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

No more of pastoral loves. War wears on high
His horrours, like a plume; and his loud voice
Roars, like a whirlwind, amid echoes wild
Of rocky beach, or desart solitude.
—Hovering like ominous bird; a veriest speck
Upon the horizon rising; might be seen,
A wingèd Bark, that larger, more distinct,

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Grew, and approached, ere long of men beheld—
Nor unobserved of angels. Michaèl,
Guardian of Nations, rushed on Helam down;
Bold cliff, that, beetling, far o'erlooked the main,
And not in song unfamed. For fable high
Thereof young Hori had conceived; supposed
Of island dwellers ere the arrival there
Of Abel's seed; a mythos well designed,
With passion graced, and manners suitable:
Nor ill-conjectured. For beyond them lay,
In isle remoter, that same race, for whom
Kaël was seër. Blinder they of mind
Than he of body; haply—'scaped from Naid,
In fear of vengeance for enormous guilt—
Furthest was best, they deemed, from that cursed spot,
Where justice might be born; but ne'ertheless,
The Cainite found them soon, and not as foe,
Chance-roving on the deep, in search of gain.
—Whereof let this suffice. Me it behoves
To speak of Michael, the Archangel, whom
Met strong Azaziel,—Fury of the War,
Demon of Battle,—on that rocky height.

Straight each the other seized, in mutual wrath,
Well matched; and wrestled there from morn to eve.
Meantime, the Cainite, with malicious speed,
Like a sea-hornet, from the o'erswarmèd air,
Lights on thy coast, O far Erythræan Isle.
Fame spread her bruit, and Battle raised his shout,
And his loud trump resounded. On the beach,
Full many a man of the invading hosts
Was victor—of a grave—a common grave,
Dug in the sands. For to the shepherd race,
Where'er they spread, the sacred threshold they
Of each loved home, the fender of each hearth,
The temple's portal, and the altar's steps.
Such was that shore—so dear—so sacred then;

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And holily defended, as from touch
Of sacrilege, with heroism so devout,
That whoso fell was as a sacrifice,
An offering slain to God; to whom the warm
Steam of the living blood, like incense, rose,
By angels in their golden censers waft,
When they present the Throne Divine before,
The prayers of saints, accepted graciously.
—O there is Sympathy for evermore
Of Angels with Mankind. Nor wanting proof.
Witness the infernal God of Battle wage,
With the Archangel, conflict terrible,
On Helam in the clouds; so high its scalp
The craggy summit reared. Less high the hill
In Rephidim, whose top ascended once
Musah, with Hur, and Aaron, while in war
Strove Isräel with Amalek. In hand
The Legislator held the Almighty's rod,
Wherewith the Rock in Horeb he had smitten,
Whence water quenched the thirst of discontent;
A weight but ill sustained: and ah, when fell
His arm, the foe prevailed; nor might succeed
The chosen race, if it were lifted not;
But, by the twain upheld, his heavy hands
Were steadily preserved, till going-down
Of that victorious sun. Like fortune waits
The seed of Abel, now. As prospers, here,
Michael with his assailant, on this height;
So they below advantage gain, or lose.

Nine days the Angelic Wrestlers, on the head
Of visionary Helam, ruled the doom
Of meeting armies. Hand in hand, they strove;
With strenuous wrist, at arm's length either held,
Lest, closing, one antagonist might win
Possession of the other, and o'erthrow.
Struggling they kept at distance, so from side

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To side swung with contention emulous,
And action muscular, supernal strength.
O for the war embrace. With outstretched hand,
Each aims to grapple at the heaving chest
Of his opponent: by a mighty gripe,
To strangle, and subdue; or to enclose
The staggering victim in the stringent folds,
As of a serpent's clasp, and so to crush.
Now, either shoulder clenched in either fist,
Their arms at equal length are mutual crossed;
But neither yet might cling to other's neck,
Not yet compressed the bosom, or the throat.
Deep-dinted in the substance; from such grasp
Reciprocal they shrink; and writhe, and reel,
Till shaken off, or with a sudden sleight
Removed; that, by some other joint, or limb,
The foe may be constrained; by hip, or thigh
Caught, and, with dreadful violence, elanced
From the strong wrestler's seizure, in his wrath;
As, from an arbalist, or catapult,
Arrow, or stone, the enginery of war.

With various fortune thus, but equal force,
On Helam strove the gods; while in the plains
Men fought with men, from morn to eve, engaged—
The invaders, and invaded; those constrained
Battle to court, and foremost to attack,
Safe only when assailing; these inclined
To wait occasion's favour. But ere long,
War won more inland passage; and hewed down
A pathway to the valleys, and the hills.
—O Vale of Elul; once so beautiful,
So tranquil in thy beauty: now in thee
Is exclamation; with the shriek, and shout
Of battle; wanton with the loud uproar,
As a glad hunter, with the merry noise
Of hound, and echo, discord musical.

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There, Hori, were thy mother, and thy sire,
Adra, and Abi, sheltered in their age;
Watched o'er by thee, and by thy sister, Nain,
With filial love; in humble confidence,
Reposing, and in peace, a blessèd pair.

But Strife now enters; and the whetted Sword
Is forth against the Shepherd. Warriours sing
To it their songs—to it, and to the Spear,
And to the Shield . . boasting that they with them
Till, sow, and reap, plant vines, and press the juice,
And hail them conquerours of field, and flood.
Slaves in Ambition's service; scorned by hell
For fools, less wise than are the fiends, who prey
Not on their kind, but, strong in multitudes,
Find wisdom in convention. Yet with these,
Man maketh widows, orphans, and doth mar
His brother's visage, and the father's face . .
With woe-begone expression for the slain,
The prematurely dead. In gorgeous weeds,
The fine proportioned, and elastic limbs,
(So skilfully marked out, that cunning art
Of painter, or of sculptour, fails to mend
Contrivance exquisite) of generous Steed
They gird for battle. Pleased with such array,
The heroic Courser, gently pacing, or
High bounding, goeth, proud of his career.
How mild the Elephant; yet him man makes
Furious in war, and cruel as himself;
Yea, and the adoring Dog instructs to rend
The human form, whereto the conscious brute
Else bows in awe . . the deity he loves.