Ill, now released,
Reckless of late discomfiture, as head
Of human strife ‘gainst heaven, God’s ends world–wide,
Inapt to appreciate, as his woeful fiends
He erst had promised, makes, an angel tells
To earth’s dear saints, and how, one last and worst,
Attempt to o’erthwart God’s just design. But as when
Some red volcano, scattering burning death,
The aggregated ire of ages lifts
Off earth’s heart, saved from sphere–disruptive woes,
So, evil’s ultimate force, hell’s following, tends,
In way unthought, unreckoned by itself,
To goodward, vanquished by almighty good.
Paradisal Earth.
Angels and Saints–An Angel descending; Festus.
Saint. Whence art thou?
Angel. I? from heaven, and thither tend;–
One moment here to bid all souls prepare.
Our Lord, the prince of peace eternal, comes
With his victorious hosts, to judge the world.
Saint. What victory hath our Liberator now gained?
Angel. One final, over death and hell. Shout, earth!
Thy freedom is accomplished, and thy foes
Brought down to endless ruin.
Saint. Angel, speak!
We burn to learn the tidings of this war,
Whereof thou tellest and doubtless wast a part.
Angel. Hot from the fight I come. This lightning blade
Hath holpen well to thin the infernal rout,
Which back hath fled to hell, howling like winds.
But let me, at your will, ye peaceful saints,
Relate what happed to us, from first. The hour
Was come in God–home when the Son of Man,
Bowing his head before the Omnipotent,
Who doubled every blessing infinite
Wherewith he had enriched his only One
From first, rose from his glorious throne, and stepped
Into his sun–bright car, calling aloud
His angels to attend him while he went
To judge the earth, as foreordained of old;
That heaven and earth might view the majesty
And mercy of the God of all. We came,
Selectest spirits, countless; crowded bright
As the great stream of stars which flows through heaven,
Fast by the foot of God, each wave a world;
Eager to eye this act of glory long
Talked of in bliss, and now to be achieved.
Forth from the starry towers, and world–wide walls,
Of heaven, we set in high and silent joy,
And journeyed half our way through space, when lo!
A sight which checked the foremost flaming ranks,
That halted frontwise, working doubt at first,
But triumph after. Shielded and drawn up close,
Behind a broken and decaying world,
From whence the light had vanished like the light
Out of a death–shrunk eye, sat Lucifer–
Midst in the power of darkness, and the hosts
Of hell, enthroned sublime; and all were still
As ambushed silence round the foe of God.
But oh! how changed from him we knew in heaven,
Whose brightness nothing made might match nor mar;
Who rose and it was morn; who stretched his wing,
Or stepped, from star to star; so changed he showed
Most like a shadowy meteor, through whose guise
The stars dim glint–woe–wasted, pined with pain.
And by his side there sate or shrank a shape
We angels knew not, but the Son of God
Knew him, and called him Death; whom when he saw,
Arousing, after, out of sleep intense,
That unrealmed tyrant drew his mortal dart,
And drave it through himself,–a shade, shade–quelled.
Then to that chief of mischief and his fiends,
Who, thick as burning stones that from the throat
Of mount eruptive foul the benighted sky,
Shot up triumphant into air, as they
Beheld our ranks move on, thus spake our Lord,–
Now wrathfully, but sternly pitying:
Hell’s wretched remnant! wherefore crouch ye here?
Is it to sue destruction, or to bar
My passage? If it be, in both ye err.
And will ye trust yourselves again to war
With me, God–missioned? Have I not overcome
Ye separately both? Speak, brutal Death?
Fit follower and fellow to all woes,–
Wherefore this instantaneous haste from hell,
And both from Had
(Philip James Bailey)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, God Poems, World Poems, Light Poems, Death & Dying Poems, War & Peace Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Heaven Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Pain Poems, Sleep PoemsBased on Keywords: festus, tellest, happed, separately, holpen, wrathfully, discomfiture, liberator, unreckoned, aggregated, selectest