PROLOGUE

HOU, QUIET SPIRIT WHO DIDST ONCE INSPIRE

And speed me on my long and ardent way,

Despite the weakness of my frail skill

Did comfort me, and prove my pure intent;

Who, bulwark from my poor faltering essay,

Did see me right— not as the mortal sees,

But looks’t upon the inward part of man

And shewest them their ways: where man prefers

In divers aspects, wealth, or wit, or pow’r,

Thou dost intend more secret gold to glean—

The pure in heart and lowly in his mien.

Wherefore, Thou Source, who can do what Thou wilt

Save to Thyself be false, who is pure Truth,

Teach, instruct me in Thy more perfect way.

OW IN THOS DAYS, ISRAEL SUFFERED MUCH,

Then small in strength and harried at the hands

Of pagan tribes, who fell upon their prey

And wrought in wanton wars the will of gods

Unlike the Ancient One who whilom gave

His charges peace, and gentled with commands

To keep their like in mild harmony

And prosper’d long their virtued industry;

These lesser gods who, powerless and vain,

Did oft to acts of evil and cruel greed

Their fond and fearsome acolytes inspire

With vile obeisance in strange temples made.

And chiefest, basest of these ancient gods,

The First Leviathan assumed which form:

Half-man, half-fish in mocking parody

Of that dual nature with which Man is stamp’d.

And baser, greater still the foretold pomp,

Would be where one Man did that double soul

Perfect with one and sacred whole:

Both God and Man then met inviolate,

And perfect Spirit and mankind conjoin.

From that pretended temple sent the dead

To mock the quicker Spirit which prevailed,

And fell, as Lucifer once did.

That crown, which base deceit did ill confer

Lay ripp’d before the double seraphim 

And fiends which held their false and foul domain

Beheaded fell before the Ark of God.

And from that jealous God, which shareth not,

Nor suffers him his glory to divide,

Went forth His righteous pow’r and his might.

Upon the sons of Edom fell his wrath

Which filled their bodies with a murrain sore

And wicked their stone hearts with mortal fear;

Whereon did Edom’s sons then repent themselves

And suffer to return God’s Holy Ark.

HEN DID THAT DREADFUL TOCSIN SOUND ABOVE,

From deep below the dread infernal depths,

The awful crack which echoed through the halls;

Then woke that Fiendish Captain from his couch,

Abaddon, Primal General of the Horde.

Withal his reeking armor he affix’d:

The croaking cuisses fastened there below,

Thereby his woe-ward feet to better fend;

The greaves of ebon mettle to support;

The shield, embrazened with his fearful sign—

In likeness Death: the more to counter Faith

With flaming darts and lies. His wicked heart

Beat evil from below an iron shield,

The like emboss’d with that selfsame design.

And further t’ward the supered fearful Head,

Enclasped about by the encircled helm,

Horn-crownèd, seven spikes mounted withal,

In mocking semblance of penitent thorns.

Thus at the head; the company arrayed

Behind him stretched in vaster columns far

Than the late stars which Lucifer had quit,

Who look’d upon them now with cold disdain

And scorned to hear the dimming song

Which ceaseless rose from still the loyal half,

His first compeers who steadfast in their way

Closed rank, and sang the louder for his loss.

Lucifer Speaks with Abaddon

HEN spake th’infernal Potentate aloud

In close and craven council with his Mate:

“We shall not suffer this our Ensign so

Foully to be us’d; whereon that Ark

Hath Dagon’s temple breached to spite our plan,

And cast chimera down before our Foe.

Thus mote we the Battle here enjoin,

With stratagems, devices and the like;

Play’d out among the citizens of earth

Which part may be induced our will to serve,

And by the hands of man our purpose prove.”

The Council of Heaven

HEN forth the word of God in martial mood

Broke out among the endless sound of praise;

Save but one Voice had given them their leave

The highest laud and worship to leave off.

One after one, the singers cease; the sound

By small and glorious degrees decrease,

As when the coy and wanton stars at morn

Retire from their nightly sport and leave

The heavens blushing crimson as their cheeks

To humble give the meet and proper place

Which due their lord and master doth command

And sends abroad his golden-fired rays

To light the way of angels and of men.

So like the grand, th’eternal rise of sun

Broke forth the voice of God to make decree.

No angel voice stood forth to counsel make;

Nor spoke aloud a seraph to enjoin,

But phalanx upon phalanx stood there mute;

Nor harp nor lyre offered up its voice

The ages-wonted worship to resume,

But every string fell silent for that Voice.

And in that silence, as with erstwhile sound,

Did all of Heaven give their King his due.

God Speaks

AM THE LORD, WHO SUFFERS HIS DOMAIN

None to usurp. I am that Am, and all

That do remain do by my pleasure stay.

Now have I warred against foul Edom’s god

And cast their false and hollow demon down.

I shall fulfill my covenant withal

And see My perfect Will in Israel done.

Shall I call forth a man after my heart

To lead my people Israel aright.

That hymn which angels ceaselessly employed

To laud My Name above all, that its due

Shall rest upon a lowly shepherd boy.

And I from lowly ignorance shall raise

To heighths not yet foretold by bard or sage.

Then shall my people know my plan divine,

Which supercedes all mortal man’s assay

And proveth at the last My Holy Will.

***

ND when the age of Samuel was spent,

And dimmer grew the lantern of his sight

Did he appointment to offices divine

The offspring of his youth to judge the land.

Yet were his issue ill-enformed, and strayed

The hearts of children, as so oft befalls:

From courses pure untouch’d a rivulet

Might wend a warpéd way and so divert 

All that is noble, righteous, pure and just.

Thus with the offerings of the lowly poor;

With humble widows’ mites and children’s bread;

With coins made consecrate, with holy alms,

Did wanton fill their purses. Double-tongued,

They handed down false judgements, and foreswore

The honest oaths demanded of a judge.

With bribes and favors burdened they the Law;

And weighed swift Justice with their coffers down.

Now when that unjust weight did loathsome wax

And vex the people in their plaintive suits;

When penance filled the treasures of the vain

And gluttony the boards of greed did waste;

Then did the hearts of Israël uprise

And call upon the judgments of the Lord.

Yet wroth was Israel at the Lord’s intent

And sore their hearts’ desire did turn away.

The sins of all the nations seemed to them

As pure the holy precepts of the Lord.

“Let us”, quoth they, “like other nations be,

And have a king to guide us in our way;

We shall no more a prophet’s counsel need,

But turn to heed the wonted royal seat.

Our armies shall uncaptained no more strive,

Nor leaderless our forces face their foes.”

The deepest that all human art or craft

Can sound, still shallower than the depths of God;

Nor kings nor prophets can His entirety span,

No more the learned astronomer can move

The massy spheres a fraction from their course.

But seeing all, and knowing all, doth make

Allowance for the fondest plots of Man.

And straying not an inkling from his Plan,

Still suffers Him by mortals to be mov’d.

And Samuel, with heart heav’n-ward inclined,

His ear close by the very Mouth of God,

His eyes, tho dimmed to mere and natural light;

His back now bent by age and holy toil;

His ear to ruder sounds now ill-attuned

Still steadfast did his ghostly course pursue;

Did harbor in his soul, and jealous tend,

Like one scarce flame by tempests tossed,

The quiet calling which so long ago

Had wondrous crept into his secret cell.

Th’ immortal stamp which marked his deeper parts;

The selfsame Voice which one night long ago

Had called him by his name, the voice of God.

HAT VOICE, WHO MORE THAN PROUD AND HAUGHTY KINGS

Or vain prelates kept guarded in their cells,

Is wont to reach the small and humble ear,

The best to His own grand and great design

Accomplish, did now alight upon a vassal low.

For of their tribe, Saul’s brethren wert the least

In Israël— by random Nature stamp’d

With such a mark: the leftward hand oppos’d,

Which, fitted not for offices divine,

Did cast confusion and bespeak the doom

Of martial foe who faced them on the field.

That wayward pow’r, the like which God employed,

Should mark the regal manner of his reign.

For That which sat upon the formless face of Earth,

And brooded o’er the swart and swirling void,

To bring forth life in desert and empty parts,

Did come upon the man.

Thus by the hand of Samuel installed

To Israel the highest royal seat,

Least of his tribe, though high above his peers

In strength, in stature, and fairness of face.

Saul as King

OW in those days, some misadventure fell,

That asses of the house of Saul did stray;

Long sought their master for their safe return,

Who with a vassal of his father’s house

Assayed abroad and journeyed far afield.

Then wearied with long and fruitless toil

Gave over there the hard and futile search.

Then Saul remembered him that presently

A man of God within that city stayed,

And joyfully rejoined his servant thus:

“Now let us leave the cares of mortal men,

And turn aside the ways of God to seek;

Forsooth, the seer may have goodly word

Pertaining to our father’s wayward kine.”

And when that Saul upon the prophet drew

And begged of him a blessing, Samuel said:

“From out the throng of lesser men the Lord

Has thee thyself redeemed; and He the ward

Of Israël, His people, given thee;

O branch of Jesse’s high and royal tree,

Receive that which the Lord has made thy own:

The right to sit upon the royal throne.”

And swift like wind the spirit of the Lord

Upon a young and humble monarch fell;

His voice among the gathered divines broke.

Like those who in their solemn cells do wait

And lengthen the still hours of the morn,

He, who among his clan the least,

Wast moved beyond his station to adore;

From forth a stuttering tongue and fearful voice

Broke out in brave and likely laud; That spirit

Which mov’d within a frail and mortal breast

Was thus conjoined: the lesser to the Great.

Narrative Interlude

As when the mighty rivers of a land

Are made obeisant to the hand of man;

Great gorges steer’d by human enterprise,

And Nature’s will to man’s laid low;

The rushings of their breakers tam’d by art,

The raging of their waves by science quelled—

No less the whole of man’s minute devise

Are lowly subjects to th’ insuperable hand of God.

Interlude of Praise

How like the Lord who in our fathers’ day

Turned from his great and lordly high domain

The more to rescue us, all gone astray,

And with his love our wayward hearts reclaim.

For he is the great and kindly Shepherd and

We his lambs who in his peaceful fold

Do gladly bend beneath his gentle hand.

This is his work, and gladly we have seen

How from the fields of servanthood he brings

The lowly and the meek, the poor and mean,

And lifts them to the station high of kings.

Samuel Looks over Jesse’s Sons 

 OW Samuel stood before the sons of Jesse fair

 And saw them each in bold and proud array:

This one broad of shoulder, fair of face;

That one proud as lions in his mien.

And all the beauty of this flowered youth 

Alive in this one’s limbs. What warrior

Would rise from out this noble line arrayed,

And come to sit on the prophetic throne?

Each one in fairest flower of his youth;

Yet came to Samuel God’s reproving word:

Nor strength nor beauty consecrates a king;

God will not by a goodly countenance be moved,

But searches out the deeper parts of man.

For man concerns himself on that which seems to be;

But God doth know the inner heart of all.

David is seen

HEN Samuel spoke and asked of Jesse’s sons

If there be not one more kept away;

If one unlook’d for, masked with low disdain,

Or kept in lone obscurity, some mean

And common duty to perform. Spoke Jesse then

“Yet one son more remains. The youngest he;

A shepherd; he hath taken charge of that my flock,

Which tend’ring such low office, provest well

The tender and the soft cast of his heart.

How oft, unbidden, to my ear comes soft

Some pleasant strain, some unrehearsëd rhyme,

That rises up above these dewy peaks,

And makes a father’s pious heart rejoice.”

And David, having heard his brothers’ call,

Now from the dimming mountains brought him down.

In his left hand, he bore aloft a lyre,

Which, lately pluck’d, still shivered, as with joy,

At ceasing now her wonted voice to use.

That hand which held the lately-silent harp,

Bespoke the strength which courséd through its arm;

In every nerve and sinew flex’d, foretold

The deeds to which its bearer full would rise;

And in his right, he held a leathern sling,

Which empty now, hung meekly down beside;

Yet whilom held and flung with bitter force

Those stones which stud the ancient countryside.

Such lowly missiles offered up from out the earth

Would so defend the shepherd’s tim’rous flock;

Thus kings ordain the rustic and the rough

To the defense of all they hold so dear.

And Samuel, seeing then that God the Lord

Had chosen and ordained his servant king,

Upon his head the regal phial tipped.

From up on high, the sacred oil broke;

No subtle product of some pagan alchemic,

Such as was wont to grease a tyrant brow,

Or charm a wanton courtesan to acts

Of illest fame and heated luxury;

But mingled merest oils, olive and nard,

The which from David’s kingly ringlets dropped;

Struck on the cheek, still smooth, untouch’d by time.

So priest to priest, in double office met

In solemn rite to execute the will

Of that still Higher King, who does withal

Coronate the kings of men, depose

The tyrants who do thwart His Law,

And make His regents all the lords of Earth.

OW IN THOSE DAYS, THE BITTER ENEMY

Of Israel’s children from the days of old:

Fierce Edom was, whose venging sire did seek

To work reciprocal woe upon his kin.

A mess of soup, that blind and cheap forfeit,

To purchase poor inheritances lost.

Long since their fathers engineered their peace,

Th’ embittered children sought their poor redress,

And sired bitter warriors in that cause.

The brute and swarthy kindred Edom bore

Were soldierlike and fell with spear and sword.

Rude princes they, and martial in aspect,

Who loved the bruit and clamor rude of war.

The Fight with Goliath

ROM up among their caitiff cohorts rose

One craven more still than all of his peers;

Who tower’d both in heighth and low repute

And illest fame; who by his deeds of wrath

Made his name known and feared among the clans.

Of Gath was spawned Goliath; he whose heighth

Made mockery of that natural wont; as reached

Skyward with his length, so low his soul

Did fall in wanton ways: of wroth and ire,

Of mad devotion sole to gods of war,

And on their heathen pyres obeisance made.

That lord of earth, by prince of air impelled,

Stood forth in fleering attitude to bay;

With jests obscene and oaths did imprecate.

The champion dread of villains, varlets vile

Sought by his cursing low Israel to chafe

And draw by rough and wicked words profane

To hopeless battle and ensure their doom.

Twoscore therefore the nights he made his claim,

And boldly sought for Israel’s champion,

The which in single combat to defeat;

The awful penalty their loss incurred

Was vile servitude; the nation were

The other’s low and shameful villain made.

David scolds his brothers

OW David, with the honest soul of youth,

And that mere innocence which made his heart

So near the kind which God doth after seek,

Spoke forth. “How should it be that this our foe

May make so bold and brazen his demand?

Wherefore this son of harlots should inveigh

And challenge we the people of the Lord?”

And sore to anger drove this bold reply,

And prick’d the fearful hearts of David’s kin,

So mov’d them to a harsh and wroth rebuke.

“How now”, said they, “young coxcomb that thou art,

Who treats of war as if some idle jest,

Our nation’s mortal struggle for his mirth?”

But David, pure in will and true intent,

Did then protest: “What wrong now have I done?

Have I no leave aloud to even speak?”

Saul armours David

OW Saul had heard the men give brave report:

How one young man, despite the callowness of youth,

Had shewn forth courage well beyond his age

And shamed the warriors fell of Israel’s land.

And summoning the lad upon him set

The weapons of the king’s own armory:

Upon the youthful head, the royal helm,

Emblazoned with the scenes of martial fame:

Foes graven on the chest in wrought relief

Fell dead before the armies of the Lord;

The regal sword he set in his right hand,

Whose hilt portrayed the doom of Israel’s foe.

Yet, heavy fell the blade from youthful hand,

The shield of kings fell from an arm too weak.

Those fingers, wonted more to pensive play

Soft hymns upon a lyre’s gentle cords,

Let slip the ruder martial implement:

For Mars’s barbéd tools exchanged the lyre,

The royal sword exchanged for lowly sling.

That sling which bravéd not the throngs of men

Who marched to bootless death at kings’ command

To fortify the holdings of a lord

Or win him spoil, wealth or hollow fame,

But bravely fends a flock more innocent:

The mild and the dumb, which fond as lambs

Do stray and wend from that more perfect way.

As oft the One who guides human affair

Will choose for him the lowly and obscure

From out the teem of heroes seem’d more fit,

Young David knelt before a stilly brook.

And there, too discriminate he dipped—

Felt this one too rough to the touch;

This one too small, its heft surpassing light 

To carry out its somber fatal task.

What Obscure Spirit mov’d that dropping hand

Or what the Fate plucked this from out the rest?

For so in all the throng’d affairs of states

 May tides suspend from minute acts of chance

And on that random happenstance depend

The fate of the all the destiny of man.

Battle in Heaven

OW from the heighth of all the stars and more,

To the Realm Empyreal, let us turn,

Where in their turn did all the ranks of God

Array in like design against their foe.

The regiment the first, who stern and bold,

Stood at the front and boldly bore aloft

That standard pure which doth so design,

All Truth and Love and of these both the pow’r

Insuperable. All those which were in that company

Made war with song— the ancient melody 

Which issued issueless and endless still remained

Rang out among the phalanx and increased.

And in reply: a noisome shriek arose—

The coarse insults of demons and the shrill

Tempestings of the lesser imps. The drums,

Borne still aloft in swarthy demon arms, 

Did forth that wretched rhythm still prolong. 

But soft! Now chorus both and drums alike 

Fall off, as when before all Heaven stilled

To better hear the Voice of God. One blast

Made pause, then bursting forth with unstanched might,

Broke out into the sullen calm anon.

Then demons quaked, and awful imprecations made,

And shook their black-stained weapons in their wroth,

And glanced with fearful eye upon the source:

Gabriel, now low’ring from his lips the golden trump,

Which fading song announced to hell th’imminent doom,

Astrode his car of war to meet his foe.

Apace the breadth of Heaven’s gold-paved roads

He urged his team of flame-flanked chargers on;

Their manes flashed in the low’ring clouds, like as

To lightning that, in summer days doth rend

The brassy sky, which protests such a fray,

And weepst the tears of rain in sad protest.

Battle on Earth

OW in the desert camp, the giant’s wonted charge

Rang out among the ranks assembled by, 

And wonted the reply in silence came.

Again Goliath made his haughty dare;

But now the challenge met with youthful heart.

Yet, seeing him the giant made cruel jest:

“What callow boy does Israel send to war?

What branch in thy frail hand to brandish so?

The birds of air will eat thy flesh before

The day is done. I curse thee, hated foe!”

And David in his turn made bold reply:

“Thou comes so armed: with saber and with shield

And mockest me, untrained, unhardened I;

Yet greater weapons still than yours I wield:

Thou trusts in brazen spear and iron sword,

But I shall overcome by the Name of the Lord!”

Whenas in days before, when vicious pards and mean

Did assay to steal that innocent flock;

And with that blind and furious will that all

The greater beasts of prey in common hold,

The lesser mind by Instinct animate,

Made slave to it and by those Fetters bound:

Wrath and Hunger; these the transports twain

That hold their bestial sway o’er pagan minds;

Nor love nor fealty, nor ghostly piety reign,

Til some Assigned, whose greater spirit moves

Them forth to works of good or equal ill,

Which do the greater patterns imitate:

The evil of that primal Serpent first,

Or happily his Maker to the good.

Now David bore aloft the leather sling,

And from his tunic’s fold a small stone plucked;

Which stone the firmament of Israel’s reign upon 

Was built. What venging angel sped that stone?

What seraph warlike in his course convey’d

Th’insensate rock to lay low Israel’s foe

Those feet stood firm upon the rocky ground;

The knees down-bent, on which one lay his hand

In attitude relaxed. His shoulders sloping low,

His eyes upcast to meet the vengeful gaze.

The other hand, as if it’s own accord 

And warlike will did so it forth compel

The fingers out to pluck and grasp that stone,

With hands so more accustomed to the lyre,

And more to soft devotion’s songs inclined. 

That youthful brow, unwrinkled yet by time,

Was knit, in pureness of intent and strength of will.

Back to Heaven

ND in like attitude, on heaven’s field

That glittering corps arrayed in purest light

Unstopped the mighty charge; an ancient hymn

Long since rehearsed by seraphs in their laud

Broke forth in golden strains to dim their foes’

Din and dismal-choired voice. That angel band

Charged forth upon the phalanx of the damned.

While Edom’s armies made their fatal fray,

And pounded drums of war and smote their blades

Upon their shields, and called upon their gods,

Who hearkened not above nor paid them heed

But girt themselves for war against their foe.

As when the pall of death has over-fall’n

Some poor and wretched beast in parchèd fields,

And flies do numberless o’ertake the corpse

In rageless passion there to all consume,

Did those inflaming darts from strings unloosed

Engulf the skies. That bridge betwixt the worlds

For one instance insuperable closed

By martial engines numberless and and fell

Whose noise and size remembered angels eld

Of great leviathans that broke the still

And pensive waters of the deepest sounds

Whenas one perfect Word had called them forth.

What Word unseen, unsung, unheard on earth

Made dread and doom-like music in the bones

Of Edom’s armies in their ranks, whereof

They knew not whence or wherefore did they quake.

From out the multitude of missiles that ensued

And dimm’d the air celestial with their shade

One fatal dart from Heaven’s ranks was sped;

Some Captain seraphic unloosed his bow

And watch’d the dart ascend the heighths above. 

And David’s stone remorseless in its path

Flew forth and struck the caitiff giant’s head.

Down fell the erstwhile champion with oaths

Before the lowly army there he met,

And as when Dagon’s hollow image bowed

Before the Ark of God, its pagan crown

Bereft, so David strode and grasped the sword

From out the hand of this his fallen foe

And struck his head from off the lifeless corse.

That bloodied monument he held aloft

In honor of his Lord and spite of those

Worthless gods which quailed now in fear.

The Demons’ Wailing

HOSE agent demons which there did attend,

Ordain, inspire and speed the pagan thane

Raised up a shriek of bitter rage and grief,

And forthwith stood in long procession grim.

One at the head began his drum to sound,

And from the flanks th’infernal band joined in:

Keening sackbut, mournful pipes and lyre

Concert in tuneless melody to praise and rue

The later loss of one so much imbued 

With hopes for mischief, chaos and deceit. 

And from the ranks arose the funereal hymn

From divers demon voices ringing shrill. 

But as the train approached th’infernal throne

The Prince of Darkness broke forth and with wroth 

Inveighed against their dark solemnity

And rated them, with awful oath and curse,

That hopeless mood and low should be their choice

And not the victory— o’er Right and Truth. 

Then spake the Fiend: “Wherefore the dark dismay?

Still ancient as myself and all my darkest ways

Do I conspire the schemes of God to foil—

We shall return, and in this new-sprung hope

Bring seeds of doubt, of envy and of sin 

That, growing in the soil of human flesh,

Mote reap us still the fruits of human sin, 

And strike us one more blow against that God.”

Israel Rejoices at David's Joyful Harp

P from the throng embattled there encamped 

Rose forth a song of victory and praise;

And all the voices erstwhile choked with fear 

Broke out in joy and earnest hope:

As if from up her couch of illness rose

A land entire; her long disease undone

And, casting off her bedclothes, rises up

In newfound strength and gladness of the heart:

“O tell to me the songs of hope and joy

Let these my bones rejoice, which were destroyed”.

Here endeth the second part of the Epic Book of Samuel