[BNP/E3, 79 – 17-19]

End (beginning of) of Death of God.

Then heard I the great life throb and moan

And all its sound my ear did magnify

Into the † multitude’s {…} groan –

That multitude that in the endless night

Has woe animate {…}

A mystery and evil to affright.

From out the life’s crowd there came a hint

Of the ideality of these two throngs –

The sense crowdèd mixèd pains and wrongs

That in mine ear {…} nor dinned,

Unmistakable, dreadful, undistinct[1].

[The last lines in the poem – Nature smiling – are in contrast, not with the symbolic plain, but with City’s sounds of unhappiness instead]

[17^v]

I stood at length outside the City’s space

And the crowed coming in and joy at

A strange, unreal seeming {…} rout

Passed with old manners and immortal ways.

A horror took me a deep sense of pain

A pessimistic certainty of doubt

Thrilled with portentous sorrows and dismays

Such as night make a move that human strain

I comprehend all that I had dreamed

And to my mind came like {…} again:

The multitude {…} that had streamed

Endless and powerless along the plain

In which no light nor clearness glew or gleamed,

I contested the deepness of human error

My soul saw assured its wild and mystic terror

And with a strained and {…} eye

As one that looks upon a magic mirror

I saw the tragic multitude pass by.

There were the vices, evils, sorrows, woes

There were the noble and ignoble cares.

Pains such as love, that the frail spirit tears

Or hate that the {…} scarce overthrows.

[18^r]

These were the harlot, the workman, the thief

The priest, the {…} the lord

Changes of things that brought no soul-relief

But made the world a thing still more abhorred.

I understood it – ay – that wretched[2] horde!

Then all its sounds did fill my aural sense

And with a pain, a sorrow rooted was

I understood the woe, deep and immense,

That made its mark upon each sound {…}

As on each wrinkled or unmarked |*brow|

A wonderous din, half {…} half worn

Passed through mine ears with meaning {…} and sad

With oscillation, gay, wild, dreadful, glad

Lonely and incoherent sure or mad,

As at all there of pensive soul was torn.

“Oh, God, oh Power, oh Force eternally

That willst the being of all things that are

Preserve a heart as mine contrived to see

That the ill of the {…} world thus far!

In youth, we dream of the † and of good

Of love of men that like a {…} flood

Should sweep away the walls of law and creed.

But all things rise to fall, love begets blood

And kindness is timed unto greed.

[18^v]

All is endless change, eternal motion

And the great Tyrant that knows no revolt

Rules not His Law alike the waves of ocean,

The inner tumults of our life’s emotion

There is no hope, no hope, all {…}

And all, e’en it was |*grimed| is {…} lost.

Then with intensity mad, {…}, dread,

Like to a dream a madness aught invent

To make a new expression of wild-blent

Terror unfelt of woe, pain {…}

And far transversally all our mortal {…}

The joining, combination of the sounds

Voices, groans, laughs, sighs, {…}

Pound like a flood of darkness oh my soul.

Stricken, with no flesh-terror, I stood there

And every sound I heard, and understood

Beyond the[3] little meaning, made me to hand

As weighed me down with {…} care.

There was the sound of strife, of {…} war

[19^r]

And sounds of {…}, footsteps many

Clapping of hands, breathing

These spoke over the new sight –

And then again, as if in dreadful chaff

Of my mind sad beyond all thought or love

Yet keeping with its sadness, came a laugh

A giggle or {…}

And still I felt the wretched fear on {…}

(The end)

_______

Ay, this the true, this {…} that did pass

If this that dreamèd crowd the symbol was –

Or this of that – who knows – since all is dark –

Her was the struggle, endless {…}

The pain of toil, the owe-rewarded |*will|

Her were the wars, the {…} the {…} of care

Not with such true, nude terror full-perceived

But yet the same as mine eyes that conceived

So in the visioned-plain – my {…} all were their.

[19^v]

I look again. Oh, how this crowd deceived!

How they came gay, careless, as if {…}

But here and there a look, a smile not full

Gave to the eye that truly did observe

The meaning of the whole scene

Onward they came and past and I in me

Wept tears of woe the {…} misery –

Forward and past like to {…} they came –

Their words lighted the suffering or the evil

That did preserve their suffering’s {…} flame

Also it dirt sprinkled {…} heart

Low words, soft sound, all these now these alone

Gone to the joined immense that whole crowd

The {…} of a human |*gender| {…} groan

That was too deep too true to be loved

Save to the ear that could {…} dearth

And though much beyond unglad with the moan

Yet they found each could |*form| the best

Not musing on the spirit of the time

And etc etc

End

[1] undistinct ^{/maldidtinct\}

[2] wretched ^/wretching\

[3] the ^/its\