 | Benoni |  |
240
PSYCHE AND HER TRIALS.
Die, strong delusion! die, foul hooded fiends,
From secret rents whose livid jaws protrude
Their fangs of blood to gnaw us into fury!
Will you not die? Nor help us at the least
To foist a thin belief upon our hearts,
Making awhile fair seemings to be dead?
From secret rents whose livid jaws protrude
Their fangs of blood to gnaw us into fury!
Will you not die? Nor help us at the least
To foist a thin belief upon our hearts,
Making awhile fair seemings to be dead?
Tush, we are fools to speak it: they but prove
Their nature in the attack—and we, alas!
Keep ours in yielding. Ay, and if their arms
Shrank at full clutch to stiffness—if their rank
And poisonous breath did suddenly vacate
The unexpectant air, and leave it free—
His were an idiotic birth indeed,
And such whereon no passing flakes might stick
Of common wisdom, who would stake his soul
On calms like this, and trust for total death
To such a trance, and imp his airy wings
For stedfast voyage upward thro' the clouds,
On such faint promise of a coming breeze:
Yet such are we, who willingly to-day
Die in the floods that only did not drown
Yestre'en.
Their nature in the attack—and we, alas!
Keep ours in yielding. Ay, and if their arms
Shrank at full clutch to stiffness—if their rank
And poisonous breath did suddenly vacate
The unexpectant air, and leave it free—
His were an idiotic birth indeed,
And such whereon no passing flakes might stick
Of common wisdom, who would stake his soul
On calms like this, and trust for total death
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For stedfast voyage upward thro' the clouds,
On such faint promise of a coming breeze:
Yet such are we, who willingly to-day
Die in the floods that only did not drown
Yestre'en.
I know not what your sermons mean,
You with smooth stagnant spirits, where no trace
Of wrong can come but which is sluiced away
In one short prayer—who dwell among your days
In passionless impenetrable peace,
Or well distinguish in your inner strifes
The marshall'd foes, and fleetly, nor in vain,
Help the sweet Heaven against invading Hell:
You have no knowledge, men—you never probed
The awful depths of Being further in
Than your own shallows; you translate to us
The Book of God with small peculiar eyes,
And from the sample of your puny selves
Make bold to teach us what we are, and how
We may emerge to better!
You with smooth stagnant spirits, where no trace
Of wrong can come but which is sluiced away
In one short prayer—who dwell among your days
In passionless impenetrable peace,
Or well distinguish in your inner strifes
The marshall'd foes, and fleetly, nor in vain,
Help the sweet Heaven against invading Hell:
You have no knowledge, men—you never probed
The awful depths of Being further in
Than your own shallows; you translate to us
The Book of God with small peculiar eyes,
And from the sample of your puny selves
Make bold to teach us what we are, and how
We may emerge to better!
Come and see:
Oh, we will drive you thro' imprison'd deeps
And wonderful in horror—thro' black dens
Where one's feet crunch among the gory lairs
Blancht heaps of purposed excellence destroy'd,—
Thro' whirlpools where the restless raving surge
Dashes its wrecks into forgetfulness
And dizzy dim confusion—thro' a scene
Where all the diverse complicated Man
Is rent and torn and shiver'd utterly
To countless fragments, full of frightful hate
And strife against each other, knowing not
Each other nor themselves, and only sure
Of that dread doom which makes their cup of frenzy
Foam o'er the brim—that they must unto death
Writhe on, and bleed, and wrestle, without hope
Of peace, or hope that any stronger part
Shall crush the rest to silence; and all this—
This huge wild chaos—evermore immured
Within one essence,—essence that at times
Is lost to itself, and shatter'd to the core
With partial shocks unceasing: oh, my soul,
This, this, is agony!
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And wonderful in horror—thro' black dens
Where one's feet crunch among the gory lairs
Blancht heaps of purposed excellence destroy'd,—
Thro' whirlpools where the restless raving surge
Dashes its wrecks into forgetfulness
And dizzy dim confusion—thro' a scene
Where all the diverse complicated Man
Is rent and torn and shiver'd utterly
To countless fragments, full of frightful hate
And strife against each other, knowing not
Each other nor themselves, and only sure
Of that dread doom which makes their cup of frenzy
Foam o'er the brim—that they must unto death
Writhe on, and bleed, and wrestle, without hope
Of peace, or hope that any stronger part
Shall crush the rest to silence; and all this—
This huge wild chaos—evermore immured
Within one essence,—essence that at times
Is lost to itself, and shatter'd to the core
With partial shocks unceasing: oh, my soul,
This, this, is agony!
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Then will we gloat
With rabid looks upon you when aroused
To spasms of terror, with clench'd fists and wide
Expanding eyeballs—then we will unfold
Our knitted features to a bitter grin,
And shriek into your tingling ears that this
Is human life!.....
With rabid looks upon you when aroused
To spasms of terror, with clench'd fists and wide
Expanding eyeballs—then we will unfold
Our knitted features to a bitter grin,
And shriek into your tingling ears that this
Is human life!.....
O brothers, have you heard
Of One who all the workings of such storm
Watcheth, not heedless, and being sought, hath power
To blench the lightnings with his eye, and speak
The uncontrolled thunders into peace?
Of One who all the workings of such storm
Watcheth, not heedless, and being sought, hath power
To blench the lightnings with his eye, and speak
The uncontrolled thunders into peace?
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