_Noah_. Silence, vain boy! each word of thine's a crime. Angel! forgive this stripling's fond despair. _Raph._ Seraphs! these mortals speak in passion: Ye! Who are, or should be, passionless and pure, May now return with me. _Sam._ It may not be: We have chosen, and will endure. _Raph._ Say'st thou? _Aza._ He hath said it, and I say, Amen! _Raph._ Again! Then from this hour, 720 Shorn as ye are of all celestial power, And aliens from your God, Farewell! _Japh._ Alas! where shall they dwell? Hark, hark! Deep sounds, and deeper still, Are howling from the mountain's bosom: There's not a breath of wind upon the hill, Yet quivers every leaf, and drops each blossom: Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load. _Noah_. Hark, hark! the sea-birds cry! 730 In clouds they overspread the lurid sky, And hover round the mountain, where before Never a white wing, wetted by the wave, Yet dared to soar, Even when the waters waxed too fierce to brave. Soon it shall be their only shore, And then, no more! _Japh._ The sun! the sun[157]! He riseth, but his better light is gone; And a black circle, bound 740 His glaring disk around, Proclaims Earth's last of summer days hath shone! The clouds return into the hues of night, Save where their brazen-coloured edges streak The verge where brighter morns were wont to break. _Noah_. And lo! yon flash of light, The distant thunder's harbinger, appears! It cometh! hence, away! Leave to the elements their evil prey! Hence to where our all-hallowed ark uprears 750 Its safe and wreckless sides! _Japh._ Oh, father, stay! Leave not my Anah to the swallowing tides! _Noah_. Must we not leave all life to such? Begone! _Japh._ Not I. _Noah_. Then die With them! How darest thou look on that prophetic sky, And seek to save what all things now condemn, In overwhelming unison 760 With just Jehovah's wrath! _Japh._ Can rage and justice join in the same path? _Noah_. Blasphemer! darest thou murmur even now! _Raph._ Patriarch, be still a father! smooth thy brow: Thy son, despite his folly, shall not sink: He knows not what he says, yet shall not drink With sobs the salt foam of the swelling waters; But be, when passion passeth, good as thou, Nor perish like Heaven's children with man's daughters.