Viil PROLOGUE
Caught in a chain, linked corpses for a lure!
Shall human senses feel
Or human tongue reveal ?
Nay, shall the mortal know them and endure
Whose little period
Is limited by God ;
Whose poor abode
Is the mean body, prey to all distemperature ?
Yet, mortal, in the Light and Way Divine,
Gird on the armour of the Holy One:
Seek out the secret of the inmost shrine,
Strong in the might and spirit of the sun.
Arise, arise, arise,
Give passage to mine eyes,
Ye airs, ye veils; ye bucklers of the Snake!
I knew the deepest cells,
Where the foul spirit dwells;
Called to the dead, the drowsed, arise ! awake!
Their dark profoundest thought
Was less than She I sought,
It was as nought!
I drew my soul, I dived beneath the burning lake.
Thrice, in the vault of Hell, my Word was born,
Abortive, in the empty wilderness.
False echoes, made malicious, turn to scorn
The awful accents, the Supreme address.
The Fourth, the final word!
All chaos shrank and heard