 | The Poems and Plays of William Vaughn Moody |  |
IV
Now they had come to the stream Hiddekel,And passed beyond the stream. There, full in face,
Where the low morning made a mist of light,
The Garden and its gates lay like a flower
Afloat on the still waters of the dawn.
The clicking leap of bright-mailed grasshoppers,
The dropping of sage-beetles from their perch
On the gnawed cactus, even the pulsing drum
Of blood-beats in their ears, merged suddenly
Into ethereal hush. Then Cain made halt,
Held her, and muttered, “'T is enough. Thou sawest!
His Angel stood and threatened in the sun!”
And Eve said, “Yea, and though the day were set
With sworded angels, thou would'st wait for me
Yonder, before the gates; which, look you, child,
Lie open to me as the gates to him,
Thy father, when he entered in his rage,
Calling thee from the dark, where of old days
138
So grey Cain by the unguarded portal sat,
His arms crossed o'er his forehead, and his face
Hid in his meagre knees; but ancient Eve
Passed on into the vales of Paradise.
| The Poems and Plays of William Vaughn Moody | |