The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

But why should the reapers eat of it 30 Lo, it is ended!

And not the Prophet of Zion

In the den of the lion ?

The Prophet should feed the Prophet!
Therefore I thee have uplifted,
And bear thee aloft by the hair

Of thy head, like a cloud that is
drifted

Through the vast unknown of the air!

Five days hath the Prophet been lying

In Babylon, in the den

Of the lions, death-defying,
Defying hunger and thirst;
But the worst

Is the mockery of men!
Alas! how full of fear

Is the fate of Prophet and Seer!
Forevermore, forevermore,

It shall be as it hath been heretofore;
The age in which they live
Will not forgive

The splendor of the everíasting light,
That makes their foreheads bright, 51
Nor the sublime

Fore-running of their time!

PROPHET.

Oh tell me, for thou knowest,
Wherefore and by what grace,
Have I, who am least and lowest,
Been chosen to this place,
To this exalted part?

ANGEL.

Because thou art

ANGEL.

Yon silver gleam

Is the Euphrates' stream.
Let us descend
Into the city splendid,
Into the City of Gold!

Behold!

PROPHET.

As if the stars had fallen from their places

Into the firmament below,

The streets, the gardens, and the va cant spaces

With light are all aglow;

And hark!

As we draw near,

What sound is it I hear
Ascending through the dark?

ANGEL.

The tumultuous noise of the nations,
Their rejoicings and lamentations,
The pleadings of their prayer,
The groans of their despair,
The cry of their imprecations,
Their wrath, their love, their hate!

PROPHET.

Surely the world doth wait

The coming of its Redeemer !

ANGEL.

Awake from thy sleep, O dreamer!
The hour is near, though late;

Awake! write the vision sublime, 10c
The vision, that is for a time,

The Struggler; and from thy youth 60 Though it tarry, wait; it is nigh;

Thy humble and patient life

In the end it will speak and not lie.

PART ONE

THE DIVINE TRAGEDY

THE FIRST PASSOVER

VOX CLAMANTIS

JOHN THE BAPTIST.

REPENT! repent! repent!
For the kingdom of God is at hand,
And all the land

Full of the knowledge of the Lord shall be

As the waters cover the sea,
And encircle the continent!

Repent! repent! repent!
For lo, the hour appointed,
The hour so long foretold
By the Prophets of old,

Of the coming of the Anointed,
The Messiah, the Paraclete,

The Desire of the Nations, is nigh!
He shall not strive nor cry,

Nor his voice be heard in the street;
Nor the bruisèd reed shall He break,
Nor quench the smoking flax;
And many of them that sleep
In the dust of earth shall awake,
On that great and terrible day,
And the wicked shall wail and weep,
And be blown like a smoke away,
And be melted away like wax.
Repent! repent! repent!

O Priest, and Pharisee,

Who hath warned you to flee From the wrath that is to be?

From the coming anguish and ire? The axe is laid at the root

Who art thou, and what is the

word

That here thou proclaimest?

JOHN.

I am the voice of one

Crying in the wilderness alone: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; Make his paths straight

In the land that is desolate !

PRIEST.

If thou be not the Christ, Nor yet Elias, nor he

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That, in sign of the things to be,
Shattered the vessel of clay
In the Valley of Slaughter,
Then declare unto us, and say
By what authority now
Baptizest thou?

MOUNT QUARANTANIA

JOHN.

I indeed baptize you with water
Unto repentance; but He,
That cometh after me,

Is mightier than I and higher;
The latchet of whose shoes
I am not worthy to unloose;
He shall baptize you with fire,
And with the Holy Ghost!
Whose fan is in his hand;
He will purge to the uttermost
His floor, and garner his wheat,

LUCIFER.

Not in the lightning's flash, nor in the thunder,

80 Not in the tempest, nor the cloudy storm,

Will I array my form;

But part invisible these boughs asunder,

And move and murmur, as the wind upheaves

And whispers in the leaves.

Not as a terror and a desolation,

But will burn the chaff in the brand 90 Not in my natural shape, inspiring

And fire of unquenchable heat! Repent! repent! repent!