University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

—The air. Midsummer. Late evening twilight, through which the moon rises, at full.
AFRAEL.
(sol.)
The night, the hour have come! O long, long Moon,
How I have waited for thee to refill
Thy pale dim outline with clear rounded light!
Now thou art full and fervent. And shall not
This pale dim Me, this shadowy nothingness,
This tenuous adumbration of delight,
Be with substantial aspect and real glow
Filled in, like thee, and burn, a perfect sphere?
Can she deny me now, now that the sky
Hath, my ally, her earthly shackles snapped?
No! She will grant that necessary boon,
And then, fair luminary! unlike thee,
I shall nor wax nor wane, but, night and day,
Be full of her! Now farewell, heavenly space!
Farewell, thou vault sublime! Farewell ye stars,
That hold the keys of fixëd harmony,
Ye golden chords of the eternal lyre!
Ye combinations infinite, farewell!
Forget me not! I never will forget ye!
But o'er that new and lesser home which waits
My transformation, watch with constant ray,
Nor me desert, deserter though I be,
And for her gentle sake propitious shine,
For whom I quit ye!