Seatonian Poems By the Rev. J. M. Neale |
 |
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
| XVII. |
| XVIII. |
| XIX. |
| XX. |
| XXI. |
| XXII. |
 | Seatonian Poems |  |
151
Monarch of ages, the First and the Last, Whose measureless vision
Joining the Past and the Future in one, (where as infinite rivers,
Here, in a moment of time, their two eternities mingle,)
This by Thy Saints hast writ, and that by Thy Prophets foretellest;
Oh what a moment of time, what a brief-told span of existence
Thou hast appointed for man! Though he mete out the path of the comet,
Measure the depths of the sea, and number the stars of the heaven,
Triumph o'er time, and annihilate space! If his years Thou hast shortened
Since their duration at first, 'twas not harshly, O God, nor severely;—
Who in the passage to Life, (for what is this life but a passage
Out of the storm into calm, to our own dear Country from exile,
Into the region of joy from the kingdom of sorrow,) would linger?
There is the goal of our race, the reward and the end of our contest;
There is the happy array of the souls made perfect through suffering:
There is the realm where tempests are not,—where Paradise blossoms,
Where God's Noon is eternal, and God's own Spring everlasting.
Oh how they beckon us on,—those former and earthly companions
Who have put off the corruptible now, and assumed the eternal,—
Oh how they call us away from this earth's poor lures and enticements,
Perishing when at the brightest, no sooner enjoyed than departed!
This is the voice of their love, as they point to the infinite future,
—“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection!”
Joining the Past and the Future in one, (where as infinite rivers,
Here, in a moment of time, their two eternities mingle,)
This by Thy Saints hast writ, and that by Thy Prophets foretellest;
Oh what a moment of time, what a brief-told span of existence
Thou hast appointed for man! Though he mete out the path of the comet,
Measure the depths of the sea, and number the stars of the heaven,
152
Since their duration at first, 'twas not harshly, O God, nor severely;—
Who in the passage to Life, (for what is this life but a passage
Out of the storm into calm, to our own dear Country from exile,
Into the region of joy from the kingdom of sorrow,) would linger?
There is the goal of our race, the reward and the end of our contest;
There is the happy array of the souls made perfect through suffering:
There is the realm where tempests are not,—where Paradise blossoms,
Where God's Noon is eternal, and God's own Spring everlasting.
Oh how they beckon us on,—those former and earthly companions
Who have put off the corruptible now, and assumed the eternal,—
153
Perishing when at the brightest, no sooner enjoyed than departed!
This is the voice of their love, as they point to the infinite future,
—“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection!”
Yet would I fain,—(for autumnal repose and the glory of sunset
Call back the years that are gone in thoughts not gloomy but solemn,)
Now that, a monarch in death, the great sun draws to his setting,
Decking the earth with his beauty and kindling the sky with his splendour,
Fain would I turn to the realm of the past; that marvellous kingdom
Where, when the midnight shall come, this day, now dying in beauty,
Shall, in the grave of years, be written for ever and ever.—
What is the line of monarchs that, far as can history venture,
Looms on th' horizon, a band so ghost-like and shadowy—monarchs
Passing in godlike array athwart the shadows that cradle
Time in his awful departure from out of eternity's bosom?
Mighty indeed that race, and mighty its memories, rising
In the green vale of the Nile, the dead midst the living around them:
Temples august in their granite, and calm great obelisks, soaring
Up from the earth and its din, and statues, huge and majestic,
Statues of deified monarchs, or king-like gods, may I name them?
There is his last long sleep, the Chief and the Priest and the Father,
Heart of the shrine and its worship: himself in cornice and passage,
Trampling the proud in his wrath, or raising the meek in his mercy:
There in the pillar sublime, the lawgiver seated in judgment
Executes justice for all: there lastly, as earth is departing,
Gently received by the gods as a god, was his earthly entombment.
Spring should come down on the fields, and summer should fade into autumn,
Thousand-fold thousands of times, (so intended the skill of the builder,)
While, in the midst of the shrine, undisturbed, untended, decayless,
Sleeping the infinite sleep, the monarch reposed in his glory.
None should behold those walls, none gaze on the wild decorations,
Sacred to silence and night, till the king should awake from his slumbers,
Then, when the earth and sky should be mingled together in ruin.
Who hath o'erthrown those temples? Who scattered in measureless fragments
Idol, and pillar, and sphinx into heaps of eternal confusion,
Dashing the statues of kings into grinning deformity, mingling
Granite, and marble, and clay with the fierce wild sweep of a whirlwind?
Tremble, ye idols of Egypt! The mighty avenger approaches:
Tremble, ye priests of the stock and the stone; let them rise, let them save you,
If they have ears for your prayers, if victims and hymns be availing!
Where are the soldiers of yore? Let the long, long lines of the archers
Stand in the front of the war; let them shoot, as they shot at Megiddo,
When to the grave of his youth they hurried the ruler of Sion,
Him that was faithful alone in a faithless and ill generation.
Vainly they marshal for battle: the shout of the Mede and the Persian
Daunting each spirit, and chilling each sense, grows louder and louder:
Bel boweth down to his fate, and Nebo stoopeth to ruin.
Laden with gold and with jewels the camels are treading the desert,
Weary with those vast loads of capital, cornice, and pillar,
Destined to serve in the victor's abode. Hence, ruin on ruin;
Hence, when the sun sinks low, and the purple and African desert
Glows as the steel on the anvil,—the long slant rays of the sunbeam,
Mournfully gilding the ruin, makes sadder the sad desolation.
Music is hushed in those halls; the voice of the bride and the bridegroom
Never shall echo again; no light of a candle shall glimmer;
Beasts of the desert are there, and owls in their desolate places.
Marvellous still is the scene, though its youth and its strength have departed:
Man may pass by and his works, but the flow of the stream is eternal:
Cradled in silence, and lapped in obscurity, onward and onward
Winding or forcing its way through dim and impassable mountains,
Peaks unknown and untrodden, mysterious Crophi and Mophi,
Then, in convulsion and jar, with writhing and feverish waters,
Struggling and panting along, where the cataract, wonderful portal,
Opens its beautiful way thro' the fair green valley of Egypt.
Egypt, unchanged and unchangeable land! since the days of thy glory
Oh what mutation of earth, what rise and extinction of nations!
There where the forest primeval was stretched, with the gnarl of its branches
Shadowing acre on acre, a deep green ocean of verdure,
Commerce hath wedded together the flame and the water, combining
City and city in one; and with more than the speed of the lightning
Darting, o'er mountain and vale, the thought and the word and the action.
There, by the deep sea-shore, where was nought but the wearisome ripple,
Hour after hour, of the wave, and the lonesome scream of the sea-gull,
Now is the clang of the dock, the voice of the mallet and hammer,
Clamping and clenching the planks that shall ride the queen of the ocean.
Thou wast the same, O land of the past! thy obelisks pointed
Up to the noontide sun,—thy sphinxes, in terrible beauty,
Guarded the shrine and its gate, when Ishmael's merchantmen entered
Bearing their spices and myrrh, and leading the captive and bondman,
Him that was sold from the pit in the distant valley of Dothan.
Strong in the strength of thy God, be faithful amidst the unfaithful;
Bear yet awhile that dungeon! A mightier captive than thou art,
Suffers in type with thee; He is taken from prison and judgment,
Yet in the end to the throne, the eternal throne is exalted!
Call back the years that are gone in thoughts not gloomy but solemn,)
Now that, a monarch in death, the great sun draws to his setting,
Decking the earth with his beauty and kindling the sky with his splendour,
Fain would I turn to the realm of the past; that marvellous kingdom
Where, when the midnight shall come, this day, now dying in beauty,
Shall, in the grave of years, be written for ever and ever.—
154
Looms on th' horizon, a band so ghost-like and shadowy—monarchs
Passing in godlike array athwart the shadows that cradle
Time in his awful departure from out of eternity's bosom?
Mighty indeed that race, and mighty its memories, rising
In the green vale of the Nile, the dead midst the living around them:
Temples august in their granite, and calm great obelisks, soaring
Up from the earth and its din, and statues, huge and majestic,
Statues of deified monarchs, or king-like gods, may I name them?
There is his last long sleep, the Chief and the Priest and the Father,
Heart of the shrine and its worship: himself in cornice and passage,
155
There in the pillar sublime, the lawgiver seated in judgment
Executes justice for all: there lastly, as earth is departing,
Gently received by the gods as a god, was his earthly entombment.
Spring should come down on the fields, and summer should fade into autumn,
Thousand-fold thousands of times, (so intended the skill of the builder,)
While, in the midst of the shrine, undisturbed, untended, decayless,
Sleeping the infinite sleep, the monarch reposed in his glory.
None should behold those walls, none gaze on the wild decorations,
Sacred to silence and night, till the king should awake from his slumbers,
Then, when the earth and sky should be mingled together in ruin.
156
Idol, and pillar, and sphinx into heaps of eternal confusion,
Dashing the statues of kings into grinning deformity, mingling
Granite, and marble, and clay with the fierce wild sweep of a whirlwind?
Tremble, ye idols of Egypt! The mighty avenger approaches:
Tremble, ye priests of the stock and the stone; let them rise, let them save you,
If they have ears for your prayers, if victims and hymns be availing!
Where are the soldiers of yore? Let the long, long lines of the archers
Stand in the front of the war; let them shoot, as they shot at Megiddo,
When to the grave of his youth they hurried the ruler of Sion,
157
Vainly they marshal for battle: the shout of the Mede and the Persian
Daunting each spirit, and chilling each sense, grows louder and louder:
Bel boweth down to his fate, and Nebo stoopeth to ruin.
Laden with gold and with jewels the camels are treading the desert,
Weary with those vast loads of capital, cornice, and pillar,
Destined to serve in the victor's abode. Hence, ruin on ruin;
Hence, when the sun sinks low, and the purple and African desert
Glows as the steel on the anvil,—the long slant rays of the sunbeam,
Mournfully gilding the ruin, makes sadder the sad desolation.
Music is hushed in those halls; the voice of the bride and the bridegroom
158
Beasts of the desert are there, and owls in their desolate places.
Marvellous still is the scene, though its youth and its strength have departed:
Man may pass by and his works, but the flow of the stream is eternal:
Cradled in silence, and lapped in obscurity, onward and onward
Winding or forcing its way through dim and impassable mountains,
Peaks unknown and untrodden, mysterious Crophi and Mophi,
Then, in convulsion and jar, with writhing and feverish waters,
Struggling and panting along, where the cataract, wonderful portal,
159
Egypt, unchanged and unchangeable land! since the days of thy glory
Oh what mutation of earth, what rise and extinction of nations!
There where the forest primeval was stretched, with the gnarl of its branches
Shadowing acre on acre, a deep green ocean of verdure,
Commerce hath wedded together the flame and the water, combining
City and city in one; and with more than the speed of the lightning
Darting, o'er mountain and vale, the thought and the word and the action.
There, by the deep sea-shore, where was nought but the wearisome ripple,
Hour after hour, of the wave, and the lonesome scream of the sea-gull,
Now is the clang of the dock, the voice of the mallet and hammer,
160
Thou wast the same, O land of the past! thy obelisks pointed
Up to the noontide sun,—thy sphinxes, in terrible beauty,
Guarded the shrine and its gate, when Ishmael's merchantmen entered
Bearing their spices and myrrh, and leading the captive and bondman,
Him that was sold from the pit in the distant valley of Dothan.
Strong in the strength of thy God, be faithful amidst the unfaithful;
Bear yet awhile that dungeon! A mightier captive than thou art,
Suffers in type with thee; He is taken from prison and judgment,
Yet in the end to the throne, the eternal throne is exalted!
—Beautiful season of old, when down and valley and hillside
Yielded a place for his flocks, while the great oak, stretching her branches
Over the greensward round, was the Patriarch's home for a season.
Here was the light tent pitch'd, the earth gave treasure of water:
Here was the altar erected to God: while pastoral princes
Came with their proffer of peace, and knelt at the shrine of El-Bethel.
Now for awhile farewell to the plain of beautiful Canaan:
God hath commanded, Advance! O'er the earth the famine is raging;
Only in Zoan is food: and with visions of peace and of plenty
Happier tidings arrive,—too happy at first for reception,
‘Joseph is yet alive; is alive, and is Lord over Egypt!
Bravely the brave old man goes forth with the tribes of the future:
Casting his all upon God, Whose word is his light and his waymark
Now, as in years long past: ‘for certainly I will be with thee;
‘I will go down with thy steps, and again will bring thee to Canaan.’
Thus, when an evening of calm, succeeding the day of the tempest,
Pours through the rifts of the clouds the marvellous glory of sunset,
Gilding each hard dark edge, and melting the mist into silver;
Then earth sends to the sky her great oblation of incense;
Sparkles the tree and the flower; the birds chant gladly their Vespers;
Greener the green mead glows, more azure the blue of the æther:—
Thus is the calm fair end of a life so chequered with chances.
Now o'er the waste of the sand he beholds the pyramids gleaming;
Now is enwrapped in those dear, dear arms: now Goshen the happy,
Goshen the best of the land, the home of the future, is round him.
Year after year rolls on; the little ones bloom into youthood,
Youth into man's ripe strength, and the full ripe vigour of manhood
Melts into eld: while still, the Prince and the Priest of his people,
Jacob awaits his call; and expects the repose of the righteous.
161
Over the greensward round, was the Patriarch's home for a season.
Here was the light tent pitch'd, the earth gave treasure of water:
Here was the altar erected to God: while pastoral princes
Came with their proffer of peace, and knelt at the shrine of El-Bethel.
Now for awhile farewell to the plain of beautiful Canaan:
God hath commanded, Advance! O'er the earth the famine is raging;
Only in Zoan is food: and with visions of peace and of plenty
Happier tidings arrive,—too happy at first for reception,
‘Joseph is yet alive; is alive, and is Lord over Egypt!
Bravely the brave old man goes forth with the tribes of the future:
162
Now, as in years long past: ‘for certainly I will be with thee;
‘I will go down with thy steps, and again will bring thee to Canaan.’
Thus, when an evening of calm, succeeding the day of the tempest,
Pours through the rifts of the clouds the marvellous glory of sunset,
Gilding each hard dark edge, and melting the mist into silver;
Then earth sends to the sky her great oblation of incense;
Sparkles the tree and the flower; the birds chant gladly their Vespers;
Greener the green mead glows, more azure the blue of the æther:—
Thus is the calm fair end of a life so chequered with chances.
Now o'er the waste of the sand he beholds the pyramids gleaming;
163
Goshen the best of the land, the home of the future, is round him.
Year after year rolls on; the little ones bloom into youthood,
Youth into man's ripe strength, and the full ripe vigour of manhood
Melts into eld: while still, the Prince and the Priest of his people,
Jacob awaits his call; and expects the repose of the righteous.
When shall the season draw nigh,—the season foretold? What chieftain
Bursting the dungeon and loosing the chain, shall deliver Jeshurun?
Arm of the Lord! it is time to awake: the bondage is bitter,
Heavy and sore is the yoke wherewith they burden Thy people!
Is not Thine own word pledged, that years four hundred and thirty
Rolling away, shall redeem Thy flock? O remember Thy promise;
Think of the Saints of the past: of the Saints, O God of the living,
Dwelling with Thee in the peace of Thy home, and deliver their children!
Bursting the dungeon and loosing the chain, shall deliver Jeshurun?
Arm of the Lord! it is time to awake: the bondage is bitter,
Heavy and sore is the yoke wherewith they burden Thy people!
Is not Thine own word pledged, that years four hundred and thirty
164
Think of the Saints of the past: of the Saints, O God of the living,
Dwelling with Thee in the peace of Thy home, and deliver their children!
Oh what a night was that, what a night to be ever recorded,
When from the seat of the Lord went forth the Mandate of Judgment!
When the Eternal Word, as a warrior armed for the slaughter,
Leapt from his throne, and stood on the earth, but reached to the heaven!
Death in the courts of the palace, and death in the hut of the bondman:
Everywhere, everywhere, death. The sad low wail of the firstborn
Hangs on the midnight air, while the pitiless angel of sorrow
Stays not and knows not to spare. No avail in the skill of physician;
Vain is the prayer of devotion, and vain the voice of affection.
But, in the Lord's own land, with the Lord's own people, is gladness,
Where the mysterious blood is sprinkled on lintel and doorpost,
Warding the stroke of death. They eat the mystical supper,
Standing, and sandalled, and hasty of mien, and girt for departure.
(So, when the world and its deeds shall be o'er, when the angel of judgment
Summons the quick and the dead, woe! woe! where the Paschal Oblation
Hath not besprinkled each soul,—thence writ with the reprobate people!)
When from the seat of the Lord went forth the Mandate of Judgment!
When the Eternal Word, as a warrior armed for the slaughter,
Leapt from his throne, and stood on the earth, but reached to the heaven!
Death in the courts of the palace, and death in the hut of the bondman:
Everywhere, everywhere, death. The sad low wail of the firstborn
Hangs on the midnight air, while the pitiless angel of sorrow
165
Vain is the prayer of devotion, and vain the voice of affection.
But, in the Lord's own land, with the Lord's own people, is gladness,
Where the mysterious blood is sprinkled on lintel and doorpost,
Warding the stroke of death. They eat the mystical supper,
Standing, and sandalled, and hasty of mien, and girt for departure.
(So, when the world and its deeds shall be o'er, when the angel of judgment
Summons the quick and the dead, woe! woe! where the Paschal Oblation
Hath not besprinkled each soul,—thence writ with the reprobate people!)
Now there is forming of lines, and the blast of the trumpet at midnight;
Torches glare out in the streets; they marshal by tribes and by houses:
Borrow ye jewels of gold, saith the Lord, and jewels of silver;
As she hath spoil'd, so let her be spoil'd: oppress the oppressor:
Gather the double of all, in the hour of her just retribution.
Hurriedly sweeps the array, where the voice of the ruler directs it,
Billow on billow, instinct with life: still onward and onward
Take they the desolate way of the wild, by Succoth and Etham.
Who shall protect them now? The chariots and horses of Egypt
Thunder behind, and the deep is before, and the wail of the trumpet,
Prancing of steeds, and shout of the foe, wax louder and louder.
Then from the Throne of God, that Throne, where the weary have refuge,
Where in the midst of distress there is calm, that mandate was uttered,
—Mandate not uttered alone that day for the thousands of Judah,—
But to all ages addressed, and to all generations, “Go forward!”
Forward, when all seems lost, when the cause looks utterly hopeless;
Forward, when brave hearts fail, and to yield is the rede of the coward;
Forward, when friends fall off, and enemies gather around thee;
Thou, though alone with thy God, though alone in thy courage, Go forward!
Nothing it is with Him to redeem or by few or by many:
Help, though deferred, shall arrive; ere morn the night is at darkest.
Torches glare out in the streets; they marshal by tribes and by houses:
166
As she hath spoil'd, so let her be spoil'd: oppress the oppressor:
Gather the double of all, in the hour of her just retribution.
Hurriedly sweeps the array, where the voice of the ruler directs it,
Billow on billow, instinct with life: still onward and onward
Take they the desolate way of the wild, by Succoth and Etham.
Who shall protect them now? The chariots and horses of Egypt
Thunder behind, and the deep is before, and the wail of the trumpet,
Prancing of steeds, and shout of the foe, wax louder and louder.
Then from the Throne of God, that Throne, where the weary have refuge,
Where in the midst of distress there is calm, that mandate was uttered,
167
But to all ages addressed, and to all generations, “Go forward!”
Forward, when all seems lost, when the cause looks utterly hopeless;
Forward, when brave hearts fail, and to yield is the rede of the coward;
Forward, when friends fall off, and enemies gather around thee;
Thou, though alone with thy God, though alone in thy courage, Go forward!
Nothing it is with Him to redeem or by few or by many:
Help, though deferred, shall arrive; ere morn the night is at darkest.
Oh what a wonderful sight, as the wild sea, hither and thither,
Piled itself up, and was raised in a heap! A horror of gladness
Thrilled through the host, as, on this side and that, the obedient water
Stood like an adamant wall, with a dark, deep valley below it:
Valley, where coralline trees stretched out their branches of beauty.
But on each face of the pile, so glassy and golden together,
Now (for it drew to the eve) were the westering sunbeams reflected.
Yea, in what marvellous tints, through the very abyss of the ocean,
Struck they and pierced they and lingered! What hues of crimson and jasper
Shaded away, or commingling, led onward and onward the vision
Into the far sea depth! what soft and violet pulses
Quivered afar through the mass, instinct with glory and splendour!
Marvels unknown till then: for till then never had Nature
Opened the sea-nymphs' hall, and revealed the palace of ocean.
Tribes of the Lord, advance! the Pillar of Cloud is before you!
Go, where your God shall lead!
Piled itself up, and was raised in a heap! A horror of gladness
Thrilled through the host, as, on this side and that, the obedient water
168
Valley, where coralline trees stretched out their branches of beauty.
But on each face of the pile, so glassy and golden together,
Now (for it drew to the eve) were the westering sunbeams reflected.
Yea, in what marvellous tints, through the very abyss of the ocean,
Struck they and pierced they and lingered! What hues of crimson and jasper
Shaded away, or commingling, led onward and onward the vision
Into the far sea depth! what soft and violet pulses
Quivered afar through the mass, instinct with glory and splendour!
Marvels unknown till then: for till then never had Nature
Opened the sea-nymphs' hall, and revealed the palace of ocean.
Tribes of the Lord, advance! the Pillar of Cloud is before you!
169
And night hath come down in her blackness.
Only the deep tramp, tramp of the hosts, and the shout of the captains,
Neighing of steeds, and thunder of car. Now woman and childhood
Wearily, wearily drag their steps; while fiercer and gladder,
Deeming the prey in their clutch, press on those thousands of Egypt.
Woe for the faint and the few! When lo! the pillary vapour,
(Just as the midnight divides the departing day from the morrow,)
Hitherto leading the van, now fearfully swoops to the rearward,
Right between host and host. On Zoan ineffable terror
Poured from that horrible cloud, as its congregate masses of blackness
Swirled through the labouring air: but gladness and glory on Judah,
Such as the Presence of God streams down on the Seats of the Blessed.
Only the deep tramp, tramp of the hosts, and the shout of the captains,
Neighing of steeds, and thunder of car. Now woman and childhood
Wearily, wearily drag their steps; while fiercer and gladder,
Deeming the prey in their clutch, press on those thousands of Egypt.
Woe for the faint and the few! When lo! the pillary vapour,
(Just as the midnight divides the departing day from the morrow,)
Hitherto leading the van, now fearfully swoops to the rearward,
Right between host and host. On Zoan ineffable terror
Poured from that horrible cloud, as its congregate masses of blackness
Swirled through the labouring air: but gladness and glory on Judah,
170
Glowed in its radiance the host: glowed banner and armour and buckler;
Squadron and line of advance glowed out: on the watery bulwark
Flickered and trembled the broken array and fragments of splendour.
Ah! but the Form! That Form that looked on the army of Egypt
Forth from the pillar of cloud, to distract and to madden and frenzy?
Then fell terror on hearts that till then never had trembled:
Then blanched lips that had never grown pale: the chariots of Memphis
Heavily, heavily, heavily drave: their wheels were shattered;
Blended were horse and foot. ‘Let us flee! let us flee!’ was the outcry:
‘Back, for the Lord is with them and battles against the Egyptian!’
Woe, for the word Too late! Ah, bitterly, bitterly uttered,
Then when the harvest is past, and the summer is ended for ever!
One little moment of time, one brief imperceptible second,
Closes the portal of hope: Here, none but the desperate enter!
Back on the wreck of the host rush down those mighty abysses;
Back on the king and the prince; back, back on the horse and the rider:
One wild shriek of despair; and then that silence for ever.
Squadron and line of advance glowed out: on the watery bulwark
Flickered and trembled the broken array and fragments of splendour.
Ah! but the Form! That Form that looked on the army of Egypt
Forth from the pillar of cloud, to distract and to madden and frenzy?
Then fell terror on hearts that till then never had trembled:
Then blanched lips that had never grown pale: the chariots of Memphis
Heavily, heavily, heavily drave: their wheels were shattered;
Blended were horse and foot. ‘Let us flee! let us flee!’ was the outcry:
‘Back, for the Lord is with them and battles against the Egyptian!’
171
Then when the harvest is past, and the summer is ended for ever!
One little moment of time, one brief imperceptible second,
Closes the portal of hope: Here, none but the desperate enter!
Back on the wreck of the host rush down those mighty abysses;
Back on the king and the prince; back, back on the horse and the rider:
One wild shriek of despair; and then that silence for ever.
Oh for the vision that once came down by the river of Chebar,
Teaching the Son of Man of past and present and future!
Then with a pencil of light might I picture the course of the ages
Such as the pyramids saw!
Teaching the Son of Man of past and present and future!
Then with a pencil of light might I picture the course of the ages
172
By the mouth of the River of Egypt
Rises the merchant queen, that had sway o'er the sea of the inland.
Over the tideless waves went forth those vessels of commerce,
Visiting island and port, as far as the Pillars of Atlas;
Yea, with undaunted prow stemming boldly against the Atlantic,
Coasting the shores of the West, till they entered the Bay of Ulysses:
Or, more adventurous still, their carved beak turned to the southward,
Anchored they under Madeira, the sweetest Isle of the Ocean.
Learning awakes from her sleep where the Ptolemy wieldeth the sceptre;
Echo again some few faint strains of the poets of Hellas;
Though the sweet source of the song be dried, still harmony lingers,
Oh how poor, how faint, how weak, ere dying for ever!
Now o'er the land of the Nile is the Western Eagle triumphant;
Now is the mart of the earth, and the world's great granary, Roman;
Marvellous change! But a change more marvellous time in its fulness
Hurries along; when the Cross shall o'erthrow the altars of Egypt;
When to the Name and the fame of the Crucified dedicate, temples
Shall in the city lift up their head; in the desolate places
Hallow the soil that was once the domain and abode of Osiris.
Oh what a fight to the death! What glorious conflict of martyrs!
Oh what a struggle of Satan! What rage and despair of the fiend-gods!
When to the rack men went, as the victor might go to a triumph,
Hugging each engine of pain as a bride; in the theatre stood they
Waiting the rush and the roar of the beast, that terrible passage
Up to the Vision and Glory of God, the Sight Beatific.
Tier upon tier rose high with the pitiless multitude crowded:
Præfect and Consulars sat where the silken and delicate awning
Shielded the noon-day sun; beneath, in the very arena,
He that is Martyr of martyrs again was crowned in His servant.
Nor with the steel and the torture alone was the battle decided:
Into the wilds they fled, to the desert and cavern and mountain,
Dying of hunger and thirst, the babe and the mother together,
Leaving their bones to whiten, a prey to the vulture and jackal;
Till in the day, when the Lord shall descend in His terror to judgment,
They shall obey His voice and be glorious for ever and ever.
—This is the way that they fought, those heroes of Christ and His Kingdom;
This is the way that they conquered, by toil and by patient endurance:
Therefore they now are before His Seat, where the River of Pleasure
Springs from the Throne of the Lamb That was slain, as glassy as crystal;
Where there is no more curse, but on either side of the River
Groweth the Tree of Life with her twelve fruits, each in their season;
Where they shall see His Face, and His Name shall be in their foreheads.
Rises the merchant queen, that had sway o'er the sea of the inland.
Over the tideless waves went forth those vessels of commerce,
Visiting island and port, as far as the Pillars of Atlas;
Yea, with undaunted prow stemming boldly against the Atlantic,
Coasting the shores of the West, till they entered the Bay of Ulysses:
Or, more adventurous still, their carved beak turned to the southward,
Anchored they under Madeira, the sweetest Isle of the Ocean.
Learning awakes from her sleep where the Ptolemy wieldeth the sceptre;
Echo again some few faint strains of the poets of Hellas;
173
Oh how poor, how faint, how weak, ere dying for ever!
Now o'er the land of the Nile is the Western Eagle triumphant;
Now is the mart of the earth, and the world's great granary, Roman;
Marvellous change! But a change more marvellous time in its fulness
Hurries along; when the Cross shall o'erthrow the altars of Egypt;
When to the Name and the fame of the Crucified dedicate, temples
Shall in the city lift up their head; in the desolate places
Hallow the soil that was once the domain and abode of Osiris.
Oh what a fight to the death! What glorious conflict of martyrs!
Oh what a struggle of Satan! What rage and despair of the fiend-gods!
174
Hugging each engine of pain as a bride; in the theatre stood they
Waiting the rush and the roar of the beast, that terrible passage
Up to the Vision and Glory of God, the Sight Beatific.
Tier upon tier rose high with the pitiless multitude crowded:
Præfect and Consulars sat where the silken and delicate awning
Shielded the noon-day sun; beneath, in the very arena,
He that is Martyr of martyrs again was crowned in His servant.
Nor with the steel and the torture alone was the battle decided:
Into the wilds they fled, to the desert and cavern and mountain,
Dying of hunger and thirst, the babe and the mother together,
175
Till in the day, when the Lord shall descend in His terror to judgment,
They shall obey His voice and be glorious for ever and ever.
—This is the way that they fought, those heroes of Christ and His Kingdom;
This is the way that they conquered, by toil and by patient endurance:
Therefore they now are before His Seat, where the River of Pleasure
Springs from the Throne of the Lamb That was slain, as glassy as crystal;
Where there is no more curse, but on either side of the River
Groweth the Tree of Life with her twelve fruits, each in their season;
Where they shall see His Face, and His Name shall be in their foreheads.
Now is the battle-array that shall crush or the Cross or the demon;
Where in the great sea-square of the merchant city of princes,
Rises the idol on high, that ancient idol, Serapis,
Doomed to be struck to the earth,—so saith the command of the Cæsar.
—Who hath the courage to deal that blow? For the prophets of Egypt
Tell, when that image shall fall, how the sky and the ocean shall mingle,
Darkness shall cover the world, and nature return into chaos.
“Give me an axe,” saith a firm brave voice. And the multitude cower,
Trembling and shrinking together, and deem that the end is approaching.
“Strike in the Name of the Lord!” And the idol trembles and totters:
Down with it, down to the ground! It falls, but a marvellous thunder
Echoes within that frame. Great terror is over the people;
Till from their ancient abode, in myriad, myriad numbers,
Pours forth a cohort of rats. Then peals of measureless laughter;
‘These be thy gods, O Egypt!’
176
Rises the idol on high, that ancient idol, Serapis,
Doomed to be struck to the earth,—so saith the command of the Cæsar.
—Who hath the courage to deal that blow? For the prophets of Egypt
Tell, when that image shall fall, how the sky and the ocean shall mingle,
Darkness shall cover the world, and nature return into chaos.
“Give me an axe,” saith a firm brave voice. And the multitude cower,
Trembling and shrinking together, and deem that the end is approaching.
“Strike in the Name of the Lord!” And the idol trembles and totters:
Down with it, down to the ground! It falls, but a marvellous thunder
Echoes within that frame. Great terror is over the people;
177
Pours forth a cohort of rats. Then peals of measureless laughter;
‘These be thy gods, O Egypt!’
The landscape of history darkens:
Pour from the tents of the East his hordes, the Impostor of Mecca:
Glows in the front of their van a land like the Garden of Eden:
Blackens behind their rear a howling and terrible desert.
Now is the land of the Nile yet again the servant of servants,
Mighty in thoughts of the past alone: while the fabrics of ages
Sadly and dimly look down on the hopes and the schemes of the future.
Relics of Pharaoh's renown, how strangely they blend and commingle
Into the present, the great highways of peace and of commerce,
Where from our country are sent her commands to the world of the Sunrise,
Where from the sea to the sea go forth the telegraph flashes!
Pour from the tents of the East his hordes, the Impostor of Mecca:
Glows in the front of their van a land like the Garden of Eden:
Blackens behind their rear a howling and terrible desert.
Now is the land of the Nile yet again the servant of servants,
Mighty in thoughts of the past alone: while the fabrics of ages
Sadly and dimly look down on the hopes and the schemes of the future.
Relics of Pharaoh's renown, how strangely they blend and commingle
Into the present, the great highways of peace and of commerce,
178
Where from the sea to the sea go forth the telegraph flashes!
Lord of the Past and the Future, Whom history preaches and blesses,
Who by Thy wisdom uphold'st Thine own through the perils of this world!
Still, when a Pharaoh attacks, raise up for Thy people a Moses;
Still let the Red Sea wave be a path of escape for Thy Ransomed;
Still through the desert lead on, still sever the waters of Jordan;
Till they obtain, at the last, their promised inheritance, Canaan!
Who by Thy wisdom uphold'st Thine own through the perils of this world!
Still, when a Pharaoh attacks, raise up for Thy people a Moses;
Still let the Red Sea wave be a path of escape for Thy Ransomed;
Still through the desert lead on, still sever the waters of Jordan;
Till they obtain, at the last, their promised inheritance, Canaan!
| Seatonian Poems | |