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| THE FOUR ARCHANGELS, so the legends tell, | |
| Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, Azrael, | |
| Being first of those to whom the Power was shown, | |
| Stood first of all the Host before The Throne, | |
| And, when the Charges were allotted, burst | 5 |
| Tumultuous-winged from out the assembly first. | |
| Zeal was their spur that bade them strictly heed | |
| Their own high judgment on their lightest deed. | |
| Zeal was their spur that, when relief was given, | |
| Urged them unwearied to new toils in Heaven; | 10 |
| For Honour’s sake perfecting every task | |
| Beyond what e’en Perfection’s self could ask…. | |
| And Allah, Who created Zeal and Pride, | |
| Knows how the twain are perilous-near allied. | |
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| It chanced on one of Heaven’s long-lighted days, | 15 |
| The Four and all the Host being gone their ways | |
| Each to hie Charge, the shining Courts were void | |
| Save for one Seraph whom no charge employed, | |
| With folden wings and slumber-threatened brow, | |
| To whom The Word: “Beloved, what dost thou?” | 20 |
| “By the Permission,” came the answer soft, | |
| “Little I do nor do that little oft. | |
| As is The Will in Heaven so on Earth | |
| Where by The Will I strive to make men mirth.” | |
| He ceased and sped, hearing The Word once more: | 25 |
| “Beloved, go thy way and greet the Four.” | |
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| Systems and Universes overpast, | |
| The Seraph came upon the Four, at last, | |
| Guiding and guarding with devoted mind | |
| The tedious generations of mankind | 30 |
| Who lent at most unwilling ear and eye | |
| When they could not escape the ministry…. | |
| Yet, patient, faithful, firm, persistent, just | |
| Toward all that gross, indifferent, facile dust, | |
| The Archangels laboured to discharge their trust | 35 |
| By precept and example, prayer and law, | |
| Advice, reproof, and rule, but, labouring, saw | |
| Each in his fellows’ countenance confessed, | |
| The Doubt that sickens: “Have I done my best?” | |
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| Even as they sighed and turned to toil anew, | 40 |
| The Seraph hailed them with observance due; | |
| And, after some fit talk of higher things, | |
| Touched tentative on mundane happenings. | |
| This they permitting, he, emboldened thus, | |
| Prolused of humankind promiscuous, | 45 |
| And, since the large contention less avails | |
| Than instances observed, he told them tales— | |
| Tales of the shop, the bed, the court, the street, | |
| Intimate, elemental, indiscreet: | |
| Occasions where Confusion smiting swift | 50 |
| Piles jest on jest as snow-slides pile the drift | |
| Whence, one by one, beneath derisive skies, | |
| The victims’ bare, bewildered heads arise— | |
| Tales of the passing of the spirit, graced | |
| With humour blinding as the doom it faced— | 55 |
| Stark tales of ribaldry that broke aside | |
| To tears, by laughter swallowed ere they dried— | |
| Tales to which neither grace nor gain accrue, | |
| But only (Allah be exalted!) true, | |
| And only, as the Seraph showed that night, | 60 |
| Delighting to the limits of delight. | |
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| These he rehearsed with artful pause and halt, | |
| And such pretence of memory at fault, | |
| That soon the Four—so well the bait was thrown— | |
| Came to his aid with memories of their own— | 65 |
| Matters dismissed long since as small or vain, | |
| Whereof the high significance had lain | |
| Hid, till the ungirt glosses made it plain. | |
| Then, as enlightenment came broad and fast, | |
| Each marvelled at his own oblivious past | 70 |
| Until—the Gates of Laughter opened wide— | |
| The Four, with that bland Seraph at their side, | |
| While they recalled, compared, and amplified, | |
| In utter mirth forgot both Zeal and Pride! | |
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| High over Heaven the lamps of midnight burned | 75 |
| Ere, weak with merriment, the Four returned, | |
| Not in that order they were wont to keep— | |
| Pinion to pinion answering, sweep for sweep, | |
| In awful diapason heard afar— | |
| But shoutingly adrift ’twixt star and star; | 80 |
| Reeling a planet’s orbit left or right | |
| As laughter took them in the abysmal Night; | |
| Or, by the point of some remembered jest, | |
| Winged and brought helpless down through gulfs unguessed, | |
| Where the blank worlds that gather to the birth | 85 |
| Leaped in the Womb of Darkness at their mirth, | |
| And e’en Gehenna’s bondsmen understood. | |
| They were not damned from human brotherhood … | |
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| Not first nor last of Heaven’s high Host, the Four | |
| That night took place beneath The Throne once more. | 90 |
| O lovelier than their morning majesty, | |
| The understanding light behind the eye! | |
| O more compelling than their old command, | |
| The new-learned friendly gesture of the hand! | |
| O sweeter than their zealous fellowship, | 95 |
| The wise half-smile that passed from lip to lip! | |
| O well and roundly, when Command was given, | |
| They told their tale against themselves to Heaven, | |
| And in the silence, waiting on The Word, | |
| Received the Peace and Pardon of The Lord! | 100 |
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