Oh singing was only in Heaven Ere Lucifer’s melody came, But when Lucifer’s harp-strings grew loud in their sighing, When he called up the dragons by name-- The song was the sorrow of sorrows, The song was the Hope of Despair, Or the smile of a warrior falling-- A prayer and a curse and a prayer-- Or a soul going down through the shadows and calling, Or the laughter of Night in his lair; The song was the fear of ten thousand tomorrows-- On the racks of grief and of pain-- The herald of silences, dreadful, unending, When the last little echo should listen in vain.... [Sidenote: _How the song made the demons dream they were still fighting for Satan._] It was memory, memory, Visions of glory,-- Memory, memory, Visions of fight. The pride of the onset, The banners that fluttered, The wails of the battle-pierced angels of light. Song of the times of the Nether Empire The age when our desperate band Heaped our redoubts with the horrible fire On the fringes of Holier Land-- Conquering always, conquering never, Building a throne of sand-- When Satan still wielded that glorious scepter-- The sword of his glorious hand. Then rang the martial music Sung by the hosts of God In the first of the shameful years of fear When we bit the purple sod: He sang that shameful battle-story-- He twanged each threaded torture-flame; Wherever his leprous fingers came They drew from the strings a groan of glory: [Sidenote: _How the song enchanted them til they were in fancy the good warriors of God, and they shouted their enemy’s battle-cry._] Then we dreamed at last, Then we lost the past, We dreamed we were angels in battle-array: We tore our hearts with God’s battle-yell And the sound crashed up from the smoky fen And the battle sweat stood forth On the awful brows of our fighting men: And the magical singer, grim and wild Swept his harp again, and smiled, And the harp-strings lifted our cries that day Till the thundering charge reached the City on High-- God’s charge, that he thought Had passed for aye, When our last fond hope went down to die. [Sidenote: _How, at the climax of the song Lucifer almost restored the first day of creation, when the Universe was happy and sinless._] [Sidenote: _How the tears of the distracted demons become a heaven-climbing flame._]