One sheet of flame the bending welkin wrapt,
And a broadside of thunder roared amain.
With mortal strife against a mortal fear,
Hidden, the Roman struggled, not in vain—
As, faltering yet from his feigned gayety,
He, in a forced voice almost grim, went on
With that Lucretian blasphemy of Jove:
"'Why lofty places seeks out Jupiter,
'And why most numerous vestiges find we
'Traced of his fires on lonely mountain-tops?'"
No farther—flash on flash and crash on crash,
Chaos of light and universe of sound!—
For the wind roared a tumult like the sea
Which the gulfs filled between the thunder-peals.
One mighty blast, frantic as battle-charge
When, mad with last despair, ten thousand horse
Headlong into the hell at cannon-mouth
Plunge—such a blast rushed down the rent ravine
Whereby, along a shaggy side, the twain,
Now nigh the utmost mountain summit, climbed.
The glacial air, as in a torrent rolled
Precipitous or vertical sheer down
Some dizzy height in cataract, so swift!
Unhorsed them both; but, crouching, man and steed,
With one wise instinct instantly to all,
Which equalled all—supreme desire of life—
They huddling crept transverse to where a rock
On their right hand lifted its moveless brow
And, safely founded in the mountain's base,
Made, leaning, an impendent roof which now
Proffered a dreadful shelter from the storm.
Hardly this refuge gained, the tempest, loosed,
Hailstones and coals of fire commingled, fell.
The wind, with such a weight oppressed, went down,
And, with the sinking wind, a water-spout,
Whirled roaring in its spiral from on high,
Those watchers saw peel off, with one steep swoop
Descending, a whole mountain-top and roll
Its shattered forest into the ravine
Suddenly thus with foaming torrent filled.
Therewith, as weary were the storm, a lull;
Lull only, for the welkin seemed to sink
Collapsed about them, and what was the sky
Became the nether atmosphere on fire,
Enrobing them with lightning fold on fold
And thunder detonating at their ears.
Sergius, ere shut had seared his eyes the glare,
Saw a gigantic cedar nigh at hand,
Under a flaming wedge of thunderbolt,
Riven in parted halves from head to foot,
Fall burning down the frightful precipice.
Spite of himself, his terror turned to prayer:
"O Jupiter," he said, "it was not meant,
What I spoke late against thy majesty!
Spare me yet this once more, and I a vow,
A pledged rich vow, will in thy temple hang,
Then when I first shall safe reach Rome, inscribed
'From Sergius Paulus to King Jupiter,
Lord of the lightning and the thunderbolt.'"
"'Give ye unto Jehovah,'" so at last,
Fragments of psalm responsive to the storm—
As in antiphony of worship joined,
He and the elements!—chanting, Saul burst forth,
At intervals, between the swells of sound,
And varying to the tempest's varying phase,
"'Give ye unto Jehovah, lo, all ye
'Sons of the mighty, to Jehovah give
'Glory and strength; unto Jehovah give
'The equal glory due unto His name;
'Worship Jehovah in fair robes of praise!'"
"'Deep calleth unto deep at the dread noise
'Made by Thy waterspouts. The earth, it shook
'And trembled; the foundations of the hills
'Moved and were shaken for that He was wroth.
'The heavens moreover bowed He, and came down,
'He His pavilion round about Him made
'Dark waters and the thick clouds of the skies.
"'Jehovah also thundered in the heavens,
'And therein the Most High gave forth His voice,
'Hailstones and coals of fire!
"'Jehovah's voice
'In power!
"'Jehovah's voice in majesty!
"'Jehovah's voice is on the waters! God,
'The God of glory thunders!
"'Lo, His voice,
'Jehovah's voice, the mighty cedar breaks,
'Jehovah's voice divides the flames of fire!
"'Praise ye Jehovah, heavens of heavens, and ye
'Waters that be above the heavens, Him praise!
'Praise ye Jehovah, from the earth beneath,
'Thou fire, thou hail, thou snow, and vapors ye,
'Thou, stormy wind that dost fulfil His word!'"
So Saul, in dialogue with the elements,
That heard him, and responded voice for voice.
Sublimity into sublimity
Other, immeasurable heights more high,
Was lifted and transformed, the terror gone,
Gone or exalted to ennobling awe—
In converse such, God, with His image man!
The thunder, and the lightning, and the hail
Falling in power, the pomp of moving clouds,
The sound of torrent and of cataract,
The multitudinous orchestra of winds—
Trumpet and pipe, resounding cymbal loud,
Timbrel and harp, sackbut and psaltery—
The majesty of cedars prostrate strewn
In utmost adoration, the veiled sun,
The kneeling heavens, face downward on the earth,
In act of penitence as found unclean
By the white-burning holiness of God—
All this wild gesture of the elements
And deep convulsion of the frame of things,
Appalling only erst, interpreted
By interjections such from Saul of phrase
Inspired, seemed from confusion and turmoil
Transposed and harmonized to an august
Service and symphony of prayer and praise
And solemn liturgy of the universe.