 | The Drama of Kings |  |
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CHORIC INTERLUDE: THE TITAN.
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Strange hands are passed across our eyes,
Before our souls strange visions rise
And dim shapes come and flee.
The mists of dream are backward roll'd—
As from a mountain we behold
What is, and yet shall be.
A Voice.
Speak! while the depths of dreams unfold,
What is it that ye see?
Semi-Chorus I.
'Tis vision. Lo, before us stands,
Casting his shade on many lands,
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Of tempest-tost humanity;
And to the earth, and sea, and sky,
He uttereth a thunder-cry
Out of his breaking heart,
And the fierce elements reply,
And earth is cloven apart.
Semi-Chorus II.
Like sparks blown from a forge, the spheres
Drift o'er us;—all our eyes and ears
Are full of fire and sound.
With blood about him blown like rain,
We see upon a darken'd plain
Another Shape, but crown'd.
Silent he waits, and white as death,
Looks in the Titan's eyes.
They stand—the black sky holds its breath—
The deep sea stills its cries,
The mad storm hushes driving past,
The sick stars pause and gaze—the blast,
The wind-rent rain, the vapours dark,
Like dead things crouch, and wait, and hark;
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Loom desolate and strange.
Semi-Chorus I.
Is the time come?
Semi-Chorus II.
The time is come.
Chorus.
Titan, to thy revenge!
Semi-Chorus I.
O look and listen!
His great eyes glisten,
Like an oak the storm rendeth
He swayeth and bendeth,
With lips torn asunder
He shakes, but no thunder
Comes thence.
Semi-Chorus II.
While still nigh him,
With smiles that defy him,
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His pale look commanding
A tigress that crouching
Beneath him and touching
His feet with low cries,
Waits, fiercely betraying
Blood's thirst yet obeying
His eyes.
Chorus.
Is he doom'd?
A Voice.
He is doom'd.
Chorus.
Oh, by whom?
Voice.
By the child yet unborn in the womb,
By the dead laid to sleep in the tomb,
He is doom'd, he is doom'd.
Chorus.
Speak his doom!
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Napoleon! Napoleon!
Second Voice.
Who cries?
First Voice.
I, child of the earth and the skies,
I, Titan, the mystical birth,
Whose voice since the morning of earth
Hath doom'd such as thou in the end,
Speak thy doom!
Second Voice.
Speak! I smile and attend.
First Voice.
Because thou hast with lies and incantations,
With broken vows and false asseverations,
For thine own ends accurst,
Betrayed me from the first,
I speak and doom thee, in the name of nations.
With broken vows and false asseverations,
For thine own ends accurst,
Betrayed me from the first,
I speak and doom thee, in the name of nations.
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Because I have wander'd like a great stream flowing
From its own channel and thro' strange gulfs going,
So that for years and years
I must retrace in tears
The black and barren pathway of thy showing.
From its own channel and thro' strange gulfs going,
So that for years and years
I must retrace in tears
The black and barren pathway of thy showing.
Because one further step after thy leading
Had hurl'd me down to doom past interceding,
So that I never again,
In passion or in pain,
Might look upon the face I follow pleading.
Had hurl'd me down to doom past interceding,
So that I never again,
In passion or in pain,
Might look upon the face I follow pleading.
Because thou hast led me blind knee-deep thro' slaughter,
Thro' fields of blood that wash'd our way like water,
Because in that divine
Name I adore, and mine,
Thou hast bruised Earth, and to desolation brought her.
Thro' fields of blood that wash'd our way like water,
Because in that divine
Name I adore, and mine,
Thou hast bruised Earth, and to desolation brought her.
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Because thou hast been a liar and blasphemer,
Deeming me trebly dotard and a dreamer.
Because thy hand at length
Would strike me in my strength,
Me, deathless! me, diviner and supremer!
Deeming me trebly dotard and a dreamer.
Because thy hand at length
Would strike me in my strength,
Me, deathless! me, diviner and supremer!
Because all voices of the earth and azure,
All things that breathe, all things curst for thy pleasure,
All poor dead men who died
To feed thy bitter pride,
All living, all dead, cry—mete to him our measure.
All things that breathe, all things curst for thy pleasure,
All poor dead men who died
To feed thy bitter pride,
All living, all dead, cry—mete to him our measure.
Because thou hast slain Kings, and as a token
Stolen their crowns and worn them, having spoken
My curse against the same;
Because all things proclaim
That thou didst swear a troth, and that 'tis broken.
Stolen their crowns and worn them, having spoken
My curse against the same;
Because all things proclaim
That thou didst swear a troth, and that 'tis broken.
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By her whom thou didst swear under God's heaven
To find; by her who being found was driven
O'er earth, air, sky, and sea,
Thro' desolate ways by thee,
With voice appealing and with raiment riven!
To find; by her who being found was driven
O'er earth, air, sky, and sea,
Thro' desolate ways by thee,
With voice appealing and with raiment riven!
Because thou hast turned upon and violated
Her soul to whom thou first wert consecrated,
Because thro' thy soul's lie
And life's delusion, I
Must wait more ages who have wept and waited
Her soul to whom thou first wert consecrated,
Because thro' thy soul's lie
And life's delusion, I
Must wait more ages who have wept and waited
Since the beginning. By the soul of Patience
Sick of thy face and its abominations,
I speak on thine and thee
The doom of destiny,
Hear it, and die, hear in the name of nations.
Sick of thy face and its abominations,
I speak on thine and thee
The doom of destiny,
Hear it, and die, hear in the name of nations.
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Is he doom'd?
Semi-Chorus II.
He is doom'd. 'Tis the end.
First Voice.
Napoleon!
Second Voice.
Speak! I attend.
First Voice.
Utter the doom thou dost crave.
Second Voice.
'Tis spoken. A shroud and a grave.
First Voice.
O voices of earth, air, and sky,
Hear ye his doom, and reply.
Voices.
Death is sleep. Let him wake and not die.
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Because by thee all comfort hath been taken,
So that the Earth rocks still forlorn and shaken,
Staring at the sad skies
With sleepless aching eyes,
Thou shalt not die, but wait and watch and waken.
So that the Earth rocks still forlorn and shaken,
Staring at the sad skies
With sleepless aching eyes,
Thou shalt not die, but wait and watch and waken.
This is thy doom. Lone as a star thy being
Shall see the waves break and the drift-cloud fleeing,
Hear the wind cry and grow,
Watch the great waters flow,
And seeing all, shine hid from all men's seeing.
Shall see the waves break and the drift-cloud fleeing,
Hear the wind cry and grow,
Watch the great waters flow,
And seeing all, shine hid from all men's seeing.
Here on this Isle amid a sea of sorrow
I cast thee down. Black night and weary morrow,
Lie there alone, forgot,
So doom'd and pitied not;
Let all things watch thy face and thy face borrow
I cast thee down. Black night and weary morrow,
Lie there alone, forgot,
So doom'd and pitied not;
Let all things watch thy face and thy face borrow
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The look of these mad elements that ever
Strike, scream, and mingle, sever and dissever;
Gather from air and sea
The thirst of all things free,
The up-looking want, the hunger ceasing never.
Strike, scream, and mingle, sever and dissever;
Gather from air and sea
The thirst of all things free,
The up-looking want, the hunger ceasing never.
All shall forget thee. Thou shalt hear the nations
Flocking with music light and acclamations
To kiss his royal feet
Who sitteth in thy Seat,
Surrounded by the slaves of lofty stations.
Flocking with music light and acclamations
To kiss his royal feet
Who sitteth in thy Seat,
Surrounded by the slaves of lofty stations.
A rock in the lone sea shall be thy pillow.
In the wide waste of gray wave and green billow,
The days shall rise and set
In silence, and forget
To sun thee,—a black shape beneath a willow
In the wide waste of gray wave and green billow,
The days shall rise and set
In silence, and forget
To sun thee,—a black shape beneath a willow
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Watching the weary waters with heart bleeding;
Or dreaming cheek upon thy hand; or reading
The book upon thy knee;
And ever as the sea
Moans, raising eyes to the still heaven, and pleading;
Or dreaming cheek upon thy hand; or reading
The book upon thy knee;
And ever as the sea
Moans, raising eyes to the still heaven, and pleading;
Till like a wave worn out with silent breaking;
Or like a wind blown weary; thou, forsaking
Thy tenement of clay,
Shalt wear and waste away,
And grow a portion of the ever-waking
Or like a wind blown weary; thou, forsaking
Thy tenement of clay,
Shalt wear and waste away,
And grow a portion of the ever-waking
Tumult of cloud and sea. Feature by feature
Losing the likeness of the living creature,
Returning back thy form
To its elements of storm,
Thou shalt dissolve in the great wreck of Nature.
Losing the likeness of the living creature,
Returning back thy form
To its elements of storm,
Thou shalt dissolve in the great wreck of Nature.
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Is it done?
Semi-Chorus II.
It is done.
Semi-Chorus I.
Look again.
Semi-Chorus II.
I see on the rock in the main
The Shape sitting dark by the sea,
And his shade, and the shade of the tree
Where he sitteth, are pencil'd jet-black
On the bright purple sky at his back;
But lo! while I gaze, from the sky
Like phantoms they vanish and die:—
All is dark.
Semi-Chorus I.
Look again.
Semi-Chorus II.
Hark, O hark!
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A shrill cry is piercing the dark—
Like the multitudinous moan
Of the waves as they clash, comes a groan
From afar—
First Voice.
What is this, O ye free?
Semi-Chorus II.
He has gone like a wave of the sea—
Day dieth, the light falleth red,—
O Titan, behold he is dead! . . .
Chorus.
Strange hands are passed across our eyes,
Before our souls strange visions rise,
And dim shapes come and flee;
The mists of dream are backward rolled—
As from a mountain we behold
That island in the sea.
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Now bow thy face upon thy breast,
O Titan, and bemoan thy quest!
O look not thither with thine eyes,
But lift them to the constant skies!
A Voice.
What do ye see that thus to me
Ye turn and smile so bitterly?
Semi-Chorus I.
'Tis vision. On that island bare
Sits one with face divinely fair,
And pensive smiling lips;
And on her lap the proud head lies,
Pale with the seal on its proud eyes
Of Death's divine eclipse;
All round is darkness of the sea,
And sorrow of the cloud.
Semi-Chorus II.
Yet she
Is making with her heavenly face
Sweetness like sunlight; and the place
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Looks thither as to some new star,
All wondering; and with lips of death
Men name one name beneath their breath,
Not cursing as of yore, for now
All the inexorable brow
Is mouldering marble.
Semi-Chorus I.
Hark, O hark,
A silver voice divides the dark!
A Voice.
Hither, O hither!
Another Voice.
Whither?
First Voice.
O sweet is sleep if sleep be deep,
And sweetest far to eyes that weep;
He who upon my breast doth creep
Shall close his weary eyes and sleep.
And sweetest far to eyes that weep;
He who upon my breast doth creep
Shall close his weary eyes and sleep.
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Yet he who seeks me shall not find,
And he who chains me shall not bind;
For fleeter-footed than the wind
I still elude all human kind.
And he who chains me shall not bind;
For fleeter-footed than the wind
I still elude all human kind.
Yet when, soul-weary of the chase,
Falleth some man of mortal race,
I pause—I find him in his place,
I pause—I bless his dying face.
Falleth some man of mortal race,
I pause—I find him in his place,
I pause—I bless his dying face.
Whatsoever man he be,
I take his head upon my knee,
I give him words and kisses three,
Kissing I whisper, “Thou art free.”
I take his head upon my knee,
I give him words and kisses three,
Kissing I whisper, “Thou art free.”
O free is sleep if sleep be deep!—
I soothe them sleeping, and I heap
Greenness above them, and they weep
No longer, but are free, and sleep.
I soothe them sleeping, and I heap
Greenness above them, and they weep
No longer, but are free, and sleep.
O royal face and royal head!
O lips that thunder'd! O eyes red
With nights of watch! O great soul dead,
Thy blood is water, thy heart lead!
O lips that thunder'd! O eyes red
With nights of watch! O great soul dead,
Thy blood is water, thy heart lead!
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They doom'd thee in my name, but see
I doom thee not, but set thee free;
Balm for all hearts is shed by me,
And for all spirits liberty.
I doom thee not, but set thee free;
Balm for all hearts is shed by me,
And for all spirits liberty.
He finds me least who loves me best,
His Soul in an eternal quest
Wails still, while one by one are prest
Tyrants, that hate me, to my breast.
His Soul in an eternal quest
Wails still, while one by one are prest
Tyrants, that hate me, to my breast.
The sad days fly—the slow years creep,
And he alone doth never sleep.
Would he might slumber and not weep.
O free is sleep, if sleep be deep.
And he alone doth never sleep.
Would he might slumber and not weep.
O free is sleep, if sleep be deep.
Second Voice.
Irene!
| The Drama of Kings | |