| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 83. Chorus of Eden Spirits |
| By Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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(Chanting from Paradise, while Adam and Eve fly across the Sword-glare)
HEARKEN, oh hearken! let your souls behind you | |
| Turn, gently moved! | |
| Our voices feel along the Dread to find you, | |
| O lost, beloved! | |
| Through the thick-shielded and strong-marshalled angels, | 5 |
| They press and pierce: | |
| Our requiems follow fast on our evangels,— | |
| Voice throbs in verse. | |
| We are but orphaned spirits left in Eden | |
| A time ago: | 10 |
| God gave us golden cups, and we were bidden | |
| To feed you so. | |
| But now our right hand hath no cup remaining, | |
| No work to do, | |
| The mystic hydromel is spilt, and staining | 15 |
| The whole earth through. | |
| Most ineradicable stains, for showing | |
| (Not interfused!) | |
| That brighter colours were the world’s foregoing, | |
| Than shall be used. | 20 |
| Hearken, oh hearken! ye shall hearken surely | |
| For years and years, | |
| The noise beside you, dripping coldly, purely, | |
| Of spirits’ tears. | |
| The yearning to a beautiful denied you, | 25 |
| Shall strain your powers. | |
| Ideal sweetnesses shall over-glide you, | |
| Resumed from ours. | |
| In all your music, our pathetic minor | |
| Your ears shall cross; | 30 |
| And all good gifts shall mind you of diviner, | |
| With sense of loss. | |
| We shall be near you in your poet-languors | |
| And wild extremes, | |
| What time ye vex the desert with vain angers, | 35 |
| Or mock with dreams. | |
| And when upon you, weary after roaming, | |
| Death’s seal is put, | |
| By the foregone ye shall discern the coming, | |
| Through eyelids shut. | 40 |
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