The Dream of Gerontius (part 2 of 7)

The Dream of Gerontius

(Excerpt from a newly published combined work available here)


Chapter 2 

Soul of Gerontius (HereafterSoul)

I went to sleep; and now I am refresh'd,

A strange refreshment: for I feel in me

An inexpressive lightness, and a sense

Of freedom, as I were at length myself,

And ne'er had been before. How still it is!

I hear no more the busy beat of time,

No, nor my fluttering breath, nor struggling pulse;           

Nor does one moment differ from the next.

I had a dream; yes:—some one softly said

"He's gone;" and then a sigh went round the

     room.

And then I surely heard a priestly voice

Cry “Subvenite;" and they knelt in prayer.

I seem to hear him still; but thin and low,

And fainter and more faint the accents come,

As at an ever-widening interval.

Ah ! whence is this? What is this severance?

This silence pours a solitariness

Into the very essence of my soul;

And the deep rest, so soothing and so sweet,

Hath something too of sternness and of pain.

For it drives back my thoughts upon their spring

By a strange introversion, and perforce

I now begin to feed upon myself,

Because I have nought else to feed upon.—

 

Am I alive or dead? I am not dead,

But in the body still; for I possess

A sort of confidence which clings to me,

That each particular organ holds its place

As heretofore, combining with the rest

Into one symmetry, that wraps me round,

And makes me man; and surely I could move,

Did I but will it, every part of me.

And yet I cannot to my sense bring home

By very trial, that I have the power.

'Tis strange; I cannot stir a hand or foot,

I cannot make my fingers or my lips

By mutual pressure witness each to each,

Nor by the eyelid's instantaneous stroke

Assure myself I have a body still.

Nor do I know my very attitude,

Nor if I stand, or lie, or sit, or kneel.

 

So much I know, not knowing how I know,

That the vast universe, where I have dwelt,

Is quitting me, or I am quitting it.

Or I or it is rushing on the wings

Of light or lightning on an onward course,

And we e'en now are million miles apart.

Yet ... is this peremptory severance

Wrought out in lengthening measurements of space

Which grow and multiply by speed and time?

Or am I traversing infinity

By endless subdivision, hurrying back

From finite towards infinitesimal,

Thus dying out of the expansive world?

 

Another marvel: some one has me fast

Within his ample palm; 'tis not a grasp

Such as they use on earth, but all around

Over the surface of my subtle being,

As though I were a sphere, and capable

To be accosted thus, a uniform

And gentle pressure tells me I am not

Self-moving, but borne forward on my way.

And hark! I hear a singing; yet in sooth

I cannot of that music rightly say

Whether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones.

Oh, what a heart-subduing melody!

 

Angel

                         My work is done,

                             My task is o'er,

                                    And so I come, 

                                    Taking it home,

                         For the crown is won,

                                    Alleluia,

                         For evermore.

 

                         My Father gave

                             In charge to me

                                    This child of earth

                                    E'en from its birth,

                         To serve and save,

                                    Alleluia,

                         And saved is he.

 

                         This child of clay

                             To me was given,

                                    To rear and train

                                    By sorrow and pain

                         In the narrow way,

                                    Alleluia,

                         From earth to heaven.

 

Soul

It is a member of that family

Of wondrous beings, who, ere the worlds were

     made,

Millions of ages back, have stood around

The throne of God:—he never has known sin

But through those cycles all but infinite,

Has had a strong and pure celestial life,

And bore to gaze on the unveil'd face of God,

And drank from the everlasting Fount of truth,

And served Him with a keen ecstatic love.

Hark! he begins again.

 

Angel

O Lord, how wonderful in depth and height,

      But most in man, how wonderful Thou art!

With what a love, what soft persuasive might

      Victorious o'er the stubborn fleshly heart,

   Thy tale complete of saints Thou dost provide,

   To fill the thrones which angels lost through pride!

 

He lay a grovelling babe upon the ground,

      Polluted in the blood of his first sire,

With his whole essence shatter'd and unsound,

      And coil'd around his heart a demon dire,

   Which was not of his nature, but had skill

   To bind and form his op'ning mind to ill.

 

Then was I sent from heaven to set right

      The balance in his soul of truth and sin,

And I have waged a long relentless fight,

      Resolved that death-environ'd spirit to win,

   Which from its fallen state, when all was lost,

   Had been repurchased at so dread a cost.

 

Oh, what a shifting parti-colour'd scene

      Of hope and fear, of triumph and dismay,

Of recklessness and penitence, has been

      The history of that dreary, life-long fray!

   And oh, the grace to nerve him and to lead,

   How patient, prompt, and lavish at his need!

 

O man, strange composite of heaven and earth!

      Majesty dwarf'd to baseness! fragrant flower

Running to poisonous seed! and seeming worth

      Cloking corruption! weakness mastering power!

   Who never art so near to crime and shame,

   As when thou hast achieved some deed of name;—

 

How should ethereal natures comprehend

      A thing made up of spirit and of clay,

Were we not task'd to nurse it and to tend,

      Link'd one to one throughout its mortal day?

   More than the Seraph in his height of place,

   The Angel-guardian knows and loves the ran-

          som'd race.

 

Soul

Now know I surely that I am at length

Out of the body; had I part with earth,

I never could have drunk those accents in,

And not have worshipp'd as a god the voice

That was so musical; but now I am

So whole of heart, so calm, so self-possess'd,

With such a full content, and with a sense

So apprehensive and discriminant,

As no temptation can intoxicate.

Nor have I even terror at the thought

That I am clasp'd by such a saintliness.

 

Angel

All praise to Him, at whose sublime decree

      The last are first, the first become the last;

By whom the suppliant prisoner is set free,

      By whom proud first-borns from their thrones

            are cast;

Who raises Mary to be Queen of heaven,

While Lucifer is left, condemn'd and unforgiven.. . .

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Cameron ThompsonComment