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No, not to save all earth, were earth in peril! Our race hath always dwelt apart from thine From the beginning, and shall do so ever. 661 Japh. I did not speak to thee, Aholibamah! Too much of the forefather whom thou vauntest

Has come down in that haughty blood which springs

From him who shed the first, and that a brother's!

But thou, my Anah! let me call thee mine, Albeit thou art not; 't is a word I cannot Part with, although I must from thee. My Anah !

Thou who dost rather make me dream that Abel 669

Had left a daughter, whose pure pious race Survived in thee, so much unlike thou art The rest of the stern Cainites, save in beauty, For all of them are fairest in their favour Aho. (interrupting him). And wouldst

thou have her like our father's foe In mind, in soul? If I partook thy thought, And dream'd that aught of Abel was in her!

Get thee hence, son of Noah; thou makest strife.

Japh. Offspring of Cain, thy father did so!

Aho.

But

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Shaken my sister? Are we not the loved Of seraphs? and if we were not, must we Cling to a son of Noah for our lives? Rather than thus But the enthusiast dreams

The worst of dreams, the fantasies engender'd

By hopeless love and heated vigils. Who Shall shake these solid mountains, this firm earth,

And bid those clouds and waters take a

shape

Distinct from that which we and all our

sires

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Our doom is sorrow: not to us alone,
But to the spirits who have not disdain'd
To love us, cometh anguish with disgrace.
The first who taught us knowledge hath
been hurl'd

From his once archangelic throne
Into some unknown world:

And thou, Azaziel! No-
Thou shalt not suffer woe

For me. Away! nor weep!
Thou canst not weep; but yet

May'st suffer more, not weeping: then forget

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Her, whom the surges of the all-strangling deep

Can bring no pang like this. Fly! fly! Being gone, 't will be less difficult to die. Japh. Oh say not so!

Father! and thou, archangel, thou! Surely celestial mercy lurks below That pure severe serenity of brow:

Let them not meet this sea without a shore, Save in our ark, or let me be no more!

Noah. Peace, child of passion, peace! 950 If not within thy heart, yet with thy tongue Do God no wrong!

Live as he wills it- die, when he ordains,
A righteous death, unlike the seed of Cain's.
Cease, or be sorrowful in silence; cease
To weary Heaven's ear with thy selfish

plaint.

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Japh. Ay, father! but when they are gone, And we are alone,

Floating upon the azure desert, and The depth beneath us hides our own dear land,

And dearer, silent friends and brethren, all

Buried in its immeasurable breast, Who, who, our tears, our shrieks, shall then command?

Can we in desolation's peace have rest?
Oh God! be thou a God, and spare 970
Yet while 't is time!
Renew not Adam's fall:
Mankind were then but twain,

But they are numerous now as are the waves
And the tremendous rain,

Whose drops shall be less thick than would their graves,

Were graves permitted to the seed of Cain.

Noah. Silence, vain boy! each word of thine 's a crime.

Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair. Raph. Seraphs! these mortals speak in passion: Ye!

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Who are, or should be, passionless and pure, May now return with me.

Sam.

It may not be: We have chosen, and will endure. Raph. Say'st thou ?

Aza. He hath said it, and I say, Amen! Raph. Again!

Then from this hour,

Shorn as ye are of all celestial power,
And aliens from your God,

Farewell!

989 Japh. Alas! where shall they dwell? Hark, hark! Deep sounds, and deeper still, Are howling from the mountain's bosom: There's not a breath of wind upon the hill, Yet quivers every leaf, and drops each

blossom:

Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.
Noah. Hark, hark! the sea-birds cry!
In clouds they overspread the lurid sky,
And hover round the mountain, where be-
fore

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He riseth, but his better light is gone; And a black circle, bound

His glaring disk around,

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Proclaims earth's last of summer days hath shone !

The clouds return into the hues of night, Save where their brazen-colour'd edges streak

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