She was more beautiful than the pale stars.
AN OLD PEASANT WOMAN
The little plant I love is broken in two.
(ALEEL takes looking-glass from OONA and flings it upon the floor so that it is broken in many pieces.)
ALEEL
I shatter you in fragments, for the face
That brimmed you up with beauty is no more:
And die, dull heart, for she whose mournful words
Made you a living spirit has passed away
And left you but a ball of passionate dust.
And you, proud earth and plumy sea, fade out!
For you may hear no more her faltering feet,
But are left lonely amid the clamorous war
Of angels upon devils.
(He stands up; almost every one is kneeling, but it has grown so dark that only confused forms can be seen.)
And I who weep
Call curses on you, Time and Fate and Change,
And have no excellent hope but the great hour
When you shall plunge headlong through bottomless space.
(A flash of lightning followed immediately by thunder.)
A PEASANT WOMAN