Jephthah and Other Mysteries

LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. 85 IIL. THE SPRING AFTER. ORTH, by the ice-belt, where the cliffs appease Innumerable clamour of sundering seas, - And garlands of ungatherable foam Wild as the horses maddening toward home, Where through the thunderous burden of the thaw Rings the sharp fury of the breaking flaw, ] Where summer’s hand is heavy on the snow, And springtide bursts the insuperable floe, North, by the limit of the ocean, stands A castle, lord of those far footless lands That are the wall of that most monstrous world About.whose pillars Behemoth is curled, About whose gates Leviathan is strong, Whose secret terror sweetens not for song. The hoarse loud roar of gulphs of raging brine That break in foam and fire on that divine Cliff-base, is smothered in the misty air, And no sound penetrates them, save a rare Music of sombre motion, swaying slow. The sky above is one dark indigo Voiceless and deep, no light is hard within To shame love's lips and rouse the silky skin