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

How sweetly breathes the Angel of the Morn—
How beautiful the smile upon his face;
And as he whispers in the rising breeze,
What music in the mercy of his voice,
The dewy tones compassionate: the drops,
That hang the leaves, and grasses, are the tears
Wept from the eyes of Pity. Lovelily,
To him who looks his last upon her face,
Beams the great mother; and his heart is touched
With sympathies celestial—nay, divine.
Nor Earth less sympathizes, and her Sons,
Who in the sight of Heaven had found grace,
Feel in their souls her passion; and come forth
To tend yon mystic Ark, that shall for her
Preserve a race alive; while she, baptized,
Wash off corruption, dying to be born
Anew . . to her old glory, nay, to more,
Redeemed, so that no spot upon her orb
Should be that was not holy, capable
Of consecration, or even needing none.
—Noah with Chava, mid their duteous Sons,
Each with his Bride, stood at the guarded door
Of the appointed Ark, and thence they gazed
For the last morn on the devoted Earth.

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Then in the presence of the Cherubim,
Even on that Mount their Sacrifice they lay,
Accepted soon of that enkindling Cone,
That fiery pillar, templed wherein dwelt
The Image of the Majesty Divine;
While on their faces the Noachidæ
Adoring fell; and thus the Patriarch prayed:

‘God of our Fathers; God of Adam; God
Of Abel; God of Seth, and Enosh; hear.
Hear, God of Cainan, and Mahalaleel,
Of Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah.
O God of Lamech: listen to our prayer.
—Wisdom of old with thee pronounced the Light,
And Laws Eternal to the Worlds prescribed,
Thy making. Wilt thou mar what thou hast made,
And, o'er the fair face of thy Universe,
Bid Ruin pass in Deluge, like the Deep
Ere Order was? Have Mercy yet on Earth:
Mercy on Man who in her bosom dwells.
—But Doom is said, and none may refuge find
Save in the Ark, and only Eight Souls there,
Of all Mankind. There comfort thou our Souls,
O God of Consolation: comfort us,
For the destruction of our Brethren; for
The peril which will threat us round about—
And for the doubts that may perplex our souls.
Save us, deliver us, from out the Flood,
And set our feet upon the ample round
Of earth again. Save us, deliver us—
O by the Sorrows of our Sire forgiven:
O by the Blood of Abel: by the Truth
Of Seth; and Enoch's Immortality.
We pray thee; we intreat thee; we implore.
Us guard—us guide—and from the waters bring.
So that Creation perish not, for lack
Of Man to contemplate her countenance,

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And call upon the works of thy great hand,
The Sun, and Moon, and Stars, and Heaven, and Earth,
And the wide Sea, to praise and magnify
Thy Wisdom, and thy Power, and thy Love.’

Such was the prayer of Noah, while the Fire
From the immediate Cherubim replied,
And kindled into flame the Sacrifice,
That on that hill, as on an Altar, lay;
And when it was consumed, the Eight arose
Cheered, but yet felt a sadness in their joy.

Not without tears, the Patriarch's family
Gazed on the doomèd World. In Noah's breast,
The venerable Chava hid her face,
In grief extreme; and very sad it was
For thee, Ahama; though with Japhet blest,
To leave so bright an orb: and, Leila; thou
Wert sorrowful exceedingly; nor thou,
Ahola; mightst restrain the gushing heart:
Loved earth, and her inhabitants, and those
So near, and dear, friends, parents, kin beloved,
Brother, and sister, and the playmate blithe,
And generous acquaintance, all foredoomed.
Nor were, be sure, Zateel, and Zerah far—
There partings were of such, for they had come
To take eternal farewells: for not all
Were evil, though not favoured so with grace,
As patrial Noah to regenerate
The renovated world; yet were they blest
With patience, and with resignation meek,
To meet the coming Judgement, and what doom
Might God appoint them. These, with ardent lips,
And feelings all mysterious, and too deep,
Stood by the place of refuge with the saved;
Nor end had been to their embrace, but then
Elihu came, and, interposing aid,

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Soothed the afflicted, and the downcast raised:
Within his arms he brought the Tables erst
To Enoch given, by him to Eden borne,
And from its gates so late promulged anew
With such effect. Them to the hands of Ham
Elihu did confide, with strict command,
Within that Ark securely to enshrine
For preservation. These the Tables were
Of which tradition tells, by Ham preserved
From deluge, and in Mitzraim since laid up
In temples, though concealed by hireling priests,
But not from Musah, skilled in Mitzraim's lore—
To whom on Sinai they were renewed.

Now slow, though unreluctant, went in faith
Into the Ark, sage Noah, and his Wife,
And Shem, and Ham, and Japhet, with their Brides;
Then on them fast he shut secure the door,
And the world vanished from their veilèd eyes.

As for the rest, they to the Cherubim,
All save Elihu, bowed adoring down.
He, to the hill returned, transfigured stood,
Person divine, amidst the fiery cone,
In glory ineffable by me—yet I,
(The Poet, gifted by the Spirit's Voice,
To summon from the vastiest Deep the Dead,
Those who aforetime disobedient were
In Noah's days, when Patience, heavenly throned,
Delayed the doom that God had fain recalled,
Had Man permitted Mercy to prevail,)
Looked with my spiritual eye on Paradise,
Heard with my spiritual ear her harmonies,
And saw the great array of Cherubim:
The cloudy column fast outflashing fire,
With the four-facèd creatures pillared there,
As in a temple of the elements,
Throned on the summit of the sacred hill,

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And bickering, as with lightning. And they spake,
As with the voice of thunder, but in songs
And rythmic dialogues. Fierce was the fire,
And vehement the sound of their discourse.
Such cloud the body is wherein we live,
Such fire the spirit, which, enkindled right,
Shall fain consume it, burning out thereby
Corruption, purging out the dross of sin.
Such cloud of smoke, as from a furnace sped—
Such flame, as of a burning lamp,—were seen
By Abram, when the sun declined, and him
A horrour of great darkness fell around;
Such Musah in the Holy Bush surprised—
Such, in a pillar both of cloud and fire,
With Israel in the Wilderness along,
Went night and day, and found, at last, abode
Within the Holiest, the Glory there.

There, overhovered by the Seraphim,
Elihu stood, between the Cherub twain,
And on the waiting and expectant Ark,
Looked down, and blessed it with uplifted hands.
Next, and more inward, amid Myrtle groves,
Were Horses with their Riders, in a vale,
A velvet bottom, mid the sacred hills
Of Eden; whom erst Phanuel heard enquire
The Angel, touching earth, then sitting still:
But now the storm was speeding, which that calm
So ominously threatened. Swift they came,
And went, the Cherub-steeds; and went, and came,
And then stood still: and then away—away,
On errand strange; and shouted choral hymns,
And anthems, all too loud for mortal ear,
In dreadful quire: and then returned again,
And chaunted epode, terrible, and wild.
And there were Chariots too, with harnessed Steeds
Of many colours; red, and black, and bay,

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Grisled, and white—the chariots of the Lord,
Spirits of Fire—his ready messengers,
Between the mountains, waiting for his voice,
To send them forth to the four ends of heaven;
And there the Horses, too, that Japhet saw,
In vision. He that bare the Crownèd One,
Who had the bow, and went to conquer forth—
The White Horse: He that bare the Sworded One,
Commissioned to take peace from earth away—
The Red Horse: He that bare the Balancer,
Who scanned the slanting scales with sceptic eye—
The Black Horse: He that bare the Name of Death,
Whom Hades followed, Famine and dread War,
And Beasts to slaughter Man, and Pestilence—
The Pale Horse.

And the Vision frighted me—
Frighted the more, since Satan I beheld
Fall from the sun, of Uriel thence cast down,
Defeated by his brightness; while soft sounds
Sighed from beneath, above, and all around,
‘How art thou fallen, starry Lucifer.’
Then seemed, as 'twere, the Future, yet unborn,
Rose from the germ; expanding:—and, from far,
To the mid air, wherein, suspended, swam
The falling deity, up from the deep
Floated the form of an unbodied Man,
Paul, the Apostle, rapt to the Third Heaven.
There, for awhile, delayed; to look upon
That Majesty obscured, but not destroyed.
And thus the Saint addressed the Demon-Prince:

‘Satan, or Zeus; Archangel of the Light,
The fluid Light, whereof a part became
The firmamental Heavens—thy primal realm,
Whose cosmic ether filled unmeasured space;
Knewst not, thou wert create, when Mystery,
(Whose Deep obscure thy Being's womb had been)

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Of Darkness older than thyself, remained,
Beyond thy limits, separate, distinct,
A barrier that no beam might penetrate?
—That Darkness but Light absolute, intense,
Whose glory blinded thine intelligence.
Over the cycles of unfolding Time,
Thou thence didst hold dominion. Day was thine,
And so was Night, where wander all the earths,
Conglobed of luminous matter, swayed by thee,
God of the worlds, Usurper. But a secret,
Wherewith still nature groaneth, big with travail,
Hath aye been uttered by Promethean souls,
Threatened but not revealed. Deliverance comes,
But not by thee, whom Fate thus overrules,
Down-falling.’

Having spoken, upward sped
The Saint upon his flight;—and downward still
Satan descended, shadows hiding him,
Fogs, vapours. But at length were these dispelled:
And far beyond the myrtle-groves I saw,
Astonied, further in, just by the Tree
Of Lives,—(a Templed Shade, wherein reposed
Enoch, awaiting yet translation thence,
To place more heavenly, to yet higher heaven;)
A glorious tree, and fruitful; at whose foot,
River of Life, ran, eloquently sweet,
A spiritual stream,—seven Angels stand
With Trumpets, all prepared for instant sound:
And an Archangel over them, with wings
Outspread, sublime, and with a golden voice
Of music, like melodious thunder-peals,
Calling aloud, and not unechoed then
Nine-fold; Wo—wo—wo. Straight the Trumpets blew
A blast so high, and deep, and broad, and long,
Heaven shook, and the great Earth; and all that Mount
Of Paradise was shaken. And forth rushed

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Seven angry Ones, seraphic, terrible,
Like gods, with vials in their giant hands,
Brim-full of wrath—brim-full of wrath—and they
Soared up, and made toward earth, right by the way
Where the strong Watchers of heaven's Cataracts
High station held.—Straightway the Archangel stood
Within the Rainbow, he whom Noah saw
In vision; and his hand was lifted up
To swear—but terrour made me blind, and deaf.

The Veil for me was drawn awhile, then closed.
A calm broods on my soul, and on my mind,
As I return unto the common world,
Yet full of mystery to the sage, and saint;
An Epos it, in mythic characters
Composed by hand divine, Creator pure;
Whom with this hymn I worship—His own gift,
With humble heart contrite, with holy fear—
Not unbaptized with water, nor with Fire.