God's Divinest ye could utter With less trembling in your prayers! Ye have dropt adown your head, and it seems as if ye tread

On your own hearts in the path

Ye are called to in His wrath,'—

And your prayers go up in wail!

—' Dost Thou see, then, all our loss,

O Thou agonized on cross?

Art Thou reading all its tale? So, mournfully ye think upon the Dead

Pray, pray, thou who also weepest,

And the drops will slacken so; Weep, weep :—and the watch thou keepest.

With a quicker count will go. Think :—the shadow on the dial

For the nature most undone, Marks the passing of the trial.

Proves the presence of the sun: Look, look up, in starry passion,

To the throne above the spheres,—

! Learn : the spirit's gravitation

Still must differ from the tear's. Hope: with all the strength thou usest

In embracing thy despair:
Love: the earthly love thou losest

Shall return to thee more fair.
Work: make clear the forest-tangles

Of the wildest stranger-land:
Trust: the blessed deathly angels

Whisper, 'Sabbath hours at hand!'
By the heart's wound when most gory

By the longest agony,
Smile !—Behold, in sudden glory

The Transfigured smiles on thee!
And ye lifted up your head, and it
seemed as if He said,
'My Beloved, is it so?
Have ye tasted of my wo?
Of my heaven ye shall not fail!'—
He stands brightly where the shade is,
With the keys of Death and Hades,
And there ends the mournful tale :—
So hopefully ye think upon the Dead.

A DRAMA

SCENE— The outer side of the gate of Eden shut fast with cloud, from the depth of which revolves the sword of fire self-moved. Adam and Eve are seen in the distance, flying along the glare.

Lucifer, alone. Rejoice in the clefts of Gehenna.

My exiled, my host! Earth has exiles as hopeless as when a

Heaven's empire was lost. Through the seams of her shaken foundations, Smoke up in great joy! With the smoke of your fierce exultations

Deform and destroy!
Smoke up with your lurid revenges,

And darken the face Of the white heavens, and taunt them with changes

OF EXILE.

From glory and grace.
We, in falling, while destiny strangles,

Pull down with us all.
Let them look to the rest of their angels'

Who's safe from a fall? He saves not. Where's Adam? Can pardon

Requicken that sod?
Unkinged is the King of the Garden,

The image of God.
Other exiles are cast out of Eden,—

More curse has been hurled.
Come up, O my locusts, and feed in

The green of the world. Come up! we have conquered by evil.

Good reigns not alone. / prevail now, and, angel or devil.

Inherit a throne.

[In sudden apparition a watch of inmerable angels, rank above rank, slopes up from around the gate /" the zenith. The angel Gabrikl descends. ]

Lucifer. Hail Gabriel, the keeper of the gate!

Now that the fruit is plucked, prince
Gabriel,

I hold that Eden is impregnable
Under tby keeping.

Gabriel. Angel of the sin,

Such as thou standest,—pale in the drear light

Which rounds the rebel's work with

Maker's wrath,— Thou shalt be an Idea to all souls; A monumental melancholy gloom Seen down all ages; whence to mark

despair

And measure out the distances from good!

Go from us straightway.

Lucifer. Wherefore?

Gabriel. Lucifer, Tby last step in this place trod sorrow up. Recoil before that sorrow, if not this sword.

Lucifer. Angels are in the world— wherefore not I? Exiles are in the world—wherefore not I? The cursed are in the world—wherefore nqt I? Gabriel. Depart.

Lucifer. And wherc's the logic of 'depart V

Our lady Eve had half been satisfied To obey her Maker, if I had not learnt To fix my postulate better. Dost thou dream

Of guarding some monopoly in heaven Instead of earth! Wby I can dream

with thee To the length of tby wings

Gabriel. I do not dream.

This is not Heaven, even in a dream,

nor earth, As earth was once,—first breathed

among the stars, Articulate glory from the mouth divine. To which the myriad spheres thrilled audibly

Touched like a lute-String,—and the sons of God

Said .AMEN. singing it. I know that this

Is earth not new created but new cursed—

This, Eden's gate not opened but built up With a final cloud of sunset. Do 1 dream?

Alas, not so! this is the Eden lost
By Lucifer the serpent! this the sword
This sword alive with justice and with
fire I)

That smote upon the forehead, Lucifer
The angel l Wherefore, angel, go ....

depart—. Enough is sinned and suffered.

Lucifer. By no mear.s.

Here's a brave earth to sin and suffer on! It holds fast still—it cracks not under

curse;

It holds like mine immortal. Presently We'll sow it thick enough with graves as green

Or greener, ccrtes, than its knowledgetree—

We'll have the cypress for the tree of life. More eminent for shadow—for the rest We'll build it dark with towns and pyramids.

And temples, if it please you :—we'll

have feasts And funerals also, merrymakes and wars, Till blood and wine shall mix and run

along

Right o'er the edges. And, good Gabriel,

(Ye like that word in Heaven! (/ too have strength—

Strength to behold Him and not worship Him;

Strength to fall from Him and not cry on Him;

Strength to be in the universe and yet Neither God nor his servant. The red sign

Burnt on my forehead, which you taunt me with,

Is God's sign that it bows not unto God; The potter's mark upon his work, to show It rings well to the striker. I and the earth

Can bear more curse.

Gabriel. O miserable earth,

0 ruined angel!

Lucifer. Well I and if it be,

I Chose this ruin: I elected it