``Up above see the rock's naked face, where the record shall go ``In great characters cut by the scribe,---Such was Saul, so he did;``With the sages directing the work, by the populace chid,---``For not half, they'll affirm, is comprised there! Which fault to amend, ``In the grove with his kind grows the cedar, whereon they shall spend ``(See, in tablets 'tis level before them) their praise, and record ``With the gold of the graver, Saul's story,---the statesman's great word ``Side by side with the poet's sweet comment. The river's a-wave ``With smooth paper-reeds grazing each other when prophet-winds rave:
``So the pen gives unborn generations their due and their part ``In thy being! Then, first of the mighty, thank God that thou art!''
XIV.
And behold while I sang ... but O Thou who didst grant me that day, And before it not seldom hast granted thy help to essay, Carry on and complete an adventure,---my shield and my sword In that act where my soul was thy servant, thy word was my word,---Still be with me, who then at the summit of human endeavour And scaling the highest, man's thought could, gazed hopeless as ever On the new stretch of heaven above me---till, mighty to save, Just one lift of thy hand cleared that distance---God's throne from man's grave!
Let me tell out my tale to its ending---my voice to my heart Which can scarce dare believe in what marvels last night I took part, As this morning I gather the fragments, alone with my sheep, And still fear lest the terrible glory evanish like sleep!
For I wake in the grey dewy covert, while Hebron<*2> upheaves The dawn struggling with night on his shoulder, and Kidron<*3> retrieves Slow the damage of yesterday's sunshine.
XV.
I say then,---my song While I sang thus, assuring the monarch, and ever more strong Made a proffer of good to console him---he slowly resumed His old motions and habitudes kingly. The right-hand replumed His black locks to their wonted composure, adjusted the swathes Of his turban, and see---the huge sweat that his countenance bathes, He wipes off with the robe; and he girds now his loins as of yore, And feels slow for the armlets of price, with the clasp set before.
He is Saul, ye remember in glory,---ere error had bent The broad brow from the daily communion; and still, though much spent Be the life and the bearing that front you, the same, God did choose, To receive what a man may waste, desecrate, never quite lose.
So sank he along by the tent-prop till, stayed by the pile Of his armour and war-cloak and garments, he leaned there awhile, And sat out my singing,---one arm round the tent-prop, to raise His bent head, and the other hung slack---till I touched on the praise I foresaw from all men in all time, to the man patient there;And thus ended, the harp falling forward. Then first I was 'ware That he sat, as I say, with my head just above his vast knees Which were thrust out on each side around me, like oak-roots which please To encircle a lamb when it slumbers. I looked up to know If the best I could do had brought solace: he spoke not, but slow Lifted up the hand slack at his side, till he laid it with care Soft and grave, but in mild settled will, on my brow: thro' my hair The large fingers were pushed, and he bent back my bead, with kind power---All my face back, intent to peruse it, as men do a flower.
Thus held he me there with his great eyes that scrutinized mine---And oh, all my heart how it loved him! but where was the sign?
I yearned---``Could I help thee, my father, inventing a bliss, ``I would add, to that life of the past, both the future and this;``I would give thee new life altogether, as good, ages hence, ``As this moment,---had love but the warrant, love's heart to dispense!''
XVI.
Then the truth came upon me. No harp more---no song more! outbroke---XVII.
``I have gone the whole round of creation: I saw and I spoke:
``I, a work of God's hand for that purpose, received in my brain ``And pronounced on the rest of his hand-work---returned him again ``His creation's approval or censure: I spoke as I saw:
``I report, as a man may of God's work---all's love, yet all's law.
``Now I lay down the judgeship he lent me. Each faculty tasked ``To perceive him, has gained an abyss, where a dewdrop was asked.
``Have I knowledge? confounded it shrivels at Wisdom laid bare.
``Have I forethought? how purblind, how blank, to the Infinite Care!
``Do I task any faculty highest, to image success?
``I but open my eyes,---and perfection, no more and no less, ``In the kind I imagined, full-fronts me, and God is seen God ``In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the clod.
``And thus looking within and around me, I ever renew ``(With that stoop of the soul which in bending upraises it too)``The submission of man's nothing-perfect to God's all-complete, ``As by each new obeisance in spirit, I climb to his feet.
``Yet with all this abounding experience, this deity known, ``I shall dare to discover some province, some gift of my own.
