Uriel

    Which the brooding soul surveys

    Or ever the wild Time coin'd itself

    Into calendar months and days.

    This was the lapse¹ of Uriel

    Which in Paradise befell.

    Once among the Pleiads walking

    Sayd overheard the young gods talking；

    And the treason too long pent

    To his ears was evident.

    The young deities² discuss'd

    Laws of form and metre just

    Orb³ quintessence and sunbeams

    What subsisteth and what seems.

    One with low tones that decide

    And doubt and reverend use defied

    With a look that solved the sphere

    And stirr'd the devils everywhere

    Gave his sentiment divine

    Against the being of a line.

    'Line in nature is not found；

    Unit and universe are round；

    In vain produced all rays return；

    Evil will bless and ice will burn.'

    As Uriel spoke⁴ with piercing eye

    A shudder⁵ ran around the sky；

    The stern old war-gods shook their heads；

    The seraphs frown'd from myrtle-beds；

    Seem'd to the holy festival

    The rash word boded⁶ ill to all；

    The balance-beam of Fate was bent⁷；

    The bounds of good and ill were rent；

    Strong Hades could not keep his own

    But all slid to confusion.

    A sad self-knowledge withering⁸ fell

    On the beauty of Uriel；

    In heaven once eminent⁹ the god

    Withdrew that hour into his cloud；

    Whether doom'd to long gyration¹⁰

    In the sea of generation

    Or by knowledge grown too bright

    To hit the nerve of feebler sight.

    Straightway a forgetting wind

    Stole over the celestial¹¹ kind

    And their lips the secret kept

    If in ashes the fire-seed slept.

    But now and then truth-speaking things

    Shamed the angels' veiling wings；

    And shrilling¹² from the solar course

    Or from fruit of chemic force

    Procession of a soul in matter

    Or the speeding change of water

    Or out of the good of evil born

    Came Uriel's voice of cherub¹³ scorn

    And a blush tinged¹⁴ the upper sky

    And the gods shook they knew not why.