No More Learning

My sin is on thee, sinless one! Thou art
God-orphaned, for my burden on thy head.
Dark sin, white innocence, endurance dread!
Be still, within your shrouds, my buried dead;
Nor work with this quick horror round mine heart.

_Zerah. _ _He_ hath forsaken _him_. I perish.

_Ador. _ Hold
Upon his name! we perish not. Of old
His will--

_Zerah. _ I seek his will. Seek, seraphim!
My God, my God! where is it?
Doth that curse
Reverberate spare us, seraph or universe?
_He_ hath forsaken _him_.

_Ador. _ He cannot fail.

_Angel Voices. _ We faint, we droop,
Our love doth tremble like fear.

_Voices of Fallen Angels from the Earth. _ Do we prevail?
Or are we lost? Hath not the ill we did
Been heretofore our good?
Is it not ill that one, all sinless, should
Hang heavy with all curses on a cross?
Nathless, that cry! With huddled faces hid
Within the empty graves which men did scoop
To hold more damned dead, we shudder through
What shall exalt us or undo,
Our triumph, or our loss.

_Voice from the Cross. _ IT IS FINISHED.

_Zerah.