Classic Poem

Now May is here, with all her golden sunbeams,
With all her silken airs, and spicy perfumes,
Benignly she allures with snow-white blossoms,
And greets with thousand violet-eyes of azure,
And spreads abroad her green and flowery carpet
Woven of sunshine and of morning dew;
Summoning all the children of mankind.
The bashful folk obey her earliest call:
The men all put their nankeen trousers on,
Their Sunday coats with glittering gilded buttons;
The ladies dress themselves in virgin white;
The young men twirl their newly grown moustaches;
Young maidens feel their bosoms swell with pleasure;
And the town poets stick into their pockets
Eye-glass, note-book and pencil. Jubilant
The jostling crowd is pressing through the town-gate,
And, lying down on the green turf outside,
Admires the trees — how splendidly they flourish —
Plays with the gaily-coloured tender blossoms —
Harks to the songs of all the lusty warblers —
While their shouts reach the blue expanse of Heaven.

May came to me — even me — three times she rattled
Upon my door, and called out: " I am May!
Thou pallid dreamer, come, and I will kiss thee! "
But I my door kept bolted, and I cried:
" In vain thy wiles thou triest on me — ill-comer —
For I have seen thee through, and also seen through
The structure of this world. I have seen too much —
And much too deep — and so all joy has vanished,
And everlasting pains lodge in my heart.
I see right through the hard and stony casing
Of mortals' houses, and of mortals' hearts,
And see in both falsehood, and tricks, and meanness —
Upon men's faces do I read their thoughts,
A sorry revelation. In the girl's blush of shame
I see her secret passion's greedy tremors.
On the youth's proud enthusiastic head
I see the mocking, yellow fool's cap settle:
And nought but masks grotesque, or sickly shadows,
I see upon this earth — nor can I tell
Whether a madhouse 'tis, or hospital.
I see right through the base of this old Earth
As though it were of glass; and see the horror,
May strives to cover with her joyful green —
Strives, but in vain. And then I see the dead.
They lie below there, in their narrow coffins,
With folded hands, and with their eyelids open.
White is their clothing, and their faces white,
And through their lips the yellow worms are crawling.

I see the son there, sitting with his sweetheart,
To sport and wanton on his father's grave:
The nightingales sing jeering songs above them;
The gentle meadow-flowers are laughing slyly;
While the dead father turns him in his grave,
And painfully old Mother Earth doth shudder.

Thou poor old Earth — thy pains, too well I know them
I see the fire which rages in thy bosom,
I see the blood start from thy thousand veins,
I see thy wound tearing itself wide open,
And wildly streaming flame and smoke and blood.
I see thy bold defiant giant-sons —
Thy eldest brood — from gloomy deeps arising,
And their red torches in their hands high swinging;
I see them set their iron ladders up
And wildly storm the fortress of high Heaven;
While black dwarfs clamber after them; and crackling
Vanish from heaven all the golden stars.
With impious hand one tears the golden curtain
Of God's own shrine. The holy Angels
Prone on their faces fall, shrieking aloud.
Upon his throne sits God, with terror pale —
Plucks from his head the crown, and tears his hair
And nearer presses on the savage horde.
The Giants toss their blazing torches high
Into vast Heaven's realm; the foul dwarfs smite
With whips of flame the Angels on the back,
Who creep about, and tortured, writhe in pain,
And then are dragged out fairly by the hair.
And my especial Angel see I there,
With his blonde locks, and with his gentle features,
And with th' eternal love around his lips,
And with the bliss that lives in his blue eye.
And one outrageous, ugly, dusky Kobold
Snatches from Heaven's floor my pale white Angel.
Grinning he leers upon his shining beauty,
Then clasps him tight in tenderest embraces.
A shriek of horror rings throughout all space;
Its pillars crumble; Earth and Heaven fall crashing
Together, and old Night is Lord of all.