet,
The depths of the creation swelled and brake,—
And the new worlds, the beaded foam and flower
Of all that coil, roared outward into space
On thunder edges,—leave the earth to God.
Lucifer. My woe is on the earth, to curse thereby.
Gabriel. I charge thee by that mournful morning star
I am not a fallen angel!
Gabriel.Dost thou know
Aught of those exiles?
Lucifer.Ay: I know they have fled
Wordless all day along the wilderness:
I know they wear, for burden on their backs,
The thought of a shut gate of Paradise,
And faces of the marshalled cherubim
Shining against, not for them! and I know
They dare not look in one another's face,
As if each were a cherub!
Gabriel.Dost thou know
Aught of their future?
Lucifer.Only as much as this:
That evil will increase and multiply
Without a benediction.
Gabriel.Nothing more?
Lucifer. Why so the angels taunt! What should be more?
Gabriel. God is more.
Lucifer.Proving what?
Gabriel.That He is God,
And capable of saving. Lucifer,
I charge thee by the solitude He kept
Ere He created,—leave the earth to God!
Lucifer. My foot is on the earth, firm as my sin!
Gabriel. I charge thee by the memory of Heaven
Ere any sin was done,—leave earth to God!
Lucifer. My sin is on the earth, to reign thereon.
Gabriel. I charge thee by the choral song we sang,
When up against the white shore of our feet,
The depths of the creation swelled and brake,—
And the new worlds, the beaded foam and flower
Of all that coil, roared outward into space
On thunder edges,—leave the earth to God.
Lucifer. My woe is on the earth, to curse thereby.
Gabriel. I charge thee by that mournful morning star
