Page:Poems Barrett.djvu/82

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 fol-
    lowing 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-organise in beauty,
A sabbath day in 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,—
And we turn upon you, unaware, your own dark influences;