Czcionka:Mniejsze АаWiększe Aa
ACT V
RAFAEL. URIEL.
Rafael:
The whole of Heaven, from base to topmost crown
Of her chief palaces, resounds with joy,
As Michael's trumpets blow and banners wave.
The field is won. Our shields shine splendidly,
Shaping new suns. From every shield-sun streams
A day triumphant forth. Lo! from the fight,
See, Uriel proud, the armor-bearer, comes;
And waves the flaming, keen, two-edged sword,
That, whet with Heaven's wrath and vengeance, flashed,
Amid the fray, through shield and mail and helm
Of diamond, left and right, through all that dared
Oppose the all-piercing Power, Omnipotence.
O armor-bearer, most austere, who art
The executioner on high, and dost
With one strong, righteous stroke compose the Wrong
That would rebel against eternal Right,
Blest be thy sword and arm, that thus maintain
And guard the honor of our Angel Realm.
What praise reserved for thee by Majesty
Supreme! Oh! pray relate to us the strife:
Unfold to us the management of this,
The first campaign in Heaven. We listen, then,
In expectation rapt.
Uriel:
Your wish inflames
My spirit to begin, this fearful fray
In calmness to describe, with sequence just,
Success the army crowns that fights with God.
The Field-marshal, great Michael (being warned
By the envoy of Heaven, who from above
Flew downward, downward swifter than a star
That shoots athwart the sky, with the tidings how,
Against the high decree proud Lucifer
Himself so openly opposed, prepared
To lead his incense-swinging worshippers—
All who his standard and his morning-star
Had sworn their bold allegiance), quickly donned,
At Gabriel's report—that Herald true—
His scaly coat of mail, and with firm voice
He forthwith then gave charge to all his chiefs,
His captains, lords, and officers to place,
In the name of God, the troops in battle rank,
That, with united forces and with all
Their strength, they might sweep from the airy vast
Of purest crystalline this perjured scum:
To cast in darkness all those Spirits vile,
Ere unawares they us surprise. Upon
This charge the legions rapidly deployed
Themselves in battle-line, as speedily
As flies the nimble arrow from the bow.
We saw there countless throngs together swarm
In bright array and glowing martial pomp,
Until they formed, in serried rank, one firm
Trilateral host that, like a triangle,
Thrust out its edges sharp upon the eye.
We saw a solid mass, like one dense light,
Three-pointed, polished mirror-smooth, even like
To diamond, and a battle-front advance
By God more than by Spirit understood.
The Field-marshal towered in the army's heart,
Full-faced before God's banner, with the glow
Of lurid lightnings in his lifted hand.
Who courage would preserve.—would victory
And triumph e'er attain.—should first have care
To make sure of and then to gain the heart.
Rafael:
But where the host accursed that us would storm?
Uriel:
It came into the field of daring full
With all its primal faith, obedience,
Honor, and oath, and what besides, forgot
In this base and presumptuous attempt
'Gainst God, despite our prayers. It swiftly waxed.
And pointed like a crescent moon its ends.
It sharpened both its points, and these, even like
Two horns, closed in upon us, as amid
The Zodiac the Bull doth threaten with
His golden horns the other animals
Celestial and the monsters that revolve
Around. Upon the right horn there advanced
Prince Belzebub, whose purpose was to clip
Our spreading wings, and also to keep guard.
The left horn to Prince Belial was assigned.
Thus both stood there in shining panoply,
Vying in splendors grand. The Stadtholder,
Now Field-marshal 'gainst God, the centre held
Of this array, that he might guard the key,—
The point strategic of the legions there.
The lofty standard, from whose morning-star
The day did seem to stream, Apollion
Behind him bore, as bravely as he could,
In his full glory seated high to view.
Rafael:
Alas! what dares—what dares the great Archangel
Attempt? Oh! if I only could in time
Have brought him to desist. However, now
Describe to me the aspect of their march,
And with what show the Prince his legions led.
Uriel:
Surrounded by his staff and retinue
In green, he, wickedly impelled by hate
Irreconcilable, in golden mail,
That brightly shone upon his martial vest
Of glowing purple, mounted then his car,
Whose golden wheels with rubies were emblazed.
The lion and the dragon fell, prepared
For speedy flight, with backs sown full of stars
And to the chariot joined by pearly traces,
Panted for strife, and for destruction flamed.
Within his hand a battle-axe he bore,
And from his left arm hung a glimmering shield,
Wherein his morning-star was artfully
Embossed: thus stood he poised to venture all.
Rafael:
O Lucifer, thou shalt this pride repent.
Thou phoenix 'mongst God's worshippers on high.
How grand thou dost appear amid thy legions,
With helm, head, neck, and shoulders eminent!
How gloriously thine armor thee becomes,
As if by nature fitted to thy form!
Oh! Chief of Spirits, no farther go; turn back.
Uriel:
Confronted thus they stood embattled, troop
By troop, each in his air and station placed,
All ranked by files 'neath their respective chiefs,
Both sides arrayed with fairest pomp to view.
When furious drum and clarion trumpet sound,
Their medley resonance nerves every arm
And sharpens every sword; and mounts on high
Into the firmament of the holy Light
Supreme, a din whereat a pregnant cloud
Of darts doth burst with pealing thunder-showers
Of fiery hail, a storm and tempest fierce,
That makes afraid the very Heaven and shakes
The pillars of its palaces. The stars
And spheres, perplexed, from their appointed paths
And orbits err, or on their circled watch
Bewildered stand, not knowing where to turn:
Or East or West, or upwards or below.
All that is seen is lightning flash and flame;
All that is heard is thunder. What remains
In its primeval place? That which was once
The highest now becomes the thing most low.
The squadrons, when the deep-vibrating shock
Of their artillery's first volleyed roar
Has died away, now struggle hand to hand
With halberd, sabre, dagger, club, and spear.
All stab and slash, that can. All formed by nature
For fell destruction and for greedy spoil
Now haste to strike the violating blow.
All thoughts of kin and brotherhood have ceased;
Nor knoweth any one his fellow more.
Above are whirling, like a cloud of dust,
Proud crests of pearl with curlèd locks of hair,
And plumes and wings refulgent with a gleam
Drawn from the singeing lightning's glow. Behold!
In rich confusion mingled, blue turquoise,
With gold and diamond, necklaces of pearl,
And all that can adorn the hair or head.
Wings lopped in twain, and broken arrows, whirl
Athwart the sky. A horrid battle-cry
Rises from out the cohorts clad in green:
Their regiments, in danger, are compelled
By our hot onset to retreat. Three times
The maddened Lucifer the fight renews,
And proudly stays his faltering followers,
Even as a rock beats back the ocean surge
That, wave on wave, with foaming rage assails
In vain attempt.
Rafael:
Indeed, 'tis something this:
To fight, armed by despair.
Uriel:
Then straightway caused
The valiant Michael all the trumps to sound:
"Glory to God!" His legions, thus made bold
By this their watchword, and by his command,
Begin by circling wheels to soar aloft,
To gain the wind-side of their battling foe,
Who also rises, but with heavier sail,
And finally to leeward slowly drifts:
As if one heavenward a falcon saw,
Mounting with pinions bold into the sky.
Ere that the drowsing herons are aware.
Who in a wood, hard by a pleasant mead,
Tremble with fright, when from their lofty nest
They see their dreaded foe. The heron cries,
And, fearful of the falcon's direful claw,
Awaits him on his beak, thus to impale
His enemy's soft breast from there beneath,
When swoops the falcon with unerring wings
Upon his prey.
Rafael:
O Lucifer, for thee
What remedy? It seems most terrible!
Now art thou in the open field, where port
Nor wall defend. A horrid whirlwind soon
Shall suddenly swoop down and bury thee
Deep in some gulf and bottomless abyss.
Uriel:
What fair perspective it was, thus to view
A hemisphere or crescent moon beneath,
And up above a point trilateral:
To see the legions, that upon the word
Of their commanding chiefs close in their ranks,
Or them deploy, in their battalions stand
As firm as walls of iron, as if they,
With all their ordnance, dumb artillery,
And martial engines, there in equipoise
Were placed, full-weighted 'gainst the balanced air!
They hang suspended like a silent cloud,
A cloud whereon the sun doth pour his beams,
And which he paints with shade and varied hue
And airy rainbows. So then, steeply flown
Aloft, the bold celestial eagle sees
God's foe, the hawk, circling his flight beneath.
He strikes his wings together valiantly;
But brooks awhile the hawk's wild wheeling there,
And vain defiance, while he flames ere long
To swoop upon his feathered back and pluck
His glossy plumes: when, in the aery vast,
"With curvèd beak and talons he shall seize
His prey, or drive it, with the wind behind,
Far from his eyes. Thus they precipitate
Themselves, and stream down from their place on high.
Even like some inland lake, or waterfall.
In some far, Northern wild, that from the cliffs
Dashes with thundering resonance that frights
The beasts and monsters in deep-hidden dells;
Where from the precipice, rocks, loosened, fall,
With massive torrents and uprooted trees
In countless numbers, that in their fierce plunge
Crush and destroy all that the violence
Of stream and stone and wood cannot withstand.
The point of the advancing column strikes
The crescent's centre with assault most fell
Of brimstone, red and blue, and flames, with stroke
On stroke and quick-succeeding thunderbolts
A piercing cry ascends. Their army's heart,
Endangered, now begins, by slow degrees,
To fail support of the accursèd one.
The half-moon's bow, beneath the strain, begins
To crack and break (for the ends together curve);
So that they who the centre hold, must yield
Before that onset fierce, and flee, if soon
Deliverance be not brought from their distress.
Prince Lucifer, swift-driven here and there,
Approaches at this cry, and fearlessly
Himself exposes on his car, to show
His valor in this crisis dire. This gives
New heart unto the faltering ones. Then, from
The foaming bit of his now furious team.
He wards the feilest blows and fiercest strokes.
The lion and the dragon blue, enraged,
Leap forward at his word with fearful strides:
One bellows, bites, and rends, while poison shoots
Out from the other's forkèd tongue, who thus
A pest provokes, and, raving, fills the air
With smoke blown from his nostrils far and wide.
Rafael:
Now will the burning strike him from on high?
Uriel:
He waves his battle-axe aloft to fell
God's banner, that, descending, darts the beams
And fairer radiance of God's name into
His glowing face. Oh! think what envy then
Him filled, to see this portent on our side.
With battle-axe in hand, now here, now there,
He parries every stroke, or breaks their force
Upon his shield, till Michael comes before
Him, clad in glittering armor, like a God
Amid a ring of suns: "Cease, Lucifer;
Give God the victory. Lay down your arms
And standard; yield to God. Come, lead away
This wicked crew, this impious horde. Or else,
Beware thy head!" Thus shouts he from on high.
The Grand Foe of God's name, stiff-necked, unmoved,
And more defiant at these words, renews
The fight with haste precipitate, and thrice
With war-axe strives to cleave the diamond shield
Where glowed God's holy name. But who provokes
The Deity shall feel His wrath. The axe
The holy diamond strikes, but lo! rebounds,
And shivers into fragments. Then aloft
His right hand Michael lifts, and through the helm
And head of that rebellious one he smites,
Helped by the great Omnipotent, his lightnings,
Cleaving unto his eyes with violence
So great that he falls backward, and is hurled
Down from his chariot, that forthwith follows
Him, whirling round and round in its descent;
Thus lion, dragon, driver, all plunge down.
The standard of the Star doth cease to shine,
When feels Apollion my flaming sword.
Whereon his banner, straightway, he doth leave
As plunder in my hands; while in fierce swarms
Tumultuous their warring myriads
Attempt, in vain, to stay the falling Chief
Of all the hosts infernal, and to save
Him from this fate and great calamity.
Here fights Prince Belzebub, and there opposed
Stands Belial. Thus their squadrons are confused:
And with the Stadtholder's important fall
The crescent's bow soon into shivers breaks.
Then comes Apollion into the field,
With all the monsters from the firmament.
The giant Orion shrieks, until the sound
The very air makes faint; then with his club
He strives to crush the head of our assault,
That, heedless of Orion or his club,
Moves grandly on. The Northern Bears rear back
Upon their haunches, that their brutish strength
May blindly us oppose. The Hydra gapes
With fifty throats, that vomit poison forth.
I view a gallery of battle-scenes,
All happening in the fray, as far as eye
Can see.
"Thus lion, dragon, driver, all plunge down."
Rafael:
Praise be to God! Upon your knees
Fall down and worship Him! O Lucifer,
Ah! where now is that fickle confidence?
In what strange shape shall I, alas! behold
Thee soon? Where now are thy proud splendors, that
All other pomp so easily outshone?
Uriel:
Even as bright day to gloomy night is changed,
Whene'er the sun forgets his golden glow,
So in his downward fall his beauty turned
To something monstrous and most horrible:
Into a brutish snout his face, that shone
So glorious; his teeth into large fangs,
Sharpened for gnawing steel; his hands and feet
Into four various claws; into a hide
Of black that shining skin of pearl; while from
His bristled back two dragon wings did sprout.
Alas! the proud Archangel, whom but now
All Angels honored here, hath changed his shape
into a hideous medley of seven beasts,
As outwardly appears: A lion proud;
A greedy, gluttonous swine; a slothful ass;
A fierce rhinoceros, with rage inflamed;
An ape, in every part obscene and vile,
By nature lewd and most lascivious;
A dragon, full of envy; and a wolf
Of sordid avarice. His beauteous form
Is now a monster execrable, by God
And Spirit and man e'er to be cursed. That beast
Doth shrink to view its own deformity,
And veils with darkling mists its Gorgon face.
Rafael:
Thus shall Ambition learn how vain to tilt
For God's own crown. Where stayed Apollion?
Uriel:
He saw his tide ebb when his star declined,
And fled: so fled they all. Then, from above,
The celestial ordnance pours forth shot on shot,
With lightning flash and rolling thunders loud,
Causing the monsters that into the light
Have crawled to swell the rout; and pleased are all.
With God's array, to aid in such pursuit!
O! what a whirl of storms in one resolved!
And what a noisy tumult rises round!
What floods sweep by! Our legions, blessed by God,
Advance, and strike and crush whatever they meet.
What cries of pain now burst forth everywhere,
As from the fleeing hordes one hears, amid
This wild confusion and this change of form
In limbs and shapes, their roars and bellowings.
Some yell, and others howl. What fearful frowns
Those Angel faces wear, the mirrors dread
Of Hell's infernal horrors. Hark! I hear
Michael return, triumphant, to display,
Here in the light, the spoil from Angels reft.
The choristers now greet him with their songs
Of praise, with sound of cymbal, pipe, and drum.
They come in front, and strew their laurel leaves
'Mid those celestial harmonies around.
CHORUS OF ANGELS. MICHAEL.
Chorus:
Hail! to the hero, hail!
Who the wicked did assail;
And in the fight, o'er his might and his standard.
Triumphant did prevail.
Who strove for God's own crown,
From his high and splendid throne,
Into night, with his might, hath been driven.
How dazzling God's renown!
Though flames the tumult fell,
The valiant Michael
With his hand the fierce brand can extinguish:
All mutiny shall quell.
God's banner he doth rear:
Come, wreathe his brow austere.
Now, in peace, shall increase Heaven's Palace:
No discord now we hear.
Then to the Godhead raise.
In His deathless courts, your praise.
Glory bring to the King of all Kingdoms:
His deeds inspire our lays.
Michael:
Praise be to God! The state of things above
Has changed. Our Grand Foe has met his defeat;
And in our hands he leaves his standard, helm,
And morning-star, and shield and banners bold.
Which spoil, gained in pursuit, even now doth hang,
'Mid joys triumphant, honors, songs of praise,
And sounds of trump, on Heaven's axis bright,
The mirror clear of all rebelliousness,
Of all ambition that would rear its crest
'Gainst God, the stem immovable—grand fount,
Prime source, and Father of all things that are,
Which from His hand their nature did receive,
And various attributes. No more shall we
Behold the glow of Majesty Supreme
Dimmed by the damp of base ingratitude.
There, deep beneath our sight and these high thrones,
They wander through the air and restlessly
Move to and fro, all blind and overcast
With shrouding clouds, and horribly deformed.
Thus is his fate, who would assail God's Throne.
Chorus:
Thus is his fate, who would assail God's Throne.
Thus is his fate, who would, through envy, man,
In God's own image made, deprive of light.
GABRIEL. MICHAEL. CHORUS.
Gabriel:
Alas! alas! alas! how things have changed!
Why triumph here? Our triumph is in vain:
Ah! vain display, these plundered flags and arms!
Michael:
What hear I, Gabriel?
Gabriel:
Oh! Adam's fallen:
The father and the stem of all mankind,
Most pitiful and sad! brought to his fall
So soon. He is undone.
Michael:
That bursts even like
A sudden thunder-peal upon our ears.
Although I shudder, yet I long to hear
This overthrow described. Doth then the Chief
Accursed, also on Earth his warfare wage?
Gabriel:
The battle o'er, he called his scattered host
Unto his side, though first his chieftains bold,
Who to each other turned abhorring gaze;
And then, to shun the swift, all-searching rays
Of the all-seeing Eye, he veiled them round
With gloomy mists, that formed a hollow cloud,
A dark, obscure, and gruesome lair of fog,
Where shone no light, where gleamed no glow of fire
Save what did shine from their own blazing eyes.
And in that dim, infernal consistory,
High-seated 'mid his Councillors of State,
With bitter rage 'gainst God he thus began:
"Ye Powers, who for our righteous cause have borne,
With such fierce pride, this injury, 'tis time
To be revengèd for our wrongs: with hate
Irreconcilable and furious craft
The Heavens to persecute and circumvent
In their own chosen image, man, and him
To smother at his birth, in his ascent,
Ere that his sinews gain their promised strength
And ere he multiply. 'Tis my design,
Both Adam and his seed now to corrupt.
I know how, through transgression of the law
Him first enjoined, to stain him with a blot
Indelible; so that he with his seed,
In soul and body poisoned, never shall
Usurp the throne from which ourselves were thrust:
Though it may be that some shall yet ascend
On high, a number small and slight; and these
Alone through thousand deaths and suffering
And labor shall attain the state and crown
To us denied. Lo! miseries forthwith
Shall follow aft in Adam's wake, and spread,
From age to age, throughout the whole wide world.
Even Nature shall, attainted by this blow,
Almost decay, and wish again to turn
To chaos and its primal nothingness.
I see mankind, in God's own image made,
From God's similitude debased, estranged,
And tarnished, even in will and memory
And understanding, while the holy light
Within created is obscured and dimmed:
Yea, all yet in their mother's anxious womb,
That wait with sorrow for their natal hour,
I now, forsooth, behold a helpless prey
To Death's relentless jaws. I shall exalt
My tyranny with e'er-increasing pride,
While you, my sons, I then shall see adored
As Deities, on altars and in fanes
Innumerable that tower to Heaven, where burns
The sacrificial victim, 'mid the smoke
Of censers and the dazzling sheen of gold,
In praise most reverential. I see hosts
Of men, whose multitudes are even beyond
The power of tongue to name—yea, all that spring
From Adam's loins—for all eternity
Accursed by their deeds abominable,
Done in defiance of God's name. So dear
To Him the cost of triumph o'er my crown."
Michael:
Accursèd one, even yet to be so bold
In thy defiance 'gainst thy God! Ere long
Thou shalt from us this blasphemy unlearn.
Gabriel:
Even thus spake Lucifer, and then he sent
Prince Belial down, that he forthwith might cause
Mankind to fall: who took upon himself
The form of that most cunning of all beasts,
The Serpent, type of wickedness itself,
That he might with a gloss of words adorn
His luring snares, which then those creatures pure
In guileless innocence even thus received,
As, swinging from the tempting bough of knowledge,
That lone forbidden tree, he hung aloft:
"Hath God, upon the pain of death, with such
Severity and at so high a price,
Deprived you of the freedom of this fruit?
—The taste of even the choicest tree of all?
Nay, Eve, thou simple dove, indeed thou dost
Mistake. But once behold this apple, pray!
Aye! see how glows this radiant fruit with gold
And crimson mingled! An alluring feast!
Yea, daughter, nearer draw; no venom lurks up
In this immortal leaf. How tempts this fruit!
Yea, pluck; yea, freely pluck: I promise thee
All light and knowledge. Come, why shouldst thou shrink
For fear of sin? Aye, taste, and thus become
Equal to God Himself in cognizance,
Honor and wisdom, truth and majesty:
Even though He much may wish thee to deny.
Thus must distinctions be discerned in things.
Their nature, entities, and qualities."
Forthwith begins the heart of the fair bride
To burn and to enkindle, till she flames
To see the praised fruit, which first allures
The eye: the eye the mouth, that sighs to taste.
Desire doth urge the hand, all quivering,
To pluck. And thus she plucks, and tastes and eats
(Oh! how this shall afflict her progeny!)
With Adam, and as soon as then their eyes
Are opened and they see their nakedness,
They deck themselves with leaves—with leaves of fig,
Their shame, disgrace, and taint original—
And in the trees and shadows hide themselves;
But hide in vain from the all-piercing Eye.
Then gradually the sky grows black. They see
The rainbow, as a warning messenger
And portent of God's plagues, stretched o'er the Heavens,
That weep, in mourning clad. Nor wringing hands,
Nor sad lament, nor cries avail the pair.
Alas! the lightnings gleam, with flash on flash,
And shaking thunders roll there, peal on peal.
And naught is heard but sighs, and naught is seen
But fright and gloom. They even their shadows flee;
But ne'er can 'scape that dread heart-cankering worm,
The sting of conscience. Thus, with knees that knock
Together, step by step they stumble on,
Their faces ghastly pale, and eyes, o'er-brimmed
With tears, blind to the light. How spiritless,
They who but now their heads so proudly held!
The sound of rustling leaf or whispering brook,
The faintest noise, doth them confound; the while
A pregnant cloud descends, that bursts and bears,
By slow degrees, a light and radiant glow,
Wherein the great Supreme appears in shape
Impressive, thundering with His Voice, that fells
Them to the earth.
"Nor wringing hands,
Nor sad lament, nor cries avail the pair."
Chorus:
Oh! oh! 'twere better far,
Had mankind ne'er been made. This teaches them
By such a juicy fruit to be beguiled.
Gabriel:
"O Adam," thunders God, "where art thou hid?"
"Forgive me. Lord; I flee thy countenance,
Naked and all ashamed." "Who taught thee thus,"
Asks God, "thy shame and nakedness to know?
Didst dare profane thy lips with the forbidden
Fruit?" "Aye, my bride, my wife, alas! did tempt."
She says, "The wily Serpent hath deceived
Me with this lure." Thus each the charge denies
Of being the cause of their sad wretchedness.
Chorus:
Mercy! What penalty hangs o'er their crime?
Gabriel:
The woman, who hath Adam thus seduced,
God threatens with the pains of tears and travail,
And her subjection, and the man with care
And labor, sweat and arduous slavery;
The soil, where man, at last, shall find his grave,
With noxious weeds and great calamities;
The Serpent, for the sly misuse thus made
Of his most subtle tongue, shall, o'er the ground,
Upon his belly creep, and live alone
On dust and earth. But as a comfort sure,
In such a misery, to poor mankind
God promises, in truth, out of the seed
And blood of the first woman, to raise up
The Strong One, who shall crush the Serpent's head,
This Dragon vile, through deadly hate, by time
Nor yet eternity to be removed.
And though this raging monster make attempt
To bite His heel, yet shall the Hero win;
And from the strife shall come with honors crowned.
I come, in the name of Him, the Highest One,
To thee this sad disaster to reveal.
Forthwith all things in wonted order place,
Ere they, for us, shall further mischief brew.
Michael:
Come, Uriel, armor-bearer, who dost guard
The Right divine and punishest the Wrong:
Take up thy flaming sword: fly down below,
And drive the twain from Eden, who have dared
Transgress, so rash and blind, the primal law.
Go, guard the gate of the Paradise profaned,
And forcibly the exiles drive away
From this rare food, this tree, prolonging life.
Permit not that they pluck the immortal fruit,
Nor their abuse of heavenly gifts allow.
Thou art placed, as sentinel, the garden over,
And o'er this tree. Then see that Adam shall
Be driven out, and that from morn to eve
He plough the field, and till the clayey ground
From which, the breath of God once fashioned him,
Ozias, to whose hand once God Himself
With honor did entrust the ponderous hammer
Of bright-hewn diamond made, also the chains
Of ruby and the clamps so sharp of teeth,
Go hence, and capture and securely bind
The host of the infernal animals,
Also the lion and the dragon fell,
That furiously against our standards rage.
Sweep from the sky these hordes accursed, and bind
Them neck and claw, and chain them forcibly.
This key of the black bottomless abyss
And all its dungeons is unto your care,
Azarias, enjoined. Go hence, and lock
All that our power assail within those vaults.
Maceda, take this torch, to you this flame
Is given: go light the deep lake sulphurous.
Down in the centre of the Earth, and there
Torment thou Lucifer, who hath brought forth
Such numerous horrors, in the eternal fire
Unquenchable, with chilling frosts commingled:
There Grief and Horror and Obduracy,
And Hunger, Thirst, and comfortless Despair,
The sting of Conscience, Wrath implacable,
The punishments given for this mad attempt,
Amid the smoke from God's deep glow concealed,
Bear witness to the blasting curse of Heaven,
Passed on this Spirit impious, the while
Shall come the promised Seed, the Reconciler,
Who shall appease the blazing wrath of God,
And in His wondrous love to man restore
All that by Adam's trespass has been lost.
—"The eternal fire
Unquenchable, with chilling frosts commingled."
Chorus:
Deliverer, who thus the Serpent's head
Shalt bruise, and who, at the appointed time,
Shalt fallen mankind cleanse from the foul taint
Original, from Adam's loins derived;
And who again, for frail Eve's offspring, shalt
Ope here, on high, a fairer Paradise,
"We shall with longing tell the centuries
Till the year, day, and hour when shall appear
Thy promised Mercy, which its pristine bloom
To pining Nature shall restore, and place
Upon the throne whereout the Angels fell
The souls and bodies Thou hast glorified.