A Marriage in Gaia

At the cathedral door I paused, amazed,Confounded at the beauty seen within;For all without was barren and forlorn,Gaunt, gray and lustreless.A throng stood thereWaiting and watching, as they watch andwaitWho hope to find their faith and fate fulfilled.

So I fixed their interest, so intent their joy,I could not partake their curious zeal;And so I asked a verger:Tell me, pray,What is’t impels the throng, and why theywaitAnd may I, if I choose, go in?A smile,Part pitying and part scornful, lit his lips;They wait, he said, I cannot tell thee more.As for thy choice, thou hast none; come thoumust.Must! In hot blood I spoke:That word to me is a word unknown.Yon rabble go perchance because they may,Or must, by will more mighty than their own;But he I serve, more mighty than their lord,My sovereign and my liege from whom I gotMine accolade, demands my only service.In passing by I felt a transient throbOf curious interest. Now I go on my way.Turning upon my heelI would have gone, But, as I moved, a handMailed, irresistible, but all unseen, smote me,And whirled me round and held me hard.Forth blazed a light,

Not as the light of earth; but colors vast,Innumerable,—beyond the violet and red;And a strange voice, not human speech,Nor sound, but vaster still, as fullOf Truth, encompassing all sound,And far beyond the treble and the bass,Spoke as a whispering thunderbolt, and said:I tell thee, no,Not yet; for not thy king hath pow’r,Or ever had or shall, to thwart my will.His word, Thou must! the idiom of Truth;His voice the concentrated argument of God.

So I went in and waited with the rest.Silence at first, and then a sudden shriekRang out, and footsteps fell in madd’ninghasteUpon the marble floor. I turned to look(For all there turned to look) and saw awomanClad if filthy rags, with hair unkempt andtangledDown her back.Her eyeballs, deeply sunken, glittered blank;From her lank jaws oozed drops of filthyslime;One long, lean arm entwined a coilingsnake,—A deadly cobra hissing through its fangs,—And one uplifted grasped a curling kreese.

By her sideA knightly form in solid armor strode,Armed, yet unweaponed, with a placid face.The likeness and the mien of a young god.From his shoulders fell in tawny foamA bright cascade of hair. Upon his headA helm, and ‘neath the plume for mottoGraved these words: I sanctify the world.So side by sideThey two,—the worst and best, the noble andthe base,The height and depth of all created things,Moved forward up the long cathedral aisle.

At first sight of thoseDiscordant ones silenced the rabble; thenThey shuddering shrank from the mad woman.But at sight of him, so grave, so beautiful,A whispered sigh, strange looks from each toeach;A feeble cheer, hushed quickly; murmurs rose,And mocking questions:Why was he demeanedBy such a low companion?But at sightOf that proud crest wheron the motto blazedSome laughed in scorn, and some with bittergibesReviled the knight and mocked.He caring notLooked neither down nor up, nor yet to eitherside,—Strode straight towards the altar at the east.To the chancel rail, all garbed in white,A shadowy shape stepped forth amid a throngOf acolytes. His voice the same that thrilledThrough all my soul in mighty thunder tonesAt the cathedral door. There they twain,—Woman and man,—before the altar stood insilence deep.In silence deep

Of knightly presence his and godly grace,But hers of hellish hate and weird, wild eyes.Willing the man, yet willing as one wills,—The nvoy and the nuncio of WillInhabiting Eternity.But she reluctant, trembling with the forceThat conquered fury,—loathing to submit.

To have and hold, he said, with all my hope,—My holy hope and all my heavenly goods,The upwardness and onwardness of life,The peace of pardon that are mine to give,The potency and promise of all wordsI thee endow.And, as he spoke the words, a sudden changeCame o’er the woman’s face. From her fiercebrowThe frown and fury passed; from her bold eyesthe gleamOf concentrated hate, and from her lips thesneer,The demon lookSlipped from her like a mask, and in theirsteadThe lovely likeness of a new born soul.And one by oneAll base and odious things were changed orvanished.Curled up her hair and coiled in placid plaits;The filthy rags grew into lawn and lace;The glittering kresse dropped clanging on theStone;The snake untwined,And hissing crawled away.A radiant princess stood, hang clasped in hisWho gave her life and love.