Collected Works (Vol. I)

252 TANNHAUSER Grew the desirable, the golden one, Separate from the sun. Now fire and air no more exult, exceed, Are balanced in the sphere. The waters wide Glow on the bosom of fixed earth ; and Need, The Lady of Beginning, also was. Thus was the firmament a vital glass, The waters as the vessel of the soul ; Thus earth, the mystic basis of the whole, Was smitten through with fire, as chrysopras, Blending, uniting, and dividing it, Volcanic, airy, and celestial. T rose wiuun the elemental ball, And lo! the Ancient One of Days did sit ! His head and hair were white as wool, His eyes A flaming fire: and from the splendid mouth Flashed the Eternal Sword ! 1 Lo! Lying at his feet as dead, I saw The leaping-forth of Law: Division of the North wind and the South, he lightning of the armies of the Lord ; East rolled asunder from the rended West ; Height clove the depth: the Voice begotten said : ‘* Divided be thy ways and limited !” Answered the reflux and the indrawn breath : ‘¢ Let there be Life, and Death !” ‘*The Earth, she shall be governed by her parts :? Division be upon her! Let her glory From crown to valley, source and spring to mouth, North unto South, Smooth gulf and sea to rugged promontory, Always be vexed and drunken, that the hearts Ruling her course round alway in the sky ; And as an handmaid let her serve and die! One season, let it still confound another ; No man behold his brother ; No creature in it or upon, the same! 1 See Daniel vii. 9. 2 This passage is a paraphrase of the roth ‘* call” in Dr. Dee’s book, referred to above. | Serve ye the lofty ones. Her members, let them differ ; be no soul Equal! Let thought, let reasonable things, Bow to thy wings, Thy manifest control, Vexation ! weeding out of one another. Their dwelling-places, let them lose their name ! The work of man, and all his pomp and power, Deface them: shatter the aspiring tower ! Let all his houses be as caves and holes, Unto the Beast I give them. And their souls— Lift up the shadowy hand !— | Confound with darkness them that under- stand ! For why? Me, the Most High, It doth repent Me, having made mankind ! Let her be known a little while, and then A little while a stranger. Dumb and blind, Deaf to the Light and Breath of Me be men ! She is become an harlot’s bed, the home And dwelling of the fallen one! Arise! Ye heavens, ye lower serving skies ! Beneath My come The Governors, Them shall ye govern. Cast the fallen down! Bring forth with them that are Fertility’s ! Destroy the rotten! Let no shores Remain in any number! Add and crown, Diminish and discrown, until the stars Be numbered! Rise, ye adamantine bars ! Let pass your Masters! Move ye and appear ! Execute judgment and eternal ill, The law of justice, and the law of fear. It is my Will!” So shed the primal curse Its dreadful stature, its appalling shape. In giant horror the clouds rolling drape Earth, like a pluméd pall upon an hearse, Till God looms up, half devil and half ape, Heaven exulting in the hateful rape ; And still the strong curse rolls Over accursed and immortal souls, Covering the corners of the universe Without escape.