Collected Works (Vol. I)

ISAIAH 47 We ride upon the fury of the blast, Fast, fast. We race upon the horses of the wind : The tameless thunder follows hard behind, Fast, and too fast. The lightning heralds us ; the tron blast Lends us its splendour fora steedfrre-shod, The steed of God! From all the caverns of the hollow sea, And all the fortresses that guard the air, And all the fearful palaces of fire, And all the earth’s dwarf-ridden secrecy, They come, they gather, and they ride, to bear Destruction and disorder and desire ; They cling to him who braves the gale of night, And mock his might. They rush upon him like a wave, and break In fiery foam against him, and they shake Life in its citadel. They open Tell To let the Furies and the Fates spring forth On their wild chargers of the icy North To quench the holy lamp. His spirit and his life within him quail, And all the armaments of sin assail With deadly tramp - And swordless fury. Ilell devours and tears The heart of any a man, whom heavenly airs Shield and lead on afar, Where beyond storm and passion is the sky, And where the sacred hand of the Most High Holds out a star. Ife stands amid the storm, a mighty rock ; His long hair blows about, the demons mock I]Jis entry to their kingdom, and despair. Groans in the blackness, infamous and bare, ~ And hateful shapes and eyes surround his head— O for the magic of those mightier dead To scatter them, and utterly destroy Their likeness, and to penetrate the joy Of yonder places past the realm of fear! Q that some nughty seer Came to avenge, that might deliver him From this grim fight, whose horrid ranks are dim With mist of spuméd blood, whose long chill hour Beats out each second with the ghastly power, Reluctant tillthe morning. Shall they cease, These black battalions, and the dawn bring peace To a head holier? Or shall he succumb, Fight through long agonies and perish dumb, Sword gripped hard to the last? or shall he fall | Recreant, coward, and no more at all Reach the dim martyr-hall of heroes? Yet The surging shapes gape hideous, to heget Fresh arméd foemen to destroy the king. and first, on black imperishable wing, That Nameless Thing. Darkness, a dragon, now devours The vision of those deadly powers, The legions of the lords of sin. It is an hour ere dawn begin. ISAIAH. A SONNET. THE world is dusk, expectant of its doom. l‘oulness is rampant ; purity is dumb; Despair stalks terrible. But I am come, God-nurtured, in the void abyss of gloom ; The Spirit of my God is set on me; He hath anointed me to preach glad news Unto the meek ; the broken heart to loose, To utter to the captive liberty, The prison’s opening to all the bound, And unto all men to proclaim aloud The year acceptable before the Lord. Therefore He fills my voice with silvery sound, And by His spirit, a pillar of fire and cloud, My eyes are lightning, and my tongue a sword.