Classic Poem

1.

W HOE'ER hath loved, with venturous step, to tread
The chambers dread
Of some deep cave, and seen his taper's beam
Lost in the arch of darkness overhead,
And mark'd its gleam,
Playing afar upon the sunless stream,
Where from their secret bed,
And course unknown and inaccessible,
The silent waters well, —
Whoe'er hath trod such caves of endless night,
He knows, when measuring back the gloomy way,
With what delight refresh'd, his eye
Perceives the shadow of the light of day,
Through the far portal slanting, where it falls
Dimly reflected on the watery walls;
How heavenly seems the sky;
And how, with quicken'd feet, he hastens up,
Eager again to greet
The living World and blessed sunshine there,
And drink, as from a cup
Of joy, with thirsty lips, the open air.

2.

Far other light than that of day there shone
Upon the travellers, entering Padalon.
They too in darkness enter'd on their way,
But far before the Car,
A glow, as of a fiery furnace light,
Fill'd all before them. 'Twas a light which made
Darkness itself appear
A thing of comfort, and the sight, dismay'd,
Shrunk inward from the molten atmosphere.
Their way was through the adamantine rock
Which girt the World of Woe; on either side
Its massive walls arose, and overhead
Arch'd the long passage; onward as they ride,
With stronger glare the light around them spread,
And lo! the regions dread,
The World of Woe before them, opening wide.

3.

There rolls the fiery flood,
Girding the realms of Padalon around.
A sea of flame it seem'd to be,
Sea without bound;
For neither mortal nor immortal sight
Could pierce across through that intensest light.
A single rib of steel,
Keen as the edge of keenest cimeter,
Spann'd this wide gulf of fire. The infernal Car
Roll'd to the Gulf, and, on its single wheel
Self-balanced, rose upon that edge of steel.
Red-quivering float the vapors overhead;
The fiery gulf, beneath them spread,
Tosses its billowing blaze with rush and roar;
Steady and swift the self-moved Chariot went,
Winning the long ascent,
Then, downward rolling, gains the farther shore.

4.

But, oh! what sounds and sights of woe,
What sights and sounds of fear,
Assail the mortal travellers here!
Their way was on a causey straight and wide,
Where penal vaults on either side were seen,
Ranged like the cells wherein
Those wondrous winged alchemists infold
Their stores of liquid gold.
Thick walls of adamant divide
The dungeons; and from yonder circling flood,
Off-streams of fire through secret channels glide,
And wind among them, and in each provide
An everlasting food
Of rightful torments for the accursed brood.

5.

These were the rebel race, who, in their might
Confiding impiously, would fain have driven
The deities supreme from highest Heaven;
But by the Suras, in celestial fight,
Opposed and put to flight,
Here, in their penal dens, the accursed crew,
Not for its crime, but for its failure, rue
Their wild ambition. Yet again they long
The contest to renew,
And wield their arms again in happier hour;
And with united power,
Following Kehama's triumph, to press on
From World to World, and Heaven to Heaven, and Sphere
To Sphere, till Hemakoot shall be their own,
And Meru Mount, and Indra's Swerga-Bowers,
And Brama's region, where the heavenly Hours
Weave the vast circle of his age-long day.
Even over Veeshnoo's empyreal seat
They trust the Rajah shall extend their sway,
And that the seven-headed Snake, whereon
The strong Preserver sets his conquering feet,
Will rise and shake him headlong from his throne,
When, in their irresistible array,
Amid the Milky Sea they force their way.
Even higher yet their frantic thoughts aspire;
Yea, on their beds of torment as they lie,
The highest, holiest Seeva, they defy,
And tell him they shall have anon their day,
When they will storm his realm, and seize Mount Calasay.

6.

Such impious hopes torment
Their raging hearts, impious and impotent;
And now, with unendurable desire
And lust of vengeance, that, like inward fire,
Doth aggravate their punishment, they rave
Upon Kehama; him the accursed rout
Acclaim; with furious cries and maddening shout
They call on him to save;
Kehama! they exclaim;
Thundering the dreadful echo rolls about,
And Hell's whole vault repeats Kehama's name.

7.

Over these dens of punishment, the host
Of Padalon maintain eternal guard,
Keeping upon the walls their vigilant ward.
At every angle stood
A watch-tower, the decurion Demon's post,
Where raised on high he view'd with sleepless eye
His trust, that all was well. And over these, —
Such was the perfect discipline of Hell, —
Captains of fifties and of hundreds held
Authority, each in his loftier tower;
And chiefs of legions over them had power;
And thus all Hell with towers was girt around.
Aloft the brazen turrets shone
In the red light of Padalon;
And on the walls between,
Dark moving, the infernal Guards were seen,
Gigantic Demons, pacing to and fro;
Who, ever and anon
Spreading their crimson pennons, plunged below,
Faster to rivet down the Asuras' chains,
And with the snaky scourge and fiercer pains,
Repress their rage rebellious. Loud around,
In mingled sound, the echoing lash, the clash
Of chains, the ponderous hammer's iron stroke,
With execrations, groans, and shrieks, and cries,
Combined, in one wild dissonance, arise;
And through the din there broke,
Like thunder heard through all the warring winds,
The dreadful name. Kehama, still they rave,
Hasten and save!
Now, now, Deliverer! now, Kehama, now!
Earthly Almighty, wherefore tarriest thou?

8.

Oh, if that name abhorr'd,
Thus utter'd, could well nigh
Dismay the Powers of Hell, and daunt their Lord,
How fearfully to Kailyal's ear it came!
She, as the car roll'd on its rapid way,
Bent down her head, and closed her eyes for dread;
And deafening, with strong effort from within,
Her ears against the din,
Cover'd and press'd them close with both her hands.
Sure, if the mortal Maiden had not fed
On heavenly food, and long been strengthened
With heavenly converse for such end vouchsafed,
Her human heart had fail'd, and she had died
Beneath the horrors of this awful hour.
But Heaven supplied a power
Beyond her earthly nature, to the measure
Of need infusing strength;
And Fate, whose secret and unerring pleasure
Appointed all, decreed
An ample meed and recompense at length.
High-fated Maid, the righteous hour is nigh!
The all-embracing eye
Of Retribution still beholdeth thee;
Bear onward to the end, O Maid, courageously!

9.

On roll'd the car, and lo! afar
Upon its height the towers of Yamenpur
Rise on the astonish'd sight.
Behold the infernal City, Yamen's seat
Of empire, in the midst of Padalon,
Where the eight causeys meet.
There, on a rock of adamant, it stood,
Resplendent far and wide,
Itself of solid diamond edified,
And all around it roll'd the fiery flood.
Eight bridges arch'd the stream; huge piles of brass
Magnificent, such structures as beseem
The Seat and Capital of such great God,
Worthy of Yamen's own august abode.
A brazen tower and gateway at each end
Of each was raised, where Giant Wardens stood,
Station'd in arms the passage to defend,
That never foe might cross the fiery flood.

10.

Oh, what a gorgeous sight it was to see
The Diamond City blazing on its height
With more than mid-sun splendor, by the light
Of its own fiery river!
Its towers, and domes, and pinnacles, and spires,
Turrets and battlements, that flash and quiver
Through the red, restless atmosphere forever;
And hovering overhead,
The smoke and vapors of all Padalon,
Fit firmament for such a world, were spread,
With surge, and swell, and everlasting motion,
Heaving and opening like tumultuous ocean.

11.

Nor were there wanting there
Such glories as beseem'd such region well;
For though with our blue heaven and genial air
The firmament of Hell might not compare,
As little might our earthly tempests vie
With the dread storms of that infernal sky,
Whose clouds of all metallic elements
Sublimed were full. For, when its thunder broke,
Not all the united World's artillery,
In one discharge, could equal that loud stroke;
And though the Diamond Towers and Battlements
Stood firm upon their adamantine rock,
Yet while it volleyed round the vault of Hell,
Earth's solid arch was shaken with the shock,
And Cities in one mighty ruin fell.
Through the red sky terrific meteors scour;
Huge stones' come hailing down; or sulphur shower,
Floating amid the lurid air like snow,
Kindles in its descent,
And with blue fire-drops rains on all below.
At times the whole supernal element,
Igniting, burst in one vast sheet of flame,
And roar'd as with the sound
Of rushing winds, above, below, around;
Anon the flame was spent, and overhead
A heavy cloud of moving darkness spread.


12.

Straight to the brazen bridge and gate
The self-moved Chariot bears its mortal load
At sight of Carmala,
On either side the Giant Guards divide,
And give the chariot way.
Up yonder winding road it rolls along,
Swift as the bittern soars on spiral wing,
And lo! the Palace of the Infernal King!

13.

Two forms inseparable in unity
Hath Yamen; even as with hope or fear
The Soul regardeth him doth he appear;
For hope and fear,
At that dread hour, from omnious conscience spring,
And err not in their bodings. Therefore some,
They who polluted with offences come,
Behold him as the King
Of Terrors, black of aspect, red of eye,
Reflecting back upon the sinful mind,
Heighten'd with vengeance, and with wrath divine,
Its own inborn deformity.
But to the righteous Spirit how benign
His awful countenance,
Where, tempering justice with parental love,
Goodness, and heavenly grace,
And sweetest mercy shine! Yet is he still
Himself the same, one form, one face, one will;
And these his twofold aspects are but one;
And change is none
In him for change in Yamen could not be;
The Immutable is he.

14.

He sat upon a marble sepulchre,
Massive and huge, where, at the Monarch's feet,
The righteous Baly had his Judgment-seat.
A Golden Throne before them vacant stood;
Three human forms sustain'd its ponderous weight,
With lifted hands outspread, and shoulders bow'd
Bending beneath the load.
A fourth was wanting. They were of the hue
Of coals of fire; yet were they flesh and blood,
And living breath they drew;
And their red eyeballs roll'd with ghastly stare,
As thus, for their misdeeds, they stood tormented there.

15.

On steps of gold those living Statues stood,
Who bore the Golden Throne. A cloud behind
Immovable was spread; not all the light
Of all the flames and fires of Padalon
Could pierce its depth of night.
There Azyoruca veil'd her awful form
In those eternal shadows: there she sat,
And as the trembling Souls, who crowd around
The Judgment-seat, received the doom of fate,
Her giant arms, extending from the cloud,
Drew them within the darkness. Moving out
To grasp and bear away the innumerous rout,
Forever and forever thus were seen
The thousand mighty arms of that dread Queen.

16.

Here, issuing from the Car, the Glendoveer
Did homage to the God, then raised his head.
Suppliants we come, he said,
I need not tell thee by what wrongs oppress'd,
For nought can pass on earth to thee unknown;
Sufferers from tyranny we seek for rest,
And Seeva bade us go to Yamen's throne;
Here, he hath said, all wrongs shall be redress'd.
Yamen replied, Even now the hour draws near,
When Fate its hidden ways will manifest.
Not for light purpose would the Wisest send
His suppliants here, when we, in doubt and fear,
The awful issue of the hour attend.
Wait ye in patience and in faith the end!