The Masque of Judgment; A Masque-Drama in Five Acts and a Prelude (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: From nameless battle yonder in the depths; But whither steals he homeward there aloft? What lair is his cloud-hidden in the snows, Whose mates and loves wait 'neath the desert palms To hear him tell his deed ? Huge was the fight That left that mighty prowess broken so ! For sorely is he broken: now he stops And lies exhausted by an icy pool, Now labors up the shale, skirts the bald top, Drops with fierce caution down the further slope Eyeing the next hard pass. I wonder . . . ? Strange ! 'twas a blood-drop fell upon that flower A-tremble from the brink. Another here Upon the ground-moss ? nay, upon my hand ? It falls all round me ! . . . (Looking upward) Ah, an eagle goes Lame from the battle, mate or duellist Of him who crept by yonder. Even here I see the vast wings, shattered and unpenned, Almost refuse their labor; now he swerves To rest upon a needled dolomite, Then upward grievously another stage Toward some sad eyrie where his heart abides. I too must seek my eyrie?sad enough, Since there my heart abides not any more, Amid the waste infinitudes of light Missing the flow of day, the refluent dark; Amid the bliss of unconcerning eyes Eemembering woman's anguish, man's resolve, Youth's wistful darling guess, kindled and quenched And quenched and kindled yet a little year In eyes too frail to hold their meaning long Where chance and enmity conspire with death. (Heflies up the Valley.) chapter{Section 4ACT I. SCENE II. Above the peaks that crown the head of the Valley of Judgment. Raphael (flying). Soon will the cliffs of Heaven give easier way, For though my heart grows human, yet my frame With immaterial things accordance keeps, And to my feet these spiritual hills Feel native, and the climate kind to breathe; Still kindlier for t...