I have abandoned all these spoils,
Cowered my powers, and becalmed my course,
And stooped from the high destruction of the skies
For thee, and for the youth who loveth thee—
And is lost with ye: ye are both, both—lost!
Thou hast but served the purpose of the Fiend.
And thou art but the vessel of the sin
Whose poison hath made drunk a soul to death;
And he hath drunk; and thou art useless now.
And it is for this I come; to bid thee die!
| Elissa |
I said that I was dying. God is good.
The Heavens grow darker as they grow the purer:
And both, as we do near them; so, near death,
The soul grows darker and diviner, hourly.
Could I love less I should be happier!
But it is always to that mad extreme,
That death alone appears the fitting finish
To bliss like that my spirit presses for.
|
| Lucifer |
Thy death hall be as gentle as thy life.
I will not hurt thee, for I loved thee once.
And thy sweet love, upon my burning breast,
Fell like a snowflake on a fevered lip.
Thy soul shall pass out of thee like a dream.
One moment more, and thou shalt wake in Heaven!
|
| Elissa |
I ever thought thee to be more than mortal.
And if thou art thus mighty, grant me this!—
Since now we love no more—as friend to friend—
Bring him I love, one moment, ere I die.
|
| Lucifer |
Thou judgest well; I am all but almighty.
And I have stretched my strength unto its limits
To satisfy the heart of him who loves thee:
In proof whereof, did I not give up thee,
Because he loved thee? I have given him all things
Body or spirit could desire or have.
And even at this moment, now he reigns
King of the sun, and monarch of the seven
Orbs that surround him—leaving earth alone—
The earth is in good keeping as it is.
I know that he is hasting hither now;
But may not see thee living.
|
| Elissa |
It is not thou
Who takest life: it is God, whose I shall be!—
And his, with God, whom here my heart deifies.
I glory in his power as in his love.
But I will, will see him while I am alive.
I hear him—he is come—it is he! it is he!
|
| Lucifer |
Die! thou shalt never look on him again.
|
| Elissa |
My love! haste, Festus! I am dying—
|
| Lucifer |
Dead!
A word could kill her. She hath gone to Heaven.
|
| Festus |
Fiend! what is this? Elissa—she is not dead.
|
| Lucifer |
She is. I bade her die, as I had reason.
|
| Festus |
Now do I hate thee and renounce for ever!—
Abhor thee—go!
|
| Lucifer |
Who seeks the other first?
I am gone.
|
| Festus |
Away, Fiend! Leave me! My Elissa!
|
XXVIII
Scene—A library and balcony—A summer night.
| Festus |
Alone.
The last high upward slant of sun on the trees,
Like a dead soldier’s sword upon his pall,
Seems to console earth for the glory gone.
Oh! I could weep to see the day die thus;
The death-bed of a day, how beautiful!
Linger, ye clouds, one moment longer there;
Fan it to slumber with your golden wings!
Like pious prayers ye seem to soothe its end.
It will wake no more till the all-revealing day;
When, like a drop of water, greatened bright
Into a shadow, it shall show itself
With all its little tyrannous things and deeds,
Unhomed and clear. The day hath gone to God—
Straight, like an infant’s spirit, or a mocked
And mourning messenger of grace to man.
Would it had taken me too on its wing!
My end is nigh. Would I might die outright!
And slip the coil without waiting its unwind.
Who that hath lain lonely on a high hill,
In the imperious silence of full noon,
With nothing but the clear dark sky about him,
Like God’s hand laid upon the head of earth—
But hath expected that some natural spirit
Should start out of the universal air—
And gathering his cloudy robe around him,
As one in act to teach mysterious things,
Explain that he must die?—that having got
As high as earth can lift him up—as far
Above that thing, the world, as flesh can mount—
Over the tyrant wind, and the clouded lightning,
And the round rainbow—and that having gained
A loftier and a more mysterious beauty
Of feeling—something like a starry darkness
Seizing the soul—say he must die—and vanish?
Who hath not, at such moments, felt as now
I feel, that to be happy we must die?
And here I rest—above the world and its ways;
The wind, opinion—and the rainbow, beauty—
And the thunder, superstition—I am free
Of all:—save death, what want I to be happy?
And shall I leave no trace, then, of my life?
The soul begetteth shadows of itself
Which do outlive their author: and are more
Substantial than all nature, and the red
Realities of flesh and blood, as echo
Is longer, louder, further than the voice
Of man can thunder, or his ear report.
And oft the world hath Deified its echoes.
A year!—and who shall find them? Can it be
The mind’s works have been deathless—not the mind?
Or will the world’s immortals die with me?—
The sages, and the heroes, and the bards—
Whose verse set to the thunder of the seas,
Seems as immortal as their ceaseless music!
O God! I fain would deem Thou livest not:
And that this world hath sprung up from chance seed,
Unknown to thee; and is not reckoned on.
Hell solves all doubts.—Come to me, Lucifer!
|
| Lucifer |
Lo! I am here: and ever prompt when called for.
How speed thy general pleasures?
|
| Festus |
Bravely! joys
Are bubble-like—what makes them, bursts them, too.
And, like the milky way, there! dim with stars,
The soul that numbers most will shine the less.
|
| Lucifer |
No matter—mind it not!
|
| Festus |
Yet, joys of earth!
That ye should ruin spirits is too hard.
Who can avoid ye? who can say ye nay?
Or take his eyes from off ye? who so chaste?
|
| Lucifer |
They have well-nigh unimmortalized myself.
|
| Festus |
Yet have they nought to sate the pining spirit
Which doth enamour immortality.
No! they are all base, impure, ruinous—
The harlots of the heart. Forgive me, God!
I am getting too forlorn to live—too waste.
Aught that I can or do love, shoots by me,
Like a train upon an iron road. And yet
I need not now reproach mine arm or aim;
For I have winged each pleasure as it flew,
How swift
|
