EVE SPEAKS
by: Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977)
I
- AUSE,
God, and ponder, ere Thou judgest me.
- Though it be doomsday, and the trampling winds
- Rush blindly through the stark and cowering skies,
- Bearing Thy fearful mandate like a sword,
- I do not tremble, . . . I am unafraid.
- Though the red flame of wrath lick up the worlds,
- And dizzy stars fall in a golden rain;
- Though, in an agonizing fear of life,
- The summoned spirits, torn from gentle graves,
- Whirl at Thy feet or fly before a scornful breeze,
- I do not fly, . . . my soul is unafraid.
-
- Years have swept over me and in the wash
- Of foaming centuries have been forgot.
- Yet still my soul remembers Paradise,
- That perfect echo of Thy gentler mood.
- Wrapped in a drowsy luxury we lived,
- Beauty our food and idleness our pillow.
- Day after day, we walked beneath Thy smile;
- And, as we wandered through the glittering hours,
- Our souls unfolding with the friendly earth,
- Eden grew lovelier to our eager eyes.
- With every step a clump of trees, a star,
- An undiscovered flower, a hill, a cry,
- A new wild sunset or a wilder bird,
- Entered our lives and grew a part of us.
- Lord, there was naught but happiness -- and yet,
- Though Adam gloried in the world's content,
- And sunned himself in rich complacency,
- The thought that there was something more than joy,
- Beyond all beauty, greater than singing peace
- And tranquil happiness, vexed all my hours.
- Here in a garden, without taint or care,
- We played like children, we who were not children.
- Swaddled with ease, lulled with Thy softest dreams,
- We lived in perfect calm -- who were not perfect. . . .
- Eden was made for angels -- not for Man.
- Often the thought of this would come to me
- When Adam's songs seemed empty of all mirth;
- When he grew moody and the reckless fire
- Leaped in his eyes and died; or when I saw
- Him lying at my side, his brawny arms
- Knotted with strength, his bosom deep and broad,
- His hands tight-clenched, his mouth firm, even in sleep.
- Here was a body made to build and dare;
- Here was a brain designed to dream and mould--
- To waste such energy on such a life!
- I could not think it. Seeing him, I knew
- Man made for Eden only -- not for more --
- Was made in vain. . . . I clamed my Adam, God;
- Claimed him for fiercer things and lustier worlds,
- Immoderate measures, insolent desires;
- Claimed him for great and strengthening defeats.
- He was but one of many things to Thee--
- A cunning lump of clay, a sentient clod--
- One of a universe of miracles.
- Each day a fresh creation was to Thee;
- Thou hadst infinity to shape and guard--
- I only Adam.
-
- Lying awake one night beneath the Tree,
- I heard him sighing in a fitful sleep.
- A cold, disdainful moon mocked my unrest,
- A night-bird circled out beyond the wood.
- Never did Eden seem so much a prison--
- Past the great gates I glimpsed the unknown world,
- Lying unfettered in majestic night.
- I saw the broadening stream hold out its arms,
- The proud hills called me and the lure
- Of things unheard, unguessed at, caught my soul.
- Adam was made for this -- and this for him.
- The peace of Eden grew intolerable.
- Better the bold uncertainty of toil,
- The granite scorn of the experienced world,
- And failure upon failure; better these
- Than this enforced and rotting indolence.
- Adam should know his godhood; he should feel
- The weariness of work, and pride of it;
- The labor of creation, and its joy.
- His hands should rear the dream, his sinews think;
- And, in a rush of liberated power,
- He should rend and tame, and wrest its secret from
- The sweating, energetic earth; his frame should thrill
- With every keen, courageous enterprise,
- Until his rude and stumbling soul could grasp
- Conquering and unconquerable joys.
- So should his purpose tower to the stars;
- Face, without fear, contemptuous centuries;
- Meet the astonished heavens with a laugh,
- And answer God with God's own words and deeds.
-
- One thing alone would give all this to him,
- One thing would cleave the sealed and stubborn rocks,
- Harness the winds, curb the unbridled seas--
- Knowledge, the force and shaper of the world. . . .
- And so I knew that we should eat -- and learn.
-
- II
-
- Into the world we went, Adam and I,
- Bound by a new and strange companionship.
- For in the battle with a hostile earth
- His were the victories, mine were all defeats.
- His was the lust of doing -- a furrow tilled;
- A wily beast ensnared, a flint well turned;
- A headlong chase, a hut or trap well built;
- The joy of things accomplished Adam knew.
- Was there a hunt -- there was a feast for him;
- Was there a harvest -- there was rest thereafter;
- Was Adam hurt -- there was my soothing care;
- Was Adam tired -- there were my lips and arms.
- Aye, Lord, though I cried out against this thing
- That made me Adam's servant, not his mate,
- Yet was it just, for into endless strife
- My will had plunged him; therefore all the years
- I tended, comforted, encouraged him
- With prayers and quickening passion, till he knew
- The dazzling, harsh divinity of love. . . .
- God, thou did'st make a creature out of dust,
- But I created Man. . . . I was to him
- A breast, soft shoulders, an impelling brain;
- I was his spur, his shield, his stirrup-cup;
- I was his child, his strumpet, and his wife.
- A world of women have I been to him,
- To him and all the myriad sons of Adam.
- And all that they remember is my shame!
- All times by all men have I been betrayed--
- They have belittled and disgraced my deed
- That made them seek until they found themselves;
- Have turned my very purposes against me,
- Knowing not that I help them unawares.
- Yea, I have driven them -- that they too might drive;
- Have held their chains -- that I might set them free;
- Have ruled and urged them with a hardened hand,
- That they might find the stony world less hard.
- And what was my reward when they had won--
- Freedom that I had bought with torturing bonds?
- Faith that is stronger than the iron years?
- Love with a warmth that heals as well as burns?
- Or comradeship, the golden hour of love,
- Clean as the candid gaze of stars and children?
- Such things were not my portion. Gibes and taunts,
- Mixed with the pity of a tolerant lord;
- My name, turned to base uses, made to serve
- A twisted symbol and a mockery.
- Or I was given in some more amorous mood,
- A brief endearment or an easy smile;
- A jewel, perhaps an hour of casual love--
- These were the precious coin in which they paid.
- And thus, to either concubine or wife,
- They eased their conscience -- and their throbbing lust.
- They stormed through countries brandishing their deeds,
- Boasting their gross and transient mastery
- To girls, who listened with indulgent ears
- And laughing hearts. . . . Lord, they were ever blind--
- Women have they known, but never Woman.
-
- God, when the rosy world first learned to crawl
- About the floor of heaven, wert Thou not proud!
- Though Thou has planned a heaven of suns to swing
- About Thy skies, like censers whirling praise;
- Though Thou hast made immense and sterile space
- Busy with life, a deathless miracle;
- And now hast gathered up eternity,
- Rolling it in the hollow of Thy hand,--
- Was there one sudden thrill in all of time
- As keen as that fierce tugging at Thy heart,
- When first the new-born world was held by Thee
- Close to Thy breast to feel its small heart beat?
- Not all the fervor of ten million springs
- Moved Thee so much, because it was so weak.
- Errant and spoiled, untamed and contrary,
- Thou sawest it grow, in fear no less than pride.
- It was Thy dearest child, Thy favorite star.
- God, so it was with Adam -- he was mine.
- Mine to protect, to nurture, to impel;
- My lord and lover, yes, but first my child.
- Man remains Man, but Woman is the Mother.
- There is no mystery she dared not read;
- No fearful fruit can grow but she must taste;
- No secret knowledge can be held from her;
- For she must learn all things that she may teach.
-
- How wilt Thou judge me then, who am, like Thee,
- Creator, shaper of men's destinies?
- Nay more, I made their purpose vaster still.
- Thou would'st have left them in a torpid Eden--
- I sent them out to grapple with the world!
- I give Thee back Thy planet now, O God,
- An earth made strong by disobedience;
- Resplendent, built with fire and furious dreams.
- A world no angel host could hope to shape;
- Invulnerable, spacious, and erect.
- Not a vast garden rich with futile charm;
- But streaming continents and crowded seas,
- Extravagant cities, marshalled mountain-chains,
- And every windy corner of the air
- Filled with the excellent enterprise of man.
- A world both promise and fulfilment -- see
- Men's thoughts translated into light and towers;
- Visions uplifted into stone and steel;
- Labor and life -- a seething hymn of praise.
- This is Thy clamorous and thundering clay;
- This, Thy created, groping world -- and mine.
-
- Pause, God, and ponder ere Thou judgest me.
"Eve Speaks" is reprinted
from Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1916. Ed. William
Stanley Braithwaite. New York: Laurence J. Gomme, 1916. |
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POEMS BY LOUIS UNTERMEYER |
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