Page:Poems Barrett.djvu/67

   Unresistedly and coldly,
    I will smite you with my rain!
From the slowest of my frosts is no receding.
 Second Spirit.
   And my little worm, appointed
    To assume a royal part,
   He shall reign, crowned and anointed,
    O'er the noble human heart!
Give him counsel against losing of that Eden!
 Adam. Do ye scorn us? Back your scorn
    Toward your faces grey and lorn,
    As the wind drives back the rain,
    Thus I drive with passion-strife;
    I who stand beneath God's sun,
    Made like God, and, though undone,
    Not unmade for love and life.
    Lo! ye utter words in vain!
    By my free will that chose sin,
    By mine agony within
    Bound the passage of the fire;
    By the pinings which disclose
    That my native soul is higher
     Than what it chose,—
We are yet too high, O Spirits, for your disdain.
 Eve.Nay, beloved! if these be low,
    We confront them with no height;
    We stooped down to their level
    In working them that evil;
    And their scorn that meets our blow,
      Scathes aright.
    Amen. Let it be so.
 Earth Spirits.
   We shall triumph—triumph greatly,
    When ye lie beneath the sward!
   There, my lily shall grow stately,
    Though ye answer not a word—
And her fragrance shall be scornful of your silence!