Page:The Poems and Prose remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, volume 2 (1869).djvu/61

Speak confidence from budding banks and boughs,
And tell me, 'Live and grow,' and say, 'Look still
Upward, spread outward, trust, be patient, live;'
Therefore, if weakness bid me curse and die,
I answer, No! I will not curse myself,
Nor aught beside; I shall not die, but live.
Eve.Ah, me! alas! alas!
More dismally in my face stares the doubt,
More heavily on my heart weighs the world.
Methinks
The questionings of ages yet to be,
The thinkings and cross-thinkings, self-contempts,
Self-horror; all despondencies, despairs
Of multitudinous souls on souls to come,
In me imprisoned fight, complain and cry.
Alas!
Mystery, mystery, mystery evermore.

 

Scene II.

Adam, alone.

Adam. Misery, oh my misery! O God, God!
How could I ever, ever, could I do it?
Whither am I come? where am I? O me, miserable!
My God, my God, that I were back with Thee!
O fool! O fool! O irretrievable act!
Irretrievable what, I should like to know?
What act, I wonder? What is it I mean?
O heaven! the spirit holds me; I must yield;
Up in the air he lifts me, casts me down;
I writhe in vain, with limbs convulsed, in the void.
Well, well! go idle words, babble your will;
I think the fit will leave me ere I die.