For Eve made answer, Cain, my son, my own, O, if I cursed thee, O my child, I sinned, And He that heard me, heard, and said me nay: My first, my only one, thou shalt not go;— And Adam answered also, Cain, my son, He that is gone forgiveth, we forgive: Rob not thy mother of two sons at once; My child, abide with us and comfort us. Hear ye my voice; Adah and Zillah, near; Ye wives of Lamech, listen to my speech. For Cain replied not. But, an hour more, sat Where the night through he sat; his knit brows seen, Scarce seen, amid the foldings of his limbs. But when the sun was bright upon the field, To Adam still, and Eve still waiting by, And weeping, lift he up his voice and spake Cain said, The sun is risen upon the earth; The day demands my going, and I go.— As you from Paradise, so I from you: As you to exile, into exile I: My father and my mother, I depart. As betwixt you and Paradise of old, So betwixt me, my parents, now, and you, Cherubim I discern, and in their hand A flaming sword that turneth every way, To keep the way of my one tree of life, The way my spirit yearns to, of my love. Yet not, O Adam and O Eve, fear not. For He that asked me, Where is Abel? He Who called me cursed from the earth, and said A fugitive and vagabond thou art, He also said, when fear had slain my soul, There shall not touch thee man nor beast. Fear not. Lo, I have spoke with God, and He hath said. Fear not;—and let me go as He hath said. Cain also said (O Jubal, touch thy string),— Moreover, in the darkness of my mind, When the night’s night of misery was most black, A little star came twinkling up within, And in myself I had a guide that led, And in myself had knowledge of a soul. Fear not, O Adam and O Eve: I go. Children of Lamech, listen to my speech. For when the years were multiplied, and Cain Eastward of Eden, in this land of Nod, Had sons, and sons of sons, and sons of them, Enoch and Irad and Mehujael (My father, and my children’s grandsire he), It came to pass, that Cain, who dwelt alone, Met Adam, at the nightfall, in the field: Who fell upon his neck, and wept, and said, My son, has not God spoken to thee, Cain? And Cain replied, when weeping loosed his voice, My dreams are double, O my father, good And evil. Terror to my soul by night, And agony by day, when Abel stands A dead, black shade, and speaks not, neither looks, Nor makes me any answer when I cry— Curse me, but let me know thou art alive. But comfort also, like a whisper, comes, In visions of a deeper sleep, when he, Abel, as him we knew, yours once and mine, Comes with a free forgiveness in his face, Seeming to speak, solicitous for words, And wearing ere he go the old, first look Of unsuspecting, unforeboding love. Three nights are gone I saw him thus, my Sire. Dear ones of Lamech, listen to my speech.