Jephthah and Other Mysteries

PRELUDE. xix From torturers’ cloths ; the sickly tide is poured, And all the earth is blasted ; the green sward Burns where it touches, and the barren sod Rejects the poison of the blood of God. Yet, through the foam of waters that enclose Their sweet salt bosoms, through the summer rose, Through flowers of fatal fire, through fields of air That summer squanders, ere the bright moon bare Her maiden bosom, through the kissing gold Where lovers’ lips are molten, and breasts hold Their sister bodies, and deep eyes are wed, And fire of fire enflowers the sacred head Of mingling passion, through the silent sleep Where love sobs out its life, and new loves leap To being, through the dawn of all new things, There burns an angel: whose amazing wings Wave in the sunbright air, whose lips of flame Chant the almighty music of One Name, Whose perfume fills the silent atmosphere, Whose passionate melodies caress the ear; An angel, strong and eloquent, aloud Cries to the earth to lift the final shroud, And, having burst Faith’s coffin, to lay by The winding-sheet of Infidelity, And rise up naked, as a god, to hear This message from the reawakened sphere; Words with love clothed, with life immortal shod :— “ Mankind is made a little part of God.” Till the response, full chorus of the earth, Flash through the splendid portals of rebirth,