University of Virginia Library

THE IRON AGE DEPARTS

They touched each other with wondering hands. No sultry fire
Stained the sweet crystal of spirit. They looked in each other's eyes
But saw there only the innocence of the wise,
No hiding beast. Had it flown, the dragon of desire?
Oh, what heroes, what strong immortal, overcame
That ancient evil? Again they were virginal,
Light and air made music as before the Fall.
Feet danced, hearts were airy, thoughts gay—gay as flame.
They ran to each other: “Are they indeed over, the long,
Unlit, black ages, crucifixions, agonies?”
They forgave unforgivable sins. All these
Old hates changed laughing into loves. All ancient wrong
Was heavenly justice. They were drawn into a fold
Where all things were in league. Even the stars drew nigh.
A marvellous sweetness breathed. Was it from earth or sky?
How came the heart to be melted? Was it the Age of Gold,
Fabulous, unhoped for, the sabbatical aeon of time,
Returned, not to rest in. No, but to hasten away,
For deeps within them called, divine dark deeps, where they
Beheld the fathers of being beckoning them to climb
To sit on thrones starry with the Ancestral Lights.
The wars of time were ended, the gates of the heart unbarred.
A vastness flooded their being, a vastness myriad-starred.
The soul remembered its youth. Oh, in what deeps, what heights!
Then time turned on itself, yet the vision seemed so true
The heart ached to be prophet, to run through the streets and cry
“It is coming!—O, it is coming! The Golden Age is nigh!
See what star-glimmering citadels rise in the blue!
What faces ancient with youth and wisdom watch from the towers,
For us who strayed, who were lost, who rise again from the dead.
For us, prodigals, the tables of heaven are spread;
From earth to heaven of heavens. All that glory is ours!”
And then the dragon croak of the city smote on my ears,
Harsh with the screech of wheels, the rasp of brakes. And I
Was again in the iron time. An unassailable sky
Above, and darkness before us for blind uncountable years.