Page:Poems Barrett.djvu/29

Which trembleth . . .
 Lucifer. Hush! I will not hear thee speak
Of such things. Enough spoken. As the pine
In norland forest, drops its weight of snows
By a night's growth, so, growing toward my ends,
I drop thy counsels. Farewell, Gabriel!
Watch out thy service; I assert my will.
And peradventure in the after years,
When thoughtful men bend slow their spacious brows
Upon the storm and strife seen everywhere
To ruffle their smooth manhood, and break up
With lurid lights of intermittent hope
Their human fear and wrong,—they may discern
The heart of a lost angel in the earth.

CHORUS OF EDEN SPIRITS,

(Chanting from Paradise, while Adam and Eve fly across the Sword-glare).

Harken, oh harken! let your souls, behind you,
    Lean, gently moved!
Our voices feel along the Dread to find you,
    O lost, beloved!
Through the thick-shielded and strong-marshalled angels,
    They press and pierce:
Our requiems follow fast on our evangels,—
    Voice throbs in verse!
We are but orphaned Spirits left in Eden,
    A time ago—
God gave us golden cups; and we were bidden
    To feed you so!
But now our right hand hath no cup remaining,
    No work to do;
The mystic hydromel is spilt, and staining
    The whole earth through;
And all those stains lie clearly round for showing
    (Not interfused!)