White Angel of the Moon,
Onafiel ! be my guide
Out of this hateful place
Of sin and death, nor hide
In yon black cloud too soon
Thy pale and tranquil face!

A trumpet is blown from the walls.
Hark! hark! It is the breath
Of the trump of doom and death,
From the battlements overhead
Like a burden of sorrow cast
On the midnight and the blast,
A wailing for the dead,
That the gusts drop and uplift!
O Herod, thy vengeance is swift!
O Herodias, thou hast been
The demon, the evil thing,
That in place of Esther the Queen,
In place of the lawful bride,
Hast lain at night by the side
Of Ahasuerus the king!

The trumpet again.

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160

The Prophet of God is dead!
At a drunken monarch's call,
At a dancing-woman's beck,
They have severed that stubborn neck
And into the banquet-hall
Are bearing the ghastly head!

A body is thrown from the tower.
A torch of lurid red

Lights the window with its glow;
And a white mass as of snow

Is hurled into the abyss

Of the black precipice,

That yawns for it below!

O hand of the Most High,

O hand of Adonai!

Bury it, hide it away

From the birds and beasts of prey,
And the eyes of the homicide,
More pitiless than they,

As thou didst bury of yore
The body of him that died
On the mountain of Peor !
Even now I behold a sign,
A threatening of wrath divine,
A watery, wandering star,

170

180

Through whose streaming hair, and

the white

Unfolding garments of light,
That trail behind it afar,

The constellations shine!

And the whiteness and brightness ap

pear

He waits for me. Ah, should this be at last

The long-expected Christ! I see him there

Sitting alone, deep - buried in his thought,

As if the weight of all the world were resting

Upon him, and thus bowed him down. O Rabbi,

We know thou art a Teacher come from God,

For no man can perform the miracles Thou dost perform, except the Lord be with him.

Thou art a Prophet, sent here to proclaim

The Kingdom of the Lord. Behold in

NICODEMUS, aside. This is a dreamer of dreams; a visionary,

Whose brain is overtasked, until he deems

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The unseen world to be a thing sub

stantial,

And this we live in, an unreal vision