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HEAVEN AND EARTH
A monologue from the play by Lord Byron
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Lord Byron: Six Plays. Lord Byron. Los Angeles: Black Box Press, 2007. |
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- AHOLIBAMAH: Samiasa!
- Wheresoe'er
- Thou rulest in the upper air—
- Or warring with the spirits who may dare
- Dispute with him
- Who made all empires, empire; or recalling
- Some wandering star, which shoots through the abyss,
- Whose tenants dying, while their world is falling,
- Share the dim destiny of clay in this;
- Or joining with the inferior cherubim,
- Thou deignest to partake their hymn—
- Samiasa!
- I call thee, I await thee, and I love thee.
- Many may worship thee, that will I not:
- If that thy spirit down to mine may move thee,
- Descend and share my lot!
- Though I be form'd of clay
- And thou of beams
- More bright than those of day
- On Eden's streams,
- Thine immortality can not repay
- With love more warm than mine
- My love. There is a ray
- In me, which, though forbidden yet to shine,
- I feel was lighted at thy God's and thine.
- It may be hidden long: death and decay
- Our mother Eve bequeath'd us—but my heart
- Defies it: though this life must pass away,
- Is that a cause for thee and me to part?
- Thou art immortal—so am I: I feel—
- I feel my immortality o'ersweep
- All pains, all tears, all fears, and peal,
- Like the eternal thunders of the deep,
- Into my ears this truth—"Thou liv'st for ever!"
- But if it be in joy
- I know not, nor would know;
- That secret rests with the Almighty giver,
- Who folds in clouds the fonts of bliss and woe.
- But thee and me he never can destroy;
- Change us he may, but not o'erwhelm; we are
- Of as eternal essence, and must war
- With him if he will war with us; with thee
- I can share all things, even immortal sorrow;
- For thou hast ventured to share life with me,
- And shall I shrink from thine eternity?
- No! though the serpent's sting should pierce me through,
- And thou thyself wert like the serpent, coil
- Around me still! and I will smile,
- And curse thee not; but hold
- Thee in as warm a fold
- As—but descend, and prove
- A mortal's love
- For an immortal. If the skies contain
- More joy than thou canst give and take, remain!
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