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    The Ascent of Man
    The Ascent of Man
    The Ascent of Man
    Ebook154 pages1 hour

    The Ascent of Man

    By Mathilde Blind

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJun 1, 2004
    The Ascent of Man

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      Book preview

      The Ascent of Man - Mathilde Blind

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ascent of Man, by Mathilde Blind

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Ascent of Man

      Author: Mathilde Blind

      Release Date: May 29, 2012 [EBook #39844]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ASCENT OF MAN ***

      Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, JoAnn Greenwood,

      and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

      http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images

      generously made available by The Internet Archive/American

      Libraries.)

      Transcriber's Notes:

      Title punctuation was standardized, but poetry itself retained as in original, including hyphenation variations and indentation changes.

      Duplicate title THE ASCENT OF MAN at beginning was deleted.

      There are two poems titled THE RED SUNSETS, 1883.; one on P. 154 and the second immediately after it on P. 155.

      THE

      ASCENT OF MAN

      BY

      MATHILDE BLIND

      London

      CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY

      1889

      CONTENTS.

      THE ASCENT OF MAN.

      PRELUDE.

      WINGS.

      Ascend, oh my Soul, with the wings of the lark ascend!

      Soaring away and away far into the blue.

      Or with the shrill seagull to the breakers bend,

      Or with the bee, where the grasses and field-flowers blend,

      Drink out of golden cups of the honey-dew.

      Ascend, oh my Soul, on the wings of the wind as it blows,

      Striking wild organ-blasts from the forest trees,

      Or on the zephyr bear love of the rose to the rose,

      Or with the hurricane sower cast seed as he goes

      Limitless ploughing the leagues of the sibilant seas.

      Ascend, oh my Soul, on the wings of the choral strain,

      Invisible tier above tier upbuilding sublime;

      Note as it scales after note in a rhythmical chain

      Reaching from chaos and welter of struggle and pain,

      Far into vistas empyreal receding from time.

      Ascend! take wing on the thoughts of the Dead, my Soul,

      Breathing in colour and stone, flashing through epic and song:

      Thoughts that like avalanche snows gather force as they roll,

      Mighty to fashion and knead the phenomenal throng

      Of generations of men as they thunder along.

      THE ASCENT OF MAN.

      PART I.

      As compressed within the bounded shell

      Boundless Ocean seems to surge and swell,

      Haunting echoes of an infinite whole

      Moan and murmur through Man's finite soul.

      CHAUNTS OF LIFE.

      I.

      Struck out of dim fluctuant forces and shock of electrical vapour,

      Repelled and attracted the atoms flashed mingling in union primeval,

      And over the face of the waters far heaving in limitless twilight

      Auroral pulsations thrilled faintly, and, striking the blank heaving surface,

      The measureless speed of their motion now leaped into light on the waters.

      And lo, from the womb of the waters, upheaved in volcanic convulsion,

      Ribbed and ravaged and rent there rose bald peaks and the rocky

      Heights of confederate mountains compelling the fugitive vapours

      To take a form as they passed them and float as clouds through the azure.

      Mountains, the broad-bosomed mothers of torrents and rivers perennial,

      Feeding the rivers and plains with patient persistence, till slowly,

      In the swift passage of æons recorded in stone by Time's graver,

      There germ grey films of the lichen and mosses and palm-ferns gigantic,

      And jungle of tropical forest fantastical branches entwining,

      And limitless deserts of sand and wildernesses primeval.

      II.

      Lo, moving o'er chaotic waters,

      Love dawned upon the seething waste,

      Transformed in ever new avatars

      It moved without or pause or haste:

      Like sap that moulds the leaves of May

      It wrought within the ductile clay.

      And vaguely in the pregnant deep,

      Clasped by the glowing arms of light

      From an eternity of sleep

      Within unfathomed gulfs of night

      A pulse stirred in the plastic slime

      Responsive to the rhythm of Time.

      Enkindled in the mystic dark

      Life built herself a myriad forms,

      And, flashing its electric spark

      Through films and cells and pulps and worms,

      Flew shuttlewise above, beneath,

      Weaving the web of life and death.

      And multiplying in the ocean,

      Amorphous, rude, colossal things

      Lolled on the ooze in lazy motion,

      Armed with grim jaws or uncouth wings;

      Helpless to lift their cumbering bulk

      They lurch like some dismasted hulk.

      And virgin forest, verdant plain,

      The briny sea, the balmy air,

      Each blade of grass and globe of rain,

      And glimmering cave and gloomy lair

      Began to swarm with beasts and birds,

      With floating fish and fleet-foot herds.

      The lust of life's delirious fires

      Burned like a fever in their blood,

      Now pricked them on with fierce desires,

      Now drove them famishing for food,

      To seize coy females in the fray,

      Or hotly hunted hunt for prey.

      And amorously urged them on

      In wood or wild to court their mate,

      Proudly displaying in the sun

      With antics strange and looks elate,

      The vigour of their mighty thews

      Or charm of million-coloured hues.

      There crouching 'mid the scarlet bloom,

      Voluptuously the leopard lies,

      And through the tropic forest gloom

      The flaming of his feline eyes

      Stirs with intoxicating stress

      The pulses of the leopardess.

      Or two swart bulls of self-same age

      Meet furiously with thunderous roar,

      And lash together, blind with rage,

      And clanging horns that fain would gore

      Their rival, and so win the prize

      Of those impassive female eyes.

      Or in the

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