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(Author Uncertain.)
Already
had Almighty God wiped off
By
vengeful flood (with waters all conjoined
Which
heaven discharged on earth and the sea's plain1
Outspued)
the times of the primeval age:
5
Had pledged Himself, while nether air should bring
The
winters in their course, ne'er to decree,
By
liquid ruin, retribution's due;
And
had assigned, to curb the rains, the bow
Of
many hues, sealing the clouds with band
10
Of purple and of green, Iris its name,
The
rain-clouds' proper baldric. 2
But
alike
With
mankind's second race impiety
Revives,
and a new age of ill once more
Shoots
forth; allotted now no more to showers
15
For ruin, but to fires: thus did the land
Of
Sodom earn to be by glowing dews
Upburnt,
and typically thus portend
The
future end. 3 There wild voluptuousness
(Modesty's
foe) stood in the room of law;
20
Which prescient guest would shun, and sooner choose
At
Scythian or Busirian altar's foot
'Mid
sacred rites to die, and, slaughtered, pour
His
blood to Bebryx, or to satiate
Libyan
palaestras, or assume new forms;
25
By virtue of Circaean cups, than lose
His
outraged sex in Sodom. At heaven's gate
There
knocked for vengeance marriages commit
With
equal incest common 'mong a race
By
nature rebels 'gainst themselves; 4 and hurts
30
Done to man's name and person equally.
But
God, forewatching all things, at fix'd time
Doth
judge the unjust; with patience tarrying
The
hour when crime's ripe age-not any force
Of
wrath impetuous-shall have circumscribed
35
The space for waiting. 5 Now at length the day
Of
vengeance was at hand. Sent from the host
Angelical,
two, youths in form, who both
Were
ministering spirits, 6 carrying
The
Lord's divine commissions, come beneath
40
The walls of Sodom. There was dwelling Lot
A
transplantation from a pious stock;
Wise,
and a practicer of righteousness,
He
was the only one to think on God:
As
oft a fruitful tree is wont to lurk,
45
Guest-like, in forests wild. He, sitting then
Before
the gate (for the celestials scarce
Had
reached the ramparts), though he knew not them
Divine,
7 accosts
them unsolicited,
Invites,
and with ancestral honour greets;
50
And offers them, preparing to abide
Abroad,
a hospice. By repeated prayers
He
wins them; and then ranges studiously
The
sacred pledges8 on his board, 9 and quits10
His
friends with courteous offices. The night
55
Had brought repose: alternate11 dawn had chased
The
night, and Sodom with her shameful law
Makes
uproar at the doors. Lot,
suppliant wise,
Withstands:
"Young men, let not your new fed lust
Enkindle
you to violate this youth! 12
60
Whither is passion's seed inviting you?
To
what vain end your lust? For such an end
No
creatures wed: not such as haunt the fens;
Not
stall-fed cattle; not the gaping brood
Subaqueous;
nor they which, modulant
65
On pinions, hang suspended near the clouds;
Nor
they which with forth-stretched body creep
Over
earth's face. To conjugal delight
Each
kind its kind doth owe: but female still
To
all is wife; nor is there one that has
70
A mother save a female one. Yet now,
If
youthful vigour holds it right13 to waste
The
flower of modesty, I have within
Two
daughters of a nuptial age, in whom
Virginity
is swelling in its bloom,
75
Already ripe for harvest-a desire
Worthy
of men-which let your pleasure reap!
Myself
their sire, I yield them; and will pay
For
my guests' sake, the forfeit of my grief!"
Answered
the mob insane: "And who art thou7
80
And what? and whence? to lord it over us,
And
to expound us laws? Shall foreigner
Rule
Sodom, and hurl threats? Now, then,
thyself
For
daughters and for guests shalt sate our greed!
One
shall suffice for all!" So said, so done:
85
The frantic mob delays not. As, whene'er
A
turbid torrent rolls with wintry tide,
And
rushes at one speed through countless streams
Of
rivers, if, just where it forks, some tree
Meets
the swift waves (not long to stand, save while
90
By her root's force she shall avail to oppose
Her
tufty obstacles), when gradually
Her
hold upon the undermined soil
Is
failing, with her bared stem she hangs,
And,
with uncertain heavings to and fro,
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Defers her certain fall; not otherwise
Lot
in the mid-whirl of the dizzy mob
Kept
nodding, now almost o'ercome. But power
Divine
brings succour: the angelic youths,
Snatching
him from the threshold, to his roof
100
Restore him; but upon the spot they mulct
Of
sight the mob insane in open day,-
Fit
augury of coming penalties!
Then
they unlock the just decrees of God:
That
penalty condign from heaven will fall
105
On Sodom; that himself had merited
Safety
upon the count of righteousness.
"Gird
thee, then, up to hasten hence thy flight,
And
with thee to lead oat what family
Thou
hast: already we are bringing on
110
Destruction o'er the city." Lot with speed
Speaks
to his sons-in-law; but their hard heart
Scorned
to believe the warning, and at fear
Laughed.
At what time the light attempts to climb
The
darkness, and heaven's face wears double hue
115
From night and day, the youthful visitants
Were
instant to outlead from Sodoma
The
race Chaldaean, 14 and the righteous house
Consign
to safety: "Ho! come, Lot! arise,
And
take thy yokefellow and daughters twain,
120
And hence, beyond the boundaries be gone,
Preventing15 Sodom's penalties!" And eke
With
friendly hands they lead them trembling forth,
And
then their final mandates give: "Save, Lot,
Thy
life, lest thou perchance should will to turn
125
Thy retroverted gaze behind, or stay
The
step once taken: to the mountain speed!"
Lot
feared to creep the heights with tardy step,
Lest
the celestial wrath-fires should o'ertake
And
whelm him: therefore he essays to crave
130
Some other ports; a city small, to wit,
Which
opposite he had espied."Hereto,"
He
said, "I speed my flight: scarce with its walls
'Tis
visible; nor is it far, nor great."
They,
favouring his prayer, safety assured
135
To him and to the city; whence the spot
Is
known in speech barbaric by the name
Segor.
16 Lot enters Segor while the sun
Is
rising, 17 the
last sun, which glowing bears
To
Sodom conflagration; for his rays
140
He had armed all with fire: beneath him spreads
An
emulous gloom, which seeks to intercep
The
light; and clouds combine to interweave
Their
smoky globes with the confused sky:
Down
pours a novel shower: the ether seethe
145
With sulphur mixt with blazing flames: 18 the air
Crackles
with liquid heats exust. From hence
The
fable has an echo of the truth
Amid
its false, that the sun's progeny
Would
drive his father's team; but nought availed
150
The giddy boy to curb the haughty steeds
Of
fire: so blazed our orb: then lightning reft
The
lawless charioteer, and bitter plaint
Transformed
his sisters. Let Eridanus
See
to it, if one poplar on his banks
155
Whitens, or any bird dons plumage there
Whose
note old age makes mellow! 19
Here
they mourn
O'er
miracles of metamorphosis
Of
other sort. For, partner of Lot's flight,
His
wife (ah me, for woman! even then20
160
Intolerant of law!) alone turned back
At
the unearthly murmurs of the sky)
Her
daring eyes, but bootlessly: not doomed
To
utter what she saw! and then and there
Changed
into brittle salt, herself her tomb
165
She stood, herself an image of herself,
Keeping
an incorporeal form: and still
In
her unsheltered station 'neath the heaven
Dures
she, by rains unmelted, by decay
And
winds unwasted; nay, if some strange hand
170
Deface her form, forthwith from her own store
Her
wounds she doth repair. Still is she said
To
live, and, 'mid her corporal change, discharge
With
wonted blood her sex's monthly dues.
Gone
are the men of Sodom; gone the glare
175
Of their unhallowed ramparts; all the house
Inhospitable,
with its lords, is gone:
The
champaign is one pyre; here embers rough
And
black, here ash-heaps with hoar mould, mark out
The
conflagration's course: evanished
180
Is all that old fertility21 which Lot,
Seeing
outspread before him, ...
No
ploughman spends his fruitless toil on glebes
Pitchy
with soot: or if some acres there,
But
half consumed, still strive to emulate
185
Autumn's glad wealth, pears, peaches, and all fruits
Promise
themselves full easely22 to the eye
In
fairest bloom, until the plucker's hand
Is
on them: then forthwith the seeming fruit
Crumbles
to dust 'neath the bewraying touch,
190
And turns to embers vain.
Thus,
therefore (sky
And
earth entombed alike), not e'en the sea
Lives
there: the quiet of that quiet sea
Is
death! 23 -a sea
which no wave animates
Through
its anhealant volumes; which beneath
195
Its native Auster sighs not anywhere;
Which
cannot from its depths one scaly race,
Or
with smooth skin or cork-like fence encased,
Produce,
or curled shell in single valve
Or
double fold enclosed. Bitumen there
200
(The sooty reek of sea exust) alone,
With
its own crop, a spurious harvest yields;
Which
'neath the stagnant surface vivid heat
From
seething mass of sulphur and of brine
Maturing
tempers, making earth cohere
205
Into a pitch marine. 24 At season due
The
heated water's fatty ooze is borne
Up
to the surface; and with foamy flakes
Over
the level top a tawny skin
Is
woven. They whose function is to catch
210
That ware put to, tilting their smooth skin. down
With
balance of their sides, to teach the film,
Once
o'er the gunnel, to float in: for, lo!
Raising
itself spontaneous, it will swim
Up
to the edge of the unmoving craft;
215
And will, when pressed, 25 for guerdon large, ensure
Immunity
from the defiling touch
Of
weft which female monthly efflux clothes.
Behold
another portent notable,
Fruit
of that sea's disaster: all things cast
220
Therein do swim: gone is its native power
For
sinking bodies: if, in fine, you launch
A
torch's lightsome26 hull (where spirit serves
For
fire) therein, the apex of the flame
Will
act as sail; put out the flame, and 'neath
225
The waters will the light's wrecks ruin go!
Such
Sodom's and Gomorrah's penalties,
For
ages sealed as signs before the eyes
Of
unjust nations, whose obdurate hearts
God's
fear have quite forsaken, 27 will them teach
230
To reverence heaven-sanctioned rights, 28 and lift
Their gaze
unto one only Lord of all.
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