When through the loom of misted flame The threads of God began To weave a world; before there came Adventuring of man Upon the Path of life to find Monitions of eternal Mind. She sang of forest and of fell, Of mountain and of moor; Caves and the caveman's battle-yell; The song beside the door Where women ground the meal and sung Rhymes in their rude primeval tongue. I saw the mammoth and the bear, Like moving mountains, run In terror from the flint-head spear, Proving that man had won Lordship of earth; and I made prayer, Aldebaran, before thee there! IV Arcturus lifted high his horn And blew a mighty blast. The curtain of the night was torn To show the protoplast Transfigured on the finer face Of that far prehistoric race-- We, clumsy, call Lemurian! A city lifted high Its towered domes of daring man Beneath a tropic sky, With gates of gold that gleamed and shone Brighter than portaled Babylon. Men were as gods upon the earth, The women were most fair; Music was speech; a holy birth Of art was cradled there-- For dreams took shape in pure jacinth, Seraphic brows upon the plinth. Reed instruments for dance and song; Brave horns beneath the blue; The sistrum and the thunder-gong; The pipe and tabour, too; And all the craft of minstrelsy: Harp, sackbut, cymbal, psaltery, Were fashioned. Then was genius stirred To pre-Homeric lines, And drama grew. On earth was heard Praise of the fruitful vines, Oil of the olive, barley-gold, Leaping of lambs within the fold. Told was the story of the stars, And thine, Aldebaran, When Jupiter was not, nor Mars; When every shepherd-clan Pointed and named the olden spheres While Rome was in the womb of years. V Altair in Aquila stood forth With flaming evil brow, Looked from his tower to the north And made an awful vow: "I will destroy yon golden gates-- Hither to me, O shrouded Fates! Hither to me and hide the sun, Darken the noisy noon, Snuff out the planets one by one, Unleash the hot simoon; Destroy the race Lemurian!" And they obeyed, Aldebaran. Thunder! A woman by the well Looked up wide-eyed and fell; A shepherd leading forth his sheep, Gasped, clutched his throat and found eternal sleep; Ceased in the temple, horn and holy drum, And all the vested choristers were dumb! Rain as of fire! The shivering of earth; Dead is the baby at its birth-- With horror in her great dark eyes, The new-made mother lifeless lies; Two lovers in the spell of their first kiss And whispered word, the dark abyss Engulfs forever! Night! Endless night! There are no towers, temples, domes-- No palaces, no pillared homes; And all that stately company Are buried in a boiling sea! Alas, for these, Aldebaran! And woe to Altair and his hate! Gone is the race Lemurian; I weep, O Star, to sing their fate! VI