The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Volume I Part 9

_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 (G.o.d 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 n.o.ble 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 alt.i.tudes 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 beat.i.tudes 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. n.o.ble 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 wors.h.i.+p in Thy silence, Saviour Christ!

_Eve._ Thy brows grow grander with a forecast woe,-- Diviner, with the possible of death.

We wors.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d; A stern colossal image, with blind eyes And grand dim lips that murmur evermore G.o.d, G.o.d, G.o.d! 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 s.p.a.ce,--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--G.o.d!

Which WORD innumerous angels straightway lift Wide on celestial alt.i.tudes 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, "G.o.d! why hast thou forsaken me, my G.o.d?"

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 G.o.d, 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 sanct.i.ty.

_Eve._ O pale, pathetic Christ--I wors.h.i.+p 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 G.o.dhead, 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 pa.s.sion 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 pierced 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 pa.s.s out Any more from it. In which hope, move on, First sinners and first mourners! Live and love,-- Doing both n.o.bly because lowlily!

Live and work, strongly because patiently!

And, for the deed of death, trust it to G.o.d 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, s.h.i.+ne 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 G.o.d's refracted blessing in our blessing shall be given.

By the desert's endless vigil We will solemnize your pa.s.sions, 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 G.o.d's sunning, To join the spheric company which purer worlds a.s.semble:

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 pa.s.sed; the Earth-zodiac has broken like a belt, and is dissolved from the Desert. The Earth Spirits vanish, and the stars s.h.i.+ne out above._

CHORUS OF INVISIBLE ANGELS,

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

Hear our heavenly promise Through your mortal pa.s.sion!

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 G.o.d'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!