SCENE II.
A ZOARA ; A STARTE .
AZOARA .
My sister! listening to the Adamite,
In tears? nay, then, his tongue was eloquent,
If unsuccessful.
ASTARTE .
Thy light laugh is vain;
I feel the heart returns to its first love:
I cannot give that love again to Irad;
I dare not take it from another.
AZOARA .
Live,
As Lillah lives with Hammon Toil and spin,
Tend children, flocks, and herds; shut up thy soul
From all communion with the life beyond;
Apportion out thy days, allot each hour
To duties, wants; eat, drink, and sleep, and wed,
Till in the yoke thou diest, life unenjoyed.
ASTARTE .
Are they not happy? is not happiness
Life's end and aim? They walk forth hand in hand
And they are honoured, and, when age steals on them,
Their gathering sons shall prop their slow decline;
They die to be embalmed in memories
Of loving hearts. We love, are loved, by whom?
Immortal beings, ties by earth, man, heaven,
Alike forbidden, most by our own hearts.
Else, wherefore, doth Oraziel's voice in joy
Sound sorrowful?
AZOARA .
Toned by thy nature's fear;
Do I not glory in my seraph-love?
Would I change heavenly destinies for aught
Dull earth could give? What if from human eyes
We hide our meetings? all too lowly they
To comprehend our joy. Prov'st thou it sin,
Our aspiration toward eternal things,
Our natures raised from human to divine,
Above the jealousies and sordid cares,
The apathy and weariness of life?
If they led us astray, their presence here
Had been forbidden; they give lights to us,
Foreshadowing our immortality.
ASTARTE .
I listen even while truth is wanted still.
AZOARA .
And sayest thou rest from toil is happiness?
That feeling of the self-creating soul
From its own heavenly nature, dwelling on
Undying things, until it feels immortal
In limitless desire. Is this a dream?
Such faiths be mine, but they deceive us not;
Our angel's love best proves our spirit's kin.
ASTARTE .
Else whence their inward power? yet though I dwell
Upon Oraziel's words as if my life
Hung on each accent; though I feel the time
A void awaiting him, till hope becomes
Suspense which then is pain, I know our ties
Unhallowed are. Our meetings are perturbed,
From consciousness of mutual erring felt,
Yet I am happier listening to his sighs
Than sharing Irad's joy.
AZOARA .
And dost thou weigh
The mortal with the god? the dull dim spark
Kindled in earthlier natures with the flame
Lighting immortal bosoms?
ASTARTE .
Azoara!
It is the fulness of my heart that speaks,
The consciousness of treasure makes it fear
The end of life is love too soon to pass;
I felt the truth with my first growth. I lived
Among the forms of mutability;
I saw that nature mingled with my being,
The flowers, and clouds, and stars, those flowers of heaven
I felt that all escaped me, each fulfilled
Their duties separate that were not mine;
Each held its incommunicable path
They heard me, but they answered not; I felt
That I was not apportionate of them;
I yearned for human sympathies, for hearts
Responding to my own; but now I feel
Like one who has entrusted life and hope
On an uncertain chance.
AZOARA .
Doubt'st thou Oraziel?
ASTARTE .
We are allied unequally; such ties
Could not endure: hope, doubt, and love, and fear,
The bosom waste that feeds them. When we meet,
I sigh, remembering my mortality;
Feeling the hour must come when he will mourn
The child of dust, forgotten then for ever.
AZOARA .
And in bright Israphil I see a star
Whose immortality I glory in,
And feel that I shall share; my hopes, my joys,
My aspirations, all are wrapt in him;
I dwell on earth without its sympathies.
We are immortal, and we feel our natures.
It is our human weakness to forget,
Unknown to those whose lives one present are.
Aspiring to be as they, we prove
We are allied, and shall rejoin yon stars
That are our heritage.
ASTARTE .
To that faith I cling
Then Irad I shall meet, and smile with him
At earthly sorrows passed like parted dreams.
But, gazing on those orbs so bright, I feel
How all unchangeably they shine; I dare not
Aspire toward their glorious eminence;
My lowlier birth is here, and my heart sinks
With the deep feeling of its nothingness.
AZOARA .
Thou humblest thyself in thine own eyes,
Making our pride humility —
ASTARTE .
Alas!
What have we to be proud of? Our lives are
Not in our keeping, nor our loves; our feelings
Depend not on ourselves, less on our will,
Changing with time and circumstance; our joys
Expire in sighs, and take the tones of grief,
Proving the human source from whence they sprang.
AZOARA .
Behold, they come who shall confirm them! see
The Watcher's light is trembling o'er the peak
Of Hermon, and the Angels even now
Unfold their heavenly wings. Lo! where a trail
Of light parts from yon star like floating mist,
The glory left behind them in their flight.
Wilt thou join me? or wouldst thou rather here
Muse on the waywardness of love?
ASTARTE .
My sister!
A ZOARA ; A STARTE .
AZOARA .
My sister! listening to the Adamite,
In tears? nay, then, his tongue was eloquent,
If unsuccessful.
ASTARTE .
Thy light laugh is vain;
I feel the heart returns to its first love:
I cannot give that love again to Irad;
I dare not take it from another.
AZOARA .
Live,
As Lillah lives with Hammon Toil and spin,
Tend children, flocks, and herds; shut up thy soul
From all communion with the life beyond;
Apportion out thy days, allot each hour
To duties, wants; eat, drink, and sleep, and wed,
Till in the yoke thou diest, life unenjoyed.
ASTARTE .
Are they not happy? is not happiness
Life's end and aim? They walk forth hand in hand
And they are honoured, and, when age steals on them,
Their gathering sons shall prop their slow decline;
They die to be embalmed in memories
Of loving hearts. We love, are loved, by whom?
Immortal beings, ties by earth, man, heaven,
Alike forbidden, most by our own hearts.
Else, wherefore, doth Oraziel's voice in joy
Sound sorrowful?
AZOARA .
Toned by thy nature's fear;
Do I not glory in my seraph-love?
Would I change heavenly destinies for aught
Dull earth could give? What if from human eyes
We hide our meetings? all too lowly they
To comprehend our joy. Prov'st thou it sin,
Our aspiration toward eternal things,
Our natures raised from human to divine,
Above the jealousies and sordid cares,
The apathy and weariness of life?
If they led us astray, their presence here
Had been forbidden; they give lights to us,
Foreshadowing our immortality.
ASTARTE .
I listen even while truth is wanted still.
AZOARA .
And sayest thou rest from toil is happiness?
That feeling of the self-creating soul
From its own heavenly nature, dwelling on
Undying things, until it feels immortal
In limitless desire. Is this a dream?
Such faiths be mine, but they deceive us not;
Our angel's love best proves our spirit's kin.
ASTARTE .
Else whence their inward power? yet though I dwell
Upon Oraziel's words as if my life
Hung on each accent; though I feel the time
A void awaiting him, till hope becomes
Suspense which then is pain, I know our ties
Unhallowed are. Our meetings are perturbed,
From consciousness of mutual erring felt,
Yet I am happier listening to his sighs
Than sharing Irad's joy.
AZOARA .
And dost thou weigh
The mortal with the god? the dull dim spark
Kindled in earthlier natures with the flame
Lighting immortal bosoms?
ASTARTE .
Azoara!
It is the fulness of my heart that speaks,
The consciousness of treasure makes it fear
The end of life is love too soon to pass;
I felt the truth with my first growth. I lived
Among the forms of mutability;
I saw that nature mingled with my being,
The flowers, and clouds, and stars, those flowers of heaven
I felt that all escaped me, each fulfilled
Their duties separate that were not mine;
Each held its incommunicable path
They heard me, but they answered not; I felt
That I was not apportionate of them;
I yearned for human sympathies, for hearts
Responding to my own; but now I feel
Like one who has entrusted life and hope
On an uncertain chance.
AZOARA .
Doubt'st thou Oraziel?
ASTARTE .
We are allied unequally; such ties
Could not endure: hope, doubt, and love, and fear,
The bosom waste that feeds them. When we meet,
I sigh, remembering my mortality;
Feeling the hour must come when he will mourn
The child of dust, forgotten then for ever.
AZOARA .
And in bright Israphil I see a star
Whose immortality I glory in,
And feel that I shall share; my hopes, my joys,
My aspirations, all are wrapt in him;
I dwell on earth without its sympathies.
We are immortal, and we feel our natures.
It is our human weakness to forget,
Unknown to those whose lives one present are.
Aspiring to be as they, we prove
We are allied, and shall rejoin yon stars
That are our heritage.
ASTARTE .
To that faith I cling
Then Irad I shall meet, and smile with him
At earthly sorrows passed like parted dreams.
But, gazing on those orbs so bright, I feel
How all unchangeably they shine; I dare not
Aspire toward their glorious eminence;
My lowlier birth is here, and my heart sinks
With the deep feeling of its nothingness.
AZOARA .
Thou humblest thyself in thine own eyes,
Making our pride humility —
ASTARTE .
Alas!
What have we to be proud of? Our lives are
Not in our keeping, nor our loves; our feelings
Depend not on ourselves, less on our will,
Changing with time and circumstance; our joys
Expire in sighs, and take the tones of grief,
Proving the human source from whence they sprang.
AZOARA .
Behold, they come who shall confirm them! see
The Watcher's light is trembling o'er the peak
Of Hermon, and the Angels even now
Unfold their heavenly wings. Lo! where a trail
Of light parts from yon star like floating mist,
The glory left behind them in their flight.
Wilt thou join me? or wouldst thou rather here
Muse on the waywardness of love?
ASTARTE .
My sister!
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