Of his head thrust 'twixt you and the tempest-all hail, there they are! -Now again to be softened with verdure, again hold the nest Of the dove, tempt the goat and its young to the green on his crest For their food in the ardors of summer. One long shudder thrilled 115 All the tent till the very air tingled, then sank and was stilled At the King's self left standing before me, released and aware. What was gone, what remained? All to traverse 'twixt hope and despair; Death was past, life not come: so he waited. Awhile his right hand Held the brow, helped the eyes left too vacant, forthwith to remand To their place what new objects should enter: 't was Saul as before. I 20 Glean a vintage more potent and perfect to brighten the eye And bring blood to the lip, and commend them the cup they put by? He saith, "It is good;" still he drinks not: he lets me praise life, Gives assent, yet would die for his own part. XII 135 Then fancies grew rife Which had come long ago on the pasture, when round me the sheep Fed in silence-above, the one eagle wheeled slow as in sleep; And I lay in my hollow and mused on the world that might lie 'Neath his ken, though I saw but the strip 'twixt the hill and the sky: And I laughed-"Since my days are ordained to be passed with my flocks, 140 Let me people, at least with my fancies, the plains and the rocks, Dream the life I am never to mix with, and image the show Of mankind as they live in those fashions I hardly shall know! Schemes of life, its best rules and right uses, the courage that gains, And the prudence that keeps what men strive for." And now these old trains Of vague thought came again; I grew surer; so once more the string 146 Of my harp made response to my spirit, as thus XIII "Yea, my King," I began "thou dost well in rejecting mere comforts that spring From the mere mortal life held in common by man and by brute: 150 In our flesh grows the branch of this life, in our soul it bears fruit. Thou hast marked the slow rise of the tree, -how its stem trembled first Till it passed the kid's lip, the stag's antler; then safely outburst The fan-branches all round; and thou mindest when these too, in turn Broke a-bloom and the palm-tree seemed perfect: yet more was to learn, E'en the good that comes in with the palmfruit. Our dates shall we slight, 155 When their juice brings a cure for all sorrow? or care for the plight By the spirit, when age shall o'ercome thee, thou still shalt enjoy More indeed, than at first when inconscious, the life of a boy. Crush that life, and behold its wine run ning! Each deed thou hast done Dies, revives, goes to work in the world; until e'en as the sun Looking down on the earth, though clouds spoil him, though tempests efface, 165 Can find nothing his own deed produced not, must everywhere trace The results of his past summer-prime,so, each ray of thy will, Every flash of thy passion and prowess, long over, shall thrill Thy whole people, the countless, with ardor, till they too give forth 170 A like cheer to their sons; who in turn, fill the South and the North With the radiance thy deed was the germ of. Carouse in the past! But the license of age has its limit; thou diest at last: As the lion when age dims his eyeball, the rose at her height, So with man—so his power and his beauty for ever take flight. No! Again a long draft of my soul-wine! Look forth o'er the years! 175 Thou hast done now with eyes for the actual; begin with the seer's! Is Saul dead? In the depth of the vale make his tomb-bid arise A gray mountain of marble heaped foursquare, till built to the skies, Let it mark where the great First King slumbers: whose fame would ye know? Up above see the rock's naked face, where the record shall go 180 In great characters cut by the scribe, Still be with me, who then at the summit of human endeavor And scaling the highest, man's thought could, gazed hopeless as ever On the new stretch of heaven above metill, mighty to save, Just one lift of thy hand cleared that dis tance-God's throne from man's Let me tell out my tale to its ending-my grave! voice to my heart Which can scarce dare believe in what marvels last night I took part, 200 As this morning I gather the fragments, alone with my sheep, And still fear lest the terrible glory evanish like sleep! For I wake in the gray dewy covert, while Hebron upheaves The dawn struggling with night on his shoulder, and Kidron retrieves Slow the damage of yesterday's sunshine. XV I say then, my song 205 With the sages directing the work, by the While I sang thus, assuring the monarch, Such was Saul, so he did; populace chid, and, ever more strong, Made a proffer of good to console him- I would add, to that life of the past, both he slowly resumed His old motions and habitudes kingly. The right hand replumed His black locks to their wonted composure, adjusted the swathes 210 Of his turban, and see-the huge sweat that his countenance bathes, He wipes off with the robe; and he girds. now his loins as of yore, And feels slow for the armlets of price, with the clasp set before. He is Saul, ye remember in glory,-ere error had bent The brow from the daily communion; and still, though much spent Be the life and the bearing that front you, the same, God did choose, 215 To receive what a man may waste, desecrate, never quite lose. the future and this; I, a work of God's hand for that purpose, received in brain And pronounced on the rest of his handwork-returned him again 240 So sank he along by the tent-prop, till, His creation's approval or censure: I stayed by the pile Of his armor and war-cloak and garments, he leaned there awhile, And sat out my singing,-one arm round the tent-prop, to raise His bent head, and the other hung slacktill I touched on the praise 220 I foresaw from all men in all time, to the man patient there; And thus ended, the harp falling forward. Then first I was 'ware That he sat, as I say, with my head just above his vast knees Which were thrust out on each side around me, like oak roots which please To encircle a lamb when it slumbers. I looked up to know 225 spoke as I saw, I report, as a man may of God's workall's love, yet all's law. Now I lay down the judgeship he lent me. Each faculty tasked To perceive him has gained an abyss, where a dewdrop was asked. Have I knowledge? confounded it shrivels at Wisdom laid bare. 245 I am fain to keep still in abeyance (I laugh as I think) Lest, insisting to claim and parade in it, wot ye, I worst E'en the Giver in one gift.-Behold, I could love if I durst! 260 But I sink the pretension as fearing a man may o'ertake God's own speed in the one way of love: I abstain for love's sake. -What, my soul? see thus far and no farther? when doors great and small, Nine-and-ninety flew ope at our touch, should the hundredth appal? In the least things have faith, yet distrust in the greatest of all? 265 Do I find love so full in my nature, God's ultimate gift, That I doubt his own love can compete with it? Here, the parts shift? Here, the creature surpass the Creator,the end, what Began? Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all for this man, 270 And dare doubt he alone shall not help him, who yet alone can? Would it ever have entered my mind, the bare will, much less power, To bestow on this Saul what I sang of, the marvelous dower Of the life he was gifted and filled with? to make such a soul, Such a body, and then such an earth for insphering the whole? 275 And doth it not enter my mind (as my warm tears attest), These things being given, to go on, and give one more, the best? Ay, to save and redeem and restore him, maintain at the height This perfection, succeed with life's dayspring, death's minute of night? Interpose at the difficult minute, snatch Saul the mistake, Saul the failure, the ruin he seems now, -and bid him awake 280 From the dream, the probation, the prelude, to find himself set Clear and safe in new light and new life, -a new harmony yet To be run and continued, and endedwho knows?-or endure! The man taught enough by life's dream, of the rest to make sure; |