The Judgement of the Flood :: :: University of Virginia Library

Aspect perturbed, or changed with strange event,
Albeit thus passing strange, and fraught with doom.
A whirlwind had outsnatched his spirit, and rapt
Above the Olympian hill: yet what he saw,
And heard into his marrow searched, like fire.
Like the still whispering wind at eventide,
To him prediction came not, as it comes
Oft to the dying saint, to soothe his soul,
And softly speak of heaven. The flood was up;
Tempest abroad. Anon, a gradual calm,
A gentle breeze, a quiet finishing;
And peace companioned his returning soul.

Now through each vein the electric fluid glowed,
And he awoke, inspired. Long time he mused:
‘A mighty thing hath been to me revealed—
How shall the stone express it?’ And his hand
Dashed o'er the marble with a spirit's power,
His artist-hand. The head of that Pale Horse
Snorts fire; each nostril to each eye constrained
In nigh-disrupting rage, dilated—tort.
A perfect labour, which, had it survived,
Genius would question like an oracle;
Yet, weak resemblance of its archetype,
The genius that created it despised.
—‘It is in vain,’ said Japhet; ‘human art
Strives not with skill celestial—Art, farewell.
The hand forgets its cunning. Human sight
May not behold it—but my spirit burns—
'Twas not revealed for silence—I will forth.
This weapon of ethereal tempering,
Which thus God's Spirit hath in mine inclosed,
As in a sheath, or plunged as in a bath,
To sharpen in my soul; my father, thou
Shalt pluck out thence, and prove its double edge.’

Forthwith he sought his sire; his brethren, too,
Moved by paternal mandate, also came.

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Then Japhet told his vision. As he spake
His frame dilated, and his port assumed
Strange grandeur, and impulsive energy
Of concentrated import and deep awe.
Noah his son embraced.

‘A Prophet thou;
And to thy Sire, and Brethren sent from God.’
—Shem worshipt: but tears fell from Ham's sad eyes,
He knew not why; he could not chuse but weep.