O Love, be just! and, ere we pass beyond The light cast outward by the fierysword, Into the dark which earth must be to us, Bruise my head with thy foot,-as the curse said

My seed shall the first tempter's! strike with curse,

As God struck in the garden! and as HE, Being satisfied with justice and with wrath,

Did roll His thunder gentler at the

close,

Thou, peradventure, mayst at last recoil To some soft need of mercy. Strike, my lord!

I, also, after tempting, writhe on the ground,

And I would feed on ashes from thine hand,

As suits me, O my tempted!

Adam. My beloved, Mine Eve and life-I have no other name For thee or for the sun than what ye are, My utter life and light! Ifwe have fallen, It is that we have sinned,-we: God is just;

And, since His curse doth comprehend us both,

It must be that His balance holds the weights

Of first and last sin on a level. What! Shall I who had not virtue to stand straight Among the hills of Eden, here assume To mend the justice of the perfect God, By piling up a curse upon His curse, Against thee-thee

Eve. For so, perchance, thy God Might take thee into grace for scorning me; Thy wrath against the sinner giving proof Of inward abrogation of the sin.

And so, the blessed angels might come down

And walk with thee as erst,-I think they would,

Because I was not near to make them sad Or soil the rustling of their innocence. Adam. They know me. I am deepest in the guilt,

THOU!

If last in the transgression.
Eve.
Adam.
If God,
Who gave the right and joyaunce of the
world

Both unto thee and me,―gave thee to me, The best gift last, the last sin was the worst,

Which sinned against more complement of gifts

And grace of giving. God! I render back Strong benediction and perpétual praise From mortal feeble lips (as incensesmoke,

Out of a little censer, may fill heaven), That Thou, in striking my benumbèd hands

And forcing them to drop all other boons
Of beauty and dominion and delight,—
Hast left this well-beloved Eve, this life
Within life, this best gift between their
palms,

In gracious compensation!
Eve.

Is it thy voice? Or some saluting angel's-calling home My feet into the garden?

Adam.

O my God! I, standing here between the glory and dark,

The glory of thy wrath projected forth From Eden's wall, the dark of our distress Which settles a step off in that drear world

Lift up to Thee the hands from whence hath fallen

Only creation's sceptre,-thanking Thee That rather Thou hast cast me out with her Than left me lorn of her in paradise, With angel looks and angel songs around To show the absence of her eyes and voice, And make society full desertness Without her use in comfort!

Eve. Where is loss? Am I in Eden? can another speak Mine own love's tongue?

Adam. Because with her, I stand Upright, as far as can be in this fall, And look away from heaven which doth

accuse,

And look away from earth which doth convict,

Into her face, and crown my discrowned brow

Out of her love, and put the thought of her Around me, for an Eden full of birds, And lift her body up-thus-to my heart, And with my lips upon her lips,-thus, thus,

My eyes grow with the light which is in thine;

The silence of my heart is full of sound.
Hold me up-so! Because I comprehend
This human love, I shall not be afraid
Of any human death; and yet because
I know this strength of love, I seem to
know

Death's strength by that same sign.
Kiss on my lips,

To shut the door close on my rising soul,Lest it pass outwards in astonishment And leave thee lonely.

Adam. Yet thou liest, Eve, Bent heavily on thyself across mine arm, Thy face flat to the sky.

Eve. Aye! and the tears Running, as it might seem, my life from me,

They run so fast and warm. Let me lie so, And weep so, as if in a dream or prayer, Unfastening, clasp by clasp, the hard, tight thought

Which clipped my heart and showed me

evermore

Loathed of thy justice as I loathe the snake,

And as the pure ones loathe our sin.
To-day,

All day, beloved, as we fled across
This desolating radiance cast by swords
Not suns, my lips prayed soundless to
myself,

Striking against each other-'O Lord
God!'

('Twas so I prayed) 'I ask Thee by my sin, And by thy curse, and by thy blameless heavens,

Make dreadful haste to hide me from thy face

And from the face of my beloved here
For whom I am no helpmeet, quick away
Into the new dark mystery of death;
I will lie still there, I will make no plaint,
I will not sigh, nor sob, nor speak a word,
Nor struggle to come back beneath the

sun

Where peradventure I might sin anew Against Thy mercy and his pleasure. Death,

O death, whate'er it be, is good enough For such as I am.-While for Adam here

No voice shall say again, in heaven or earth,

It is not good for him to be alone.'

Adam. And was it good for such a prayer to pass,

My unkind Eve, betwixt our mutual lives? If I am exiled, must I be bereaved?

Eve. 'Twas an ill prayer: it shall be prayed no more;

And God did use it like a foolishness, Giving no answer. Now my heart has grown

Too high and strong for such a foolish prayer;

Love makes it strong: and since I was the first

In the transgression, with a steady foot I will be first to tread from this swordglare

Into the outer darkness of the waste,—
And thus I do it.
Adam.
Thus I follow thee,
As erewhile in the sin.-What sounds!
what sounds!

I feel a music which comes straight from
Heaven,

As tender as a watering dew.
Eve.

I think That angels-not those guarding Paradise,

But the love-angels, who came erst to us, And when we said 'GoD,' fainted un

awares

Back from our mortal presence unto God, (As if He drew them inward in a breath). His name being heard of them,-I think that they

With sliding voices lean from heavenly towers,

Invisible but gracious. Hark-how soft!
CHORUS OF INVISIBLE Angels.
Faint and tender.
Mortal man and woman,
Go upon your travel!
Heaven assist the Human
Smoothly to unravel

All that web of pain

Wherein ye are holden. Do ye know our voices

Chanting down the Golden ? Do ye guess our choice is,

Being unbeholden,

To be hearkened by you yet again?

This pure door of opal

God hath shut between us,Us, his shining people,

You, who once have seen us And are blinded new!

Yet, across the doorway, Past the silence reaching,

Farewells evermore may, Blessing in the teaching, Glide from us to you.

First semichorus. Think how erst your Eden, Day on day succeeding,

With our presence glowed. We came as if the Heavens were bowed To a milder music rare.

Ye saw us in our solemn treading, Treading down the steps of cloud, While our wings, outspreading Double calms of whiteness, Dropped superfluous brightness Down from stair to stair.

Second semichorus.

Or oft, abrupt though tender,
While ye gazed on space,
We flashed our angel-splendour
In either human face.
With mystic lilies in our hands,
From the atmospheric bands
Breaking with a sudden grace,
We took you unaware!
While our feet struck glories
Outward, smooth and fair,
Which we stood on floorwise,
Platformed in mid air.

First semichorus.

Or oft, when Heaven-descended, Stood we in your wondering sight In a mute apocalypse!

With dumb vibrations on our lips
From hosannas ended,
And grand half-vanishings
Of the empyreal things
Within our eyes belated,

Till the heavenly Infinite Falling off from the Created, Left our inward contemplation Opened into ministration.

Chorus.

Then upon our axle turning Of great joy to sympathy, We sang out the morning Broadening up the sky. Or we drew

Our music through

The noontide's hush and heat and shine, Informed with our intense Divine!

Interrupted vital notes

Palpitating hither, thither,
Burning out into the ether,
Sensible like fiery motes.

Or, whenever twilight drifted
Through the cedar masses,
The globed sun we lifted,
Trailing purple, trailing gold
Out between the passes
Of the mountains manifold,

To anthems slowly sung!
While he, aweary, half in swoon
For joy to hear our climbing tune
Transpierce the stars' concentric rings,—
The burden of his glory flung

In broken lights upon our wings.

[The chant dies away confusedly, and LUCIFER appears.

Who thought me once part worthy of her ear

And somewhat wiser than the other beasts,

Drawing together her large globes of eyes, The light of which is throbbing in and out Their steadfast continuity of gaze,Knots her fair eyebrows in so hard a knot, And down from her white heights of womanhood

Looks on me so amazed,—I scarce should fear

To wager such an apple as she plucked, Against one riper from the tree of life, That she could curse too-as a woman may

Smooth in the vowels.

Eve. So-speak wickedly! I like it best so. Let thy words be wounds,

And asks for mercy, which I most should grant,

In like wise, as he tells us-in like wise !
And therefore I thee pardon, Lucifer,
As freely as the streams of Eden flowed
When we were happy by them. So,
depart;

Leave us to walk the remnant of our time
Out mildly in the desert. Do not seek
To harm us any more or scoff at us,
Or ere the dust be laid upon our face,
To find there the communion of the dust
And issue of the dust.-Go.
Adam.
At once, go.
Ye images

Luc. Forgive! and go!
of clay,

Shrunk somewhat in the mould,-what jest is this?

What words are these to use? By what a thought

with scorn, Scorning myself for ever trusting thee As far as thinking, ere a snake ate dust, He could speak wisdom.

Luc. Our new gods, it seems, Deal more in thunders than in courtesies. And, sooth, mine own Olympus, which

anon

Adam.

A strong spirit.

Eve.
A sad spirit.
Adam. Perhaps a fallen angel.—Who
shall say!

Luc. Who told thee, Adam?
Adam.

Thou! The prodigy Of thy vast brows and melancholy eyes Which comprehend the heights of some great fall.

I think that thou hast one day worn a

Of the old-world traditions, Eden fruits And Saurian fossils.

Eve. Speak no more with him, Beloved! it is not good to speak with him. Go from us, Lucifer, and speak no more! We have no pardon which thou dost not scorn,

Nor any bliss, thou seest, for coveting, Nor innocence for staining. Being bereft, We would be alone.-Go.

Luc. Ah! ye talk the same, All of you-spirits and clay-go, and depart!

In Heaven they said so; and at Eden's gate,

And here, reiterant, in the wilderness. None saith, Stay with me, for thy face is fair!

None saith, Stay with me, for thy voice is sweet!

And yet I was not fashioned out of clay.
Look on me, woman! Am I beautiful?
Eve, Thou hast a glorious darkness.
Luc..
Nothing more?
Eve. I think, no more.
Luc.

thou thinkest more!

False Heart—

Sprang very beauteous from the creant Word

Which thrilled behind us, God Himself being moved

When that august work of a perfect shape His dignities of sovran angel-hood Swept out into the universe,-divine With thunderous movements, earnest looks of gods,

And silver-solemn clash of cymbal wings! Whereof was I, in motion and in form, A part not poorest. And yet,-yet, perhaps,

This beauty which I speak of, is not here, As God's voice is not here, nor even my

crown

I do not know. What is this thought or thing

Which I call beauty? is it thought, or thing?

Is it a thought accepted for a thing?
Or both? or neither?-a pretext-a word?
Its meaning flutters in me like a flame
Under my own breath: my perceptions
reel

For evermore around it, and fall off,
As if it too were holy.
Eve.
Which it is.
Adam. The essence of all beauty,
I call love.

The attribute, the evidence, and end,
The consummation to the inward sense,
Of beauty apprehended from without,
I still call love. As form, when colour-
less,

Is nothing to the eye,-that pine-tree there,

Without its black and green, being all a blank,

So, without love, is beauty undiscerned In man or angel. Angel! rather ask What love is in thee, what love moves to thee,

And what collateral love moves on with thee;

Then shalt thou know if thou art beautiful. Luc. Love! what is love? I lose it. Beauty and love

I praise God,

Unwillingly but fully, that I stand

Most absolute in beauty. As yourselves Were fashioned very good at best, so we