Page:The Poems and Prose remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, volume 2 (1869).djvu/57

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43

FRAGMENTS OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FALL.[1]

Scene I.

Adam and Eve.

Adam. Since that last evening we have fallen indeed!
Yes, we have fallen, my Eve! O yes!—
One, two, and three, and four;—the Appetite,
The Enjoyment, the aftervoid, the thinking of it—
Specially the latter two, most specially the last.
There, in synopsis, see, you have it all:
Come, let us go and work!
Is it not enough?
What, is there three, four, five?
Eve.Oh, guilt, guilt, guilt!
Adam. Be comforted; muddle not your soul with doubt.
'Tis done, it was to be done; if, indeed,
Other way than this there was, I cannot say:
This was one way, and a way was needs to be found.
That which we were we could no more remain
Than in the moist provocative vernal mould
A seed its stickers close and rest a seed;
We were to grow. Necessity on us lay
This way or that to move; necessity, too,
Not to be over careful this or that,
So only move we should.
Come, my wife,

  1. The MS. of this poem is very imperfect, and bears no title; but it is clear from its arrangement that the author intended it to take a dramatic form.