THE OCCULTATION OF ORION. I SAW, as in a dream sublime, The balance in the hand of Time. And day, with all its hours of light, Was slowly sinking out of sight, While, opposite, the scale of night Like the astrologers of eld, In that bright vision I beheld Greater and deeper mysteries. And through the dewy atmosphere, Its wondrous and harmonious strings, Where, chanting through his beard of snows, Majestic, mournful, Saturn goes, And down the sunless realms of space Reverberates the thunder of his bass. Beneath the sky's triumphal arch This music sounded like a march, And with its chorus seemed to be Preluding some great tragedy. His sword hung gleaming by his side, The golden radiance of its hair. The moon was pallid, but not faint Serenely moving on her way As if she heard the voice of God, Unharmed with naked feet she trod 1 Upon the hot and burning stars, As on the glowing coals and bars That were to prove her strength, and try Her holiness and her purity. Thus moving on, with silent pace, Down fell the red skin of the lion Into the river at his feet. His mighty club no longer beat The forehead of the bull; but he He sought the blacksmith at his forge, Then, through the silence overhead, The reign of violence is o'er ! " And on from sphere to sphere the words "Forevermore, forevermore, The reign of violence is o'er!" |