A DRAMA OF EXILE.
49
Yet I wail!
What a full hum of life, around His lips,
Bore witness to the fulness of creation!
How all the grand words were full-laden ships;
Each sailing onward, from enunciation,
To separate existence,—and each bearing
The creature's power of joying, hoping, fearing!—
Yet I wail!
Eve. They wail, beloved! they speak of glory and God,
And they wail—wail. That burden of the song
Drops from it like its fruit, and heavily falls
Into the lap of silence!
Adam.Hark, again!
First Spirit.
I was so beautiful, so beautiful,
My joy stood up within me bold and glad,
To answer God; and, when His work was full,
To "very good," responded "very glad!"
Filtered through roses, did the light inclose me;
And bunches of the grape swang blue across me—
Yet I wail!
Second Spirit.
I bounded with my panthers! I rejoiced
In my young tumbling lions, rolled together!
My stag—the river at his fetlocks—poised,
Then dipped his antlers, through the golden weather,
In the same ripple which the alligator
Left in his joyous troubling of the water—
Yet I wail!
First Spirit.
O my deep waters, cataract and flood,—
What wordless triumph did your voices render!
O mountain-summits, where the angels stood,
And shook from head and wing thick dews of splendour;
How, with a holy quiet, did your Earthy
Accept that Heavenly—knowing ye were worthy!
Yet I wail!
What a full hum of life, around His lips,
Bore witness to the fulness of creation!
How all the grand words were full-laden ships;
Each sailing onward, from enunciation,
To separate existence,—and each bearing
The creature's power of joying, hoping, fearing!—
Yet I wail!
Eve. They wail, beloved! they speak of glory and God,
And they wail—wail. That burden of the song
Drops from it like its fruit, and heavily falls
Into the lap of silence!
Adam.Hark, again!
First Spirit.
I was so beautiful, so beautiful,
My joy stood up within me bold and glad,
To answer God; and, when His work was full,
To "very good," responded "very glad!"
Filtered through roses, did the light inclose me;
And bunches of the grape swang blue across me—
Yet I wail!
Second Spirit.
I bounded with my panthers! I rejoiced
In my young tumbling lions, rolled together!
My stag—the river at his fetlocks—poised,
Then dipped his antlers, through the golden weather,
In the same ripple which the alligator
Left in his joyous troubling of the water—
Yet I wail!
First Spirit.
O my deep waters, cataract and flood,—
What wordless triumph did your voices render!
O mountain-summits, where the angels stood,
And shook from head and wing thick dews of splendour;
How, with a holy quiet, did your Earthy
Accept that Heavenly—knowing ye were worthy!
Yet I wail!
