The Vision of Prophecy and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

When the old patriarch, whom the flood had spared,
Began round Ararat to till the plain,
He planted, on a sunward slope prepared,
The grape,—the apple of his future bane.

At evening walking forth, surprised he saw
An altar built beneath the climbing vine;
A sudden impulse bade him nearer draw,
And he beheld a dark portentous sign.

A towering Form stood by the mystic fire,
Robed as a Priest in act to sacrifice;
And while he watched the breathing flame aspire,
A gloomy gladness sparkled in his eyes.

Then first a lamb which bleated at his side
He slew,—next spilt a shaggy lion's blood;
A mountain ape, strange victim also died,
And last a brindled wild-boar of the wood.

Their bodies on the altar-fire he throws,—
The streams of blood commingling seethed and hissed,
Up through the vine a deadly smoke arose,
And wrapped its branches and its leaves in mist.

The patriarch watched the impious rite with dread,
Like some wild bloody dream it tranced his eyes,
Till turning round, the Priest of Evil said,
“Now learn why I have offered sacrifice!

“I am the Prince of all the world,—and thee
I thank, O Noah, that when forced to quit
My realm awhile, thou, by my sacred tree,
Hast given me speedy welcome back to it.

“For well may I do honour to the Vine,—
Through it the earth surrendered to my will
Once more I augur, and display the sign
Of its effect, which Time shall soon fulfil.

“He who its subtle juice shall taste may be
As gentle as a creature of the fold,—
Let him drink on, and, like the lion, he
Shall wax defiant, fierce, and uncontrolled.

“Still let him drink,—the braggart soon shall grow
An empty noisy chatterer like the ape,—
At last, in all uncleanness grovelling low,
The vilest of the brutes in human shape!”

Still in the vine-leaves hung the vapours grey,
When Priest, and Fire, and Altar vanished all,
Nor dreamt the patriarch, on his homeward way,
It was the shadow of his future fall!