{"id":3443,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3443"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:34","slug":"12-book-two-canto-seven-vol-03-savitri-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/01-savitri\/03-savitri-1954\/12-book-two-canto-seven-vol-03-savitri-1954","title":{"rendered":"-12_Book_Two_Canto_Seven.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n

\n

<\/p>\n

CANTO SEVEN<\/b><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nTHE DESCENT INTO NIGHT<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A<\/font> MIND<\/font><\/b><\/span> absolved from life, made calm to know,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA heart divorced from the blindness and the pang,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe seal of tears, the bond of ignorance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe turned to find that wide world-failure’s cause.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAway he looked from Nature’s visible face<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd sent his gaze into the viewless Vast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe formidable unknown Infinity, ,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAsleep behind the endless coil of things,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat carries the universe in its timeless breadths<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the ripples of its being are our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe worlds are built by its unconscious Breath<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd Matter and Mind are its figures or its powers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOur waking thoughts the output of its dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe veil was rent that covers Nature’s depths:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He saw the fount of the world’s lasting pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the mouth of the black pit of Ignorance;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The evil guarded at the roots of life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRaised up its head and looked into his eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn a dim bank where dies subjective Space,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom a stark ridge overlooking all that is,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA tenebrous awakened Nescience,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer wide blank eyes wondering at Time and Form,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 229<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Stared at the inventions of the living Void<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the Abyss whence our beginnings rose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBehind appeared a grey carved mask of Night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWatching the birth of all created things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA hidden Puissance conscious of its force,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA vague and lurking Presence everywhere,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA contrary Doom that threatens all things made,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA Death figuring as the dark seed of life,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSeemed to engender and to slay the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen from the sombre mystery of the gulfs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd from the hollow bosom of the Mask<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSomething crept forth that seemed a shapeless Thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA fatal Influence upon creatures stole<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhose lethal touch pursued the immortal spirit,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn life was laid the haunting finger of Death<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd overcast with error, grief and pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul’s native will for truth and joy and light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA deformation coiled that claimed to be<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe being’s very turn. Nature’s true drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA hostile and perverting Mind at work<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn every corner ensconced of conscious life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCorrupted Truth with her own formulas,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInterceptor of the listening of the soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAfflicting knowledge with the hue of doubt<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt captured the oracles of the occult gods,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEffaced the signposts of Life’s pilgrimage,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCancelled the firm rock-edicts graved by Time,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd on the foundations of the cosmic Law<\/span><\/p>\n

\nErected its bronze pylons of misrule.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven Light and Love by that cloaked danger’s spell<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTurned from the brilliant nature of the gods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo fallen angels and misleading suns,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 230<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Became -themselves a danger and a charm,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A perverse sweetness, heaven-born malefice:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Its power could deform divinest things.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A wind of sorrow breathed upon the world;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All thought with falsehood was besieged, all act<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Stamped with defect or with frustration’s sign,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All high attempt with failure or vain success,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But none could know the reason of his fall.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The grey Mask whispered and though no sound was heard,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Yet in the ignorant heart a seed was sown<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That bore black fruit of suffering, death and bale.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Out of the chill steppes of a bleak Unseen<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Invisible, wearing the Night’s grey mask,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Arrived the shadowy dreadful messengers,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Invaders from a dangerous world of power,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Ambassadors of evil’s absolute.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In silence the inaudible voices spoke,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Hands that none saw planted the fatal grain,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo form was seen, yet a dire work was done,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn iron decree in crooked uncials written<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImposed a law of sin and adverse fate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLife looked at him with changed and sombre eyes:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her beauty he saw and the yearning heart in things<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat with a little happiness is content,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnswering to a small ray of truth or love;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He saw her gold sunlight and her far blue sky,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer green of leaves and hue and scent of flowers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the charm of children and the love of friends<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the beauty of women and kindly hearts of men,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut saw too the dreadful Powers that drive her moods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd me anguish she has strewn upon her ways,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPate waiting on the unseen steps of men<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 231<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

And her evil and sorrow and last gift of death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA breath of disillusion and decadence<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCorrupting watched for Life’s maturity<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd made to rot the full grain of the soul:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Progress became a purveyor of Death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA world that clung to the law of a slain Light<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCherished the putrid corpses of dead truths,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHailed twisted forms as things free, new and true,
\nBeauty from ugliness and evil drank<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFeeling themselves guests at a banquet of the gods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd tasted corruption like a high-spiced food.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA darkness settled on the heavy air;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It hunted the bright smile from Nature’s lips<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd slew the native confidence in her heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd put fear’s crooked look into her eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe lust that warps the spirit’s natural good<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReplaced by a manufactured virtue and vice<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe frank spontaneous impulse of the soul:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Afflicting Nature with the dual’s lie,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir twin values whetted a forbidden zest,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMade evil a relief from spurious good,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe ego battened on righteousness and sin<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd each became an instrument of Hell.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn rejected heaps by a monotonous road<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe old simple delights were left to lie<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn the wasteland of life’s descent to Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll glory of life dimmed tarnished into a doubt,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll beauty ended in an aging face,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll power was dubbed a tyranny cursed by God<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd Truth a fiction needed by the mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe chase of joy was now a tired hunt;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAll knowledge was left a questioning Ignorance.<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 232<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

As from a womb obscure
\nhe saw emerge <\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe body and visage of a dark Unseen<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHidden behind the fair outside of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts dangerous commerce is our suffering’s cause.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts breath is a subtle poison in men’s hearts;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

All evil starts from that ambiguous face.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA peril haunted now the common air;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The world grew full of menacing Energies,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd wherever turned for help or hope his eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn field and house, in street and camp and mart,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe met the prowl and stealthy come and go<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf armed disquieting bodied Influences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA march of goddess figures dark and nude<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlarmed the air with grandiose unease;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Appalling footsteps drew invisibly near,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShapes that were threats invaded the dream-light,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd ominous beings passed him on the road<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhose very gaze was a calamity:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A charm and sweetness sudden and formidable,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Faces that raised alluring lips and eyes<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Approached him armed with beauty like a snare, –<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But hid a fatal meaning in each line<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And could in a moment dangerously change.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But he alone discerned that screened attack.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A veil upon the inner vision lay,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A force was there that hid its dreadful steps;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All was belied, yet thought itself the truth;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All were beset but knew not of the siege:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

For none could see the authors of their fall.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Aware of some dark wisdom still withheld<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat was the seal and warrant of this strength,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe followed the track of dim tremendous steps<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 233<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Returning to the night from which they came.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA tract he reached unbuilt and owned by none:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

There all could enter but none stay for long.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt was a no-man’s-land of evil air,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA crowded neighbourhood without one home,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA borderland between the world and hell.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere unreality was Nature’s lord:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It was a space where nothing could be true,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor nothing was what it had claimed to be:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A high appearance wrapped a spacious void.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet nothing would confess its own pretence<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven to itself in the ambiguous heart:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A vast deception was the law of things;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Only by that deception they could live.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An unsubstantial Nihil guaranteed<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe falsehood of the forms this Nature took<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd made them seem awhile to be and live.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nA borrowed magic drew them from the Void,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThey took a shape and stuff that was not theirs<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd showed a colour that they could not keep,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Mirrors to a fantasm of reality.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Each rainbow brilliance was a splendid lie,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A beauty unreal graced a glamour face.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Nothing could be relied on to remain:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Joy nurtured tears and good an evil proved,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut never out of evil one plucked good:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Love ended early in hate, delight killed with pain,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTruth into falsity grew and death ruled life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA Power that laughed at the mischief of the world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn irony that joined the world’s contraries<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd flung them into each other’s arms to strive,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPut a sardonic rictus on God’s face.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 234<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Aloof, its influence entered everywhere<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd left a cloven hoof-mark on the breast;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A twisted heart and a strange sombre smile<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMocked at the sinister comedy of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnnouncing the advent of a perilous Form<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn ominous tread softened its dire footfall<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat none might understand or be on guard;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

None heard until a dreadful grasp was close.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr else all augured a divine approach,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn air of prophecy felt, a heavenly hope,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nListened for a gospel, watched for a new star.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Fiend was visible, but cloaked in light;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He seemed a helping angel from the skies:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He armed untruth with Scripture and the Law;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He deceived with wisdom, with virtue slew the soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd led to perdition by the heavenward path.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA lavish sense he gave of power and joy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd when arose the warning from within,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe reassured the ear with dulcet tones,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr took the mind captive in its own net;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

His rigorous logic made the false seem true.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmazing the elect with holy lore<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe spoke as with the very voice of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe air was full of treachery and ruse;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Truth-speaking was a stratagem in that place;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Ambush lurked in a smile and peril made<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSafety its cover, trust its entry’s gate:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Falsehood came laughing with the eyes of truth;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Each friend might turn an enemy or spy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe hand one clasped ensleeved a dagger’s stab<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd an embrace could be Doom’s iron cage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAgony and danger stalked their trembling prey<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 235<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And-softly spoke as to a timid friend:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Attack sprang suddenly vehement and unseen;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Fear leaped upon the heart at every turn<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd cried out with an anguished dreadful voice;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It called for one to save but none came near.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll warily walked, for death was ever close;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Yet caution seemed a vain expense of care,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor all that guarded proved a deadly net,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd when after long suspense salvation came<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd brought a glad relief disarming strength,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt served as a smiling passage to worse fate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was no truce and no safe place to rest;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

One dared not slumber or put off one’s arms:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It was a world of battle and surprise.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All who were there lived for themselves alone;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

All warred against all, but with a common hate<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTurned on the mind that sought some higher good;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Truth was exiled lest she should dare to speak<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd hurt the heart of darkness with her light<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr bring her pride of knowledge to blaspheme<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe settled anarchy of established things.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Then the scene changed, but kept its dreadful core:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Altering its form the life remained the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA capital was there without a State:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It had no ruler, only groups that strove.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe saw a city of ancient Ignorance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFounded upon a soil that knew not Light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere each in his own darkness walked alone;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Only they agreed to differ in Evil’s paths,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo live in their own way for their own selves<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr to enforce a common lie and wrong;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 236<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

There Ego was lord upon his peacock seat<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd falsehood sat by him, his mate and queen:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The world turned to them as Heaven to Truth and God.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Injustice justified by firm decrees<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The sovereign weights of Error’s legalised trade,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But all the weights were false and none the same;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Ever she watched with her balance and a sword<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lest any sacrilegious word expose<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The sanctified formulas of her old misrule.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In high professions wrapped self-will walked wide<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And licence stalked prating of order and right:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There was no altar raised to Liberty;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

True freedom was abhorred and hunted down:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Harmony and tolerance nowhere could be seen;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Each group proclaimed its dire and naked Law.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA frame of ethics knobbed with scriptural rules<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr a theory passionately believed and praised<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA table seemed of high Heaven’s sacred code.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA formal practice mailed and iron-shod<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGave to a rude and ruthless warrior kind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDrawn from the savage bowels of the earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA proud stern poise of harsh nobility,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA civic posture rigid and formidable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut all their private acts belied the pose:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Power and utility were their Truth and Right,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn eagle rapacity clawed its coveted good,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBeaks pecked and talons tore all weaker prey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn their sweet secrecy of pleasant sins<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNature they obeyed and not a moralist God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInconscient traders in bundles of contraries,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey did what in others they would persecute;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

When their eyes looked upon their fellow’s vice,<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 237<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An indignation flamed, a virtuous wrath;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA pragmatist judge within passed false decrees,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPosed worst iniquities on equity’s base,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReasoned ill actions just, sanctioned the scale<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf the merchant ego’s interest and desire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThus was a balance kept, the world could live.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA zealot fervour pushed their ruthless cults,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll faith not theirs bled scourged as heresy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey questioned, captived, tortured, burned or smote<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd forced the soul to abandon right or die.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmid her clashing creeds and warring sects –<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReligion sat upon a blood-stained throne.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA hundred tyrannies oppressed and slew<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd founded unity upon fraud and force.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly what seemed was prized as real there:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The ideal was a cynic ridicule’s butt:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hooted by the crowd, mocked by enlightened wits,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Spiritual seeking wandered outcasted,\u2014<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A dreamer’s self-deceiving web of thought<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Or mad chimera deemed or hypocrite’s fake,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nIts passionate instinct trailed through minds obscure<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lost in the circuits of the Ignorance.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A lie was there the truth and truth a lie.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Here must the traveller of the upward way\u2014<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

For daring Hell’s kingdoms winds the heavenly route\u2014<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPause or pass slowly through that perilous space,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A prayer upon his lips and the great Name.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nIf probed not all discernment’s keen spear-point,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He might stumble into falsity’s endless net.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Over his shoulder often he must look back<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 238<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Like one who feels on his neck an enemy’s breath;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Else stealing up behind a treasonous blow<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlight prostrate cast and pin to unholy soil,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPierced through his back by Evil’s poignant stake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo might one fall on the Eternal’s road<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForfeiting the spirit’s lonely chance in Time<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd no news of him reach the waiting gods,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMarked "missing" in the register of souls,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis name the index of a failing hope,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe position of a dead remembered star.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly were safe who kept God in their hearts:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Courage their armour, faith their sword, they must walk,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The hand ready to smite, the eye to scout,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Casting a javelin regard in front,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Heroes and soldiers of the army of Light.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hardly even so, the grisly danger past,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Released into a calmer purer air,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

They dared at length to breathe and smile once more.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Once more they moved beneath a real sun.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Though Hell claimed rule, the spirit still had power.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This No-man’s-land he passed without debate;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Him the heights missioned, him the Abyss desired:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

None stood across his way, no voice forbade.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

For swift and easy is the downward path,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And now towards the Night was turned his face.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nA greater darkness waited, a worse reign,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf worse can be where all is evil’s extreme;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Yet to the cloaked the uncloaked is naked worst.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere God and Truth and the supernal Light<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad never been or else had power no more.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs when one slips in a deep moment’s trance<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 239<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Over mind’s border into another world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe crossed a boundary whose stealthy trace<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEye could not see but only the soul feel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto an armoured fierce domain he came<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd saw himself wandering like a lost soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmid grimed walls and savage slums of Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAround him crowded grey and squalid huts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNeighbouring proud palaces of perverted Power,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInhuman quarters and demoniac wards.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA pride in evil hugged its wretchedness;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A misery haunting splendour pressed those fell<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Dun suburbs of the cities of dream-life.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There Life displayed to the spectator soul<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The shadow depths of her strange miracle.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A strong and fallen goddess without hope,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nObscured, deformed by some dire Gorgon spell,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As might a harlot empress in a bouge,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Nude, unashamed, exulting she upraised<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her evil face of perilous beauty and charm<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And, drawing panic to a shuddering kiss<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Twixt the magnificence of her fatal breasts,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Allured to their abyss the spirit’s fall.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Across the field of sight she multiplied<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As on a scenic film or moving plate<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The implacable splendour of her nightmare pomps.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

On the dark background of a soulless world<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

She staged between a lurid light and shade<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her dramas of the sorrow of the depths<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWritten on the agonised nerves of living things;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Epics of horror and grim majesty,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Wry statues spat and stiffened in life’s mud,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A glut of hideous forms and hideous deeds<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 240<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Paralysed pity in the hardened breast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn booths of sin and night-repairs of vice<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStyled infamies of the body’s concupiscence<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd sordid imaginations etched in flesh,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTurned lust into a decorative art:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Abusing Nature’s gift her pervert skill<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImmortalised the sown grain of living death,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn a mud goblet poured the bacchic wine,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo a satyr gave the thyrsus of a god.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImpure, sadistic, with grimacing mouths,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGrey foul inventions gruesome and macabre<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCame televisioned from the gulfs of Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer craft ingenious in monstrosity,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImpatient of all natural shape and poise,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA gape of nude exaggerated lines,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGave caricature a stark reality,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd art-parades of weird distorted forms,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd gargoyle masks obscene and terrible<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTrampled to tormented postures the torn sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn inexorable evil’s worshipper,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe made vileness great and sublimated filth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA dragon power of reptile energies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd strange epiphanies of grovelling Force<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd serpent grandeurs couching in the mire<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Drew adoration to a gleam of slime.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All Nature pulled out of her frame and base<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Was twisted into an unnatural pose:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Repulsion stimulated inert desire;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Agony was made a red-spiced food for bliss,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hatred was trusted with the work of lust<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And torture took the form of an embrace,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A ritual anguish consecrated death,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 241<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Worship was offered to the Undivine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA new aesthesis of. Inferno’s art<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat trained the mind to love what the soul hates,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImposed allegiance on the quivering nerves<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd forced the unwilling body to vibrate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nToo sweet and too harmonious to excite<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn this regime that soiled the being’s core,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBeauty was banned, the heart’s feeling dulled to sleep<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd cherished in their place sensation’s thrills,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe world was probed for jets of sense-appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHere cold material intellect was the judge<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd needed sensual prick and jog and lash<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat its hard dryness and dead nerves might feel<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSome passion and power and acrid point of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA new philosophy theorised evil’s rights,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGloried in the shimmering rot of decadence,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr gave to a python force persuasive speech<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd armed with knowledge the primeval brute.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver life and Matter only brooding bowed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMind changed to the image of a rampant beast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt scrambled into the pit to dig for truth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd lighted its search with the subconscient’s flares.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThence bubbling rose sullying the upper air,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe filth and festering secrets of the Abyss:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This it called positive fact and real life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis now composed the fetid atmosphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA wild-beast passion crept from secret Night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo watch its prey with fascinating eyes:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Around him like a fire with sputtering tongues<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere lolled and laughed a bestial ecstasy;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The air was packed with longings brute and fierce,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCrowding and stinging in a monstrous swarm<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 242<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Pressed with a noxious hum into his mind <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Thoughts that could poison Nature’s heavenliest breath,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Forcing reluctant lids assailed the sight<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Acts that revealed the mystery of Hell.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All that was there was on this pattern made,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

A race possessed inhabited those parts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA force demoniac lurking in man’s depths<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat heaves suppressed by the heart’s human law,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAwed by the calm and sovereign eyes of Thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCan in a fire and earthquake of the soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArise and, calling to its native night,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOverthrow the reason, occupy the life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd stamp its hoof on Nature’s shaking ground:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This was for them their being’s naming core.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A mighty energy, a monster god,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hard to the strong, implacable to the weak,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It stared at the harsh unpitying world it made<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

With the stony eyelids of its fixed idea.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Its heart was drunk with a dire hunger’s wine,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In others’ suffering felt a thrilled delight<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And of death and ruin the grandiose music heard.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To have power, to be master, was sole virtue and good:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It claimed the whole world for Evil’s living room,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Its party’s grim totalitarian reign<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The cruel destiny of breathing things.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All on one plan was shaped and standardised<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Under a dark dictatorship’s breathless weight.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In street and house, in councils and in courts<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Beings he met who looked like living men<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And climbed in speech upon high wings of thought<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But harboured all that is subhuman, vile  <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 243<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The reason meant for nearness to the gods<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And uplift to heavenly scale by the touch of mind<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Only enhanced by its enlightening ray<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Their inborn nature’s wry monstrosity.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Often a familiar visage studying<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nJoyfully encountered at some dangerous turn,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hoping to recognise a look of light,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nHis vision warned by the spirit’s inward eye<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nDiscovered suddenly Hell’s trade-mark there,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nOr saw with the inner sense that cannot err,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In the semblance of a fair or virile form<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The demon and the goblin and the ghoul.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An insolence reigned of cold stone-hearted strength<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nMighty, obeyed, approved by the Titan’s law,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The huge laughter of a giant cruelty<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And fierce glad deeds of ogre violence.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In that wide cynic den of thinking beasts<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nOne looked in vain for a trace of pity and love;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

There was no touch of sweetness anywhere,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut only Force and its acolytes, greed and hate:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

There was no help for suffering, none to save,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNone dared resist or speak a noble word.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArmed with the aegis of tyrannic Power,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSigning the edicts of her dreadful rule<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd using blood and torture as a seal,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDarkness proclaimed her slogans to the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA servile blinkered silence hushed the mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr only it repeated lessons taught,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhile mitred, holding the good shepherd’s staff,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFalsehood enthroned on awed and prostrate hearts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe cults and creeds that organise living death<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 244<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

And slay the soul on the altar of a lie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll were deceived or served their own deceit;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Truth in that stifling atmosphere could not live.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There wretchedness believed in its own joy<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And fear and weakness hugged their abject depths,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All that is low and sordid-thoughted, base,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All that is drab and poor and miserable,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Breathed in a laxed content its natural air<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And felt no yearning of divine release:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Arrogant, gibing at more luminous states<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe people of the gulfs despised the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA barriered autarchy excluded light;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Fixed in its will to be its own grey self,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It vaunted its norm unique and splendid type:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It soothed its hunger with a plunderer’s dream;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Flaunting its cross of servitude like a crown,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It clung to its dismal harsh autonomy.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A bull-throat bellowed with its brazen tongue;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Its hard and shameless clamour filling space<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd threatening all who dared to listen to truth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClaimed the monopoly of the battered ear;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A deafened acquiescence gave its vote,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd braggart dogmas shouted in the night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKept for the fallen soul once deemed a god<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe pride of its abysmal absolute.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

A lone discoverer in these menacing realms<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGuarded like termite cities from the sun,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOppressed mid crowd and tramp and noise and flare,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPassing from dusk to deeper dangerous dusk,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe wrestled with powers that snatched from mind its light<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd smote from him their clinging influences.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 245<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Soon he emerged in a dim wall-less space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor now the peopled tracts were left behind;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He walked between wide banks of failing eve.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAround him grew a gaunt spiritual blank,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA threatening waste, a sinister loneliness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat left mind bare to an unseen assault,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn empty page on which all that willed could write<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStark monstrous messages without control.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA travelling dot on downward roads of Dusk<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMid barren fields and barns and straggling huts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd a few crooked and phantasmal trees,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe faced a sense of death and conscious Void.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut still a hostile Life unseen was there<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhose deathlike poise resisting light and truth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMade living a bleak gap in nullity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe heard the grisly voices that deny,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAssailed by thoughts that swarmed like spectral hordes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA prey to the staring phantoms of the gloom ;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

And terror approaching with its lethal mouth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDriven by a strange will down ever down,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe sky above a communique of Doom,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe strove to shield his spirit from despair,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut felt the horror of the growing Night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the Abyss rising to claim his soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen ceased the abodes of creatures and their forms<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd solitude wrapped him in its voiceless folds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll vanished suddenly like a thought expunged,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis spirit became an empty listening gulf –<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVoid of the dead illusion of a world:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Nothing was left, not even an evil face;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He was alone with the grey python Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA dense and nameless Nothing conscious, mute,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 246<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Which seemed alive but without body or mind,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lusted all being to annihilate<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That it might be for ever nude and sole.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As in a shapeless beast’s intangible jaws,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Gripped, strangled by that lusting viscous blot,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Attracted to some black and giant mouth<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And swallowing throat and a huge belly of doom,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His being from its own vision disappeared<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Drawn towards depths that hungered for its
\nfall.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A formless void suppressed his struggling brain,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A darkness grim and cold oppressed his flesh,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A whispered grey suggestion chilled his heart,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Haled by a serpent-force from its warm home<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And dragged to extinction in blank vacancy<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Life clung to its seat with cords of gasping breath;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Lapped was his body by a tenebrous tongue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nExistence smothered travailed to survive;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hope strangled perished in his empty soul,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Belief and memory abolished died<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And all that helps the spirit in its course.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There crawled through every tense and aching nerve<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Leaving behind its poignant quaking trail<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A nameless and unutterable fear.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As a sea nears a victim bound and still,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The approach alarmed his mind for ever dumb<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Of an implacable eternity j;,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Of pain inhuman and intolerable.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This he must bear, his hope of heaven estranged;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He must ever exist without extinction’s peace<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn a slow suffering Time and tortured Space,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn anguished nothingness his endless state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA lifeless vacancy was now his breast,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 247<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And-in the place where once was luminous thought,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Only remained like a pale motionless ghost<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An incapacity for faith and hope<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd the dread conviction of a vanquished soul<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Immortal still but with its godhead lost,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nSelf lost and God and touch of happier worlds.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But he endured, stilled the vain terror, bore<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The smothering coils of agony and affright;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Then peace returned and the soul’s sovereign gaze.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo the blank horror a calm Light replied:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Immutable, undying and unborn,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMighty and mute the Godhead in him woke<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd faced the pain and danger of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe mastered the tides of Nature with a look:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He met with his bare spirit naked Hell.<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 248<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  CANTO SEVEN   THE DESCENT INTO NIGHT   A MIND absolved from life, made calm to know, A heart divorced from the blindness and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-savitri-1954","wpcat-78-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}