Pre-Raphaelite and other Poets

Name: Pre-Raphaelite and other Poets
Author: Hearn, Lafcadio

Hearn, Lafcadio

English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Pre-Raphaelitism in literature

The depths stand naked in sunder behind it, the storms flee
        away;
    In the hollow before it the thunder is taken and snared as
        a prey;
    In its sides is the north-wind bound; and its salt is of all
        men's tears;
    With light of ruins and sound of changes, and pulse of
        years:
    With travail of day after day, and with trouble of hour
        upon hour;
    And bitter as blood is the spray; and the crests are as fangs
        that devour:
    And its vapour and storm of its steam as the sighing of
        spirits to be;
    And its noise as the noise in a dream; and its depth as the
        roots of the sea:
    And the height of its heads as the height of the utmost stars
        of the air:
    And the ends of the earth at the might thereof tremble, and
        time is made bare.

When the poet calls this the wave of the world, you must not understand
world to mean our planet only, but the universe, the cosmos; and the
wave is the great wave of impermanency, including all forces of time
and death and life and pain. But why these terrible similes of white
eyes and poisonous things and shark's teeth, of blood and bitterness
and terror? Because the old philosopher dimly recognises the cruelty
of nature, the mercilessness of that awful law of change which, having
swept away his old gods, will just as certainly sweep away the new gods
that have appeared. Who can resist that mighty power, higher than the
stars, deeper than the depths, in whose motion even gods are but as
bubbles and foam? Assuredly not Christ and his new religion. Speaking
to the new gods the Roman cries:

    All ye as a wind shall go by, as a fire shall ye pass and be
        past;
    Ye are Gods, and behold, ye shall die, and the waves be
        upon you at last.
    .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

    Yet thy kingdom shall pass, Galilean, thy dead shall go
        down to thee dead.

Here follows a beautiful picture of the contrast between the beauty of
the old gods and the uninviting aspect of the new. It is a comparison
between the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, and Venus or Aphrodite, the
ancient goddess of love, born from the sea. For to the Roman mind the
Christian gods and saints wanted even the common charm of beauty and
tenderness. All the divinities of the old Greek world were beautiful
to look upon, and warmly human; but these strange new gods from Asia
seemed to be not even artistically endurable. Addressing Christ, he
continues:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Pre-Raphaelite and other PoetsHearn, Lafcadio

History

Pre-Raphaelite and other Poets

Hearn, Lafcadio

English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Pre-Raphaelitism in literature

The depths stand naked in sunder behind it, the storms flee
        away;
    In the hollow before it the thunder is taken and snared as
        a prey;
    In its sides is the north-wind bound; and its salt is of all
        men's tears;
    With light of ruins and sound of changes, and pulse of
        years:
    With travail of day after day, and with trouble of hour
        upon hour;
    And bitter as blood is the spray; and the crests are as fangs
        that devour:
    And its vapour and storm of its steam as the sighing of
        spirits to be;
    And its noise as the noise in a dream; and its depth as the
        roots of the sea:
    And the height of its heads as the height of the utmost stars
        of the air:
    And the ends of the earth at the might thereof tremble, and
        time is made bare.

When the poet calls this the wave of the world, you must not understand
world to mean our planet only, but the universe, the cosmos; and the
wave is the great wave of impermanency, including all forces of time
and death and life and pain. But why these terrible similes of white
eyes and poisonous things and shark's teeth, of blood and bitterness
and terror? Because the old philosopher dimly recognises the cruelty
of nature, the mercilessness of that awful law of change which, having
swept away his old gods, will just as certainly sweep away the new gods
that have appeared. Who can resist that mighty power, higher than the
stars, deeper than the depths, in whose motion even gods are but as
bubbles and foam? Assuredly not Christ and his new religion. Speaking
to the new gods the Roman cries:

    All ye as a wind shall go by, as a fire shall ye pass and be
        past;
    Ye are Gods, and behold, ye shall die, and the waves be
        upon you at last.
    .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

    Yet thy kingdom shall pass, Galilean, thy dead shall go
        down to thee dead.

Here follows a beautiful picture of the contrast between the beauty of
the old gods and the uninviting aspect of the new. It is a comparison
between the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, and Venus or Aphrodite, the
ancient goddess of love, born from the sea. For to the Roman mind the
Christian gods and saints wanted even the common charm of beauty and
tenderness. All the divinities of the old Greek world were beautiful
to look upon, and warmly human; but these strange new gods from Asia
seemed to be not even artistically endurable. Addressing Christ, he
continues:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Pre-Raphaelite and other Poets

Pre-Raphaelite and other Poets

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