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 ^w Inferno 
 ijStephen Phillips 
 
FROM THE INCOME OF THE 
 
 FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE BEQUEST OF 
 
 lyibrarian of the University 1868-1883 
 1905 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR5172.N461911 
 
 The new inferno. 
 
 ■3T924 0l"3'535 483 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013535483 
 
THE NEW INFERNO 
 
BOOKS BY 
 MR. STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 POEMS ! with which is incorporated 
 "Christ in Hades" 
 Crown 8vo, 43. 6d, net 
 
 Fourteenth Edition 
 
 PAOLO & FRANCESCA : a Play 
 Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net 
 
 Twenty-Jifth Thousand 
 
 HEROD : a Tragedy, &c. 
 Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net 
 
 T'wenty-second Thousand 
 
 ULYSSES : a Drama 
 
 Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net 
 
 Tenth Thousand 
 
 NEW POEMS Second Edition 
 
 Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net 
 
 MARPESSA 
 
 Illustrated by Philip Connakd 
 In cloth, IS. net ; in leather. 
 Is. 6d. net 
 
THE NEW 
 INFERNO 
 
 BY 
 
 STEPflEN PHILLIPS 
 
 LONDON : JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD 
 NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXI 
 
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CANTO I 3 
 
 CANTO II ig 
 
 CANTO ni 35 
 
 CANTO IV 47 
 
 CANTO V 63 
 
 CANTO VI 79 
 
 CANTO VII 93 
 
 CANTO VIII 109 
 
 CANTO IX 129 
 
An Illustrated Edition de Luxe of this 
 Poem (limited to 300 copies, 250 for sale) 
 will be published with Sixteen Marvellous 
 Inventions by Vernon Hill Reproduced 
 in Facsimile. The size will be Large 
 Quarto and the Price One Guinea net. 
 
CANTO I 
 
CANTO I 
 
 I 
 
 Dreaming in starless night, it seemed that I, 
 Lifted in spirit arms, was outward borne. 
 Beyond the steadfast boundaries of the earth 
 And the invisible orb of the vast sun. 
 
 2 
 
 Then was I 'ware that one beside me was, 
 
 Whom I felt speaking rather than heard speak. 
 
 " One whom thou lovest and who still loves thee 
 
 Despatched me to thy side," the spirit said. 
 3 
 
4 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 
 " Even the full bliss of that mighty star, 
 Where she abides, thou hast the power to shake ; 
 And interrupt her earned felicity 
 By thy slow rust of sensuous indolence. 
 
 4 
 " Think not because thou hast no touch from her. 
 Nor any sound of voice, or whispered word, 
 Nor sudden sight by moonbeam, that at times 
 She is not very near to thee unseen. 
 
 S 
 " Though it is pain to her to approach the earth. 
 And though from life she flinches as from fire, 
 Yet in a deep concern of thee she comes. 
 To visit thee in silence suffering. 
 
CANTO I 5 
 
 6 
 
 " Or earthward gazes, stung with pain of thee, 
 She deems that thou hast better in thy soul 
 Than still to rail on at the world's neglect ; 
 Than still to coarsen what was once so fine. 
 
 7 
 " Therefore at her command have I come down, 
 
 To show thee spaces of the after-world ; 
 
 How spirits on this boundary suffer still. 
 
 That thou mayst tell mankind and clasp a crown. 
 
 8 
 " Rid now thy mind of the old priestly fear 
 That, after bodily death, the trembling spirit 
 Is haled before its Maker and its Judge 
 And, if its deeds were evil, sentenced straight. 
 
° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 
 " For who shall draw the undeviating line 
 That separates the evil from the good ? 
 And who presume to say ' This deed was bad. 
 This act was utter black but this sheer white ' ? 
 
 10 
 " Scarcely, with such simplicity, can life 
 Be straightly weighed and called to straight 
 
 account. 
 For conduct hath a twilight of its own ; 
 He that must judge must fare with dubious feet. 
 
 II 
 " Murder, ere now, hath righteousness been called 
 And peculation justice ; red revenge 
 How often justified ; and love itself 
 At times a virtue seems, at times a sin. 
 
CANTO I 7 
 
 12 
 
 " If then so deep the problem, difficult 
 The answer, how so swiftly, after death, 
 Shall he or she be sentenced or be spared ? 
 Death carries us into no higher Court. 
 
 13 
 " That most conspicuous catastrophe. 
 No change or alteration ever brings ; 
 But, as we die, the same, not otherwise, 
 The never-ending journey we pursue. 
 
 14 
 " Then fear no more the scroll, the dread assize ; 
 The vengeful judge, the throned Displeasure 
 
 fear; 
 Nor on the one side dread the fiery lake. 
 Nor on the other hope the sapphire heaven. 
 
° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 IS 
 
 " And proof of what I here declare to thee, 
 Ere I conduct thee safely through this space, 
 Thou shalt experience, in directer speech 
 With various spirits yet to Earth attached." 
 
 i6 
 
 Scarce had he spoken, when a furious shade, 
 New-loosed from Earth it seemed, by violence 
 
 borne 
 Blind as a twilight bat against us flew. 
 And hoarse and fast cried out unto us twain. 
 
 17 
 " You, you who of this space are habitants 
 Where can I on some means of vengeance light, 
 Procure some fell and spiritual aid. 
 Whereby I might attain to my revenge ? " 
 
CANTO I 9 
 
 I8 
 " Answer not thou " said to me then my guide ; 
 
 " Thou little art aware how perilous 
 
 Might be to thee thy answer " ; turning then 
 
 To the fierce shadow he thus questioned him : 
 
 " On whom dost thou seek vengeance in such 
 
 storm 
 Of whirling speech? Art thou but late from 
 
 Earth, 
 And earthly memories fire thy spirit still ? 
 Is it a vengeance there that thou wouldst have ? " 
 
 20 
 " Behold then," cried the shadow, " this dim scar 
 
 That hath not left me, 'tis the hangman's rope, 
 
 That marked my body there, and here my soul ; 
 
 Hither from execution am I whirled. 
 
■° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 " True that in jealous madness I shed blood, 
 But yet I stooped not to the cup prepared, 
 Or took by treachery a traitor's breath. 
 With full and open blow I stretched him dead. 
 
 22 
 
 "For this condemned, they pinioned me and 
 
 broke 
 My neck with ceremony, and while I breathed, 
 A priest the ritual of the already dead 
 Declaimed, the slow procession moving on. 
 
 23 
 " Though of that strangled body I am quit, 
 I feel even now the swaying drop and fall, 
 And strong remembrance recreates the flesh 
 That suffers still in spiritual place." 
 
CANTO I " 
 
 24 
 
 " See now," said he who stood beside me, " how 
 His barren rage calls up companions, 
 And lowest spirits from their furious gloom ! 
 His thought attracts them to him from their lair. 
 
 25 
 " No need is here for a single spoken word ; 
 It is enough that he for vengeance pants ; 
 Others, whose life is rage, will quickly rise. 
 From utter gloom and whisper in his ear. 
 
 26 
 
 " For what is earthly fury and barren rage. 
 Fruitless, inspiring no^Jiing ; but an echo, 
 The hollow echo of a silly deed. 
 An answer, yet no answer profitless? 
 
•2 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 27 
 
 " Beware then how thou bringest memory 
 Beyond the grave ; or wrath beyond the tomb ! 
 This shall but summon thee companions, 
 To aid, and draw thee down into their night. 
 
 28 
 " See then " ; I looked, and round about him rose, 
 Out of what pit or quagmire of the soul 
 I know not, shapes more hideous than our 
 
 dreams 
 Conceive of fiends or demons in midnight. 
 
 29 
 Round him they buzzed, besieging still his ear, 
 Suggesting that at which a dreadful glee 
 Lighted his face, and in his hateful eyes 
 Sent sudden joy, a joy by demons wrought. 
 
CANTO I '3 
 
 With them he went, whither I cannot tell ; 
 But on some furious expedition bent ; 
 Schooled and advised, by sager wickedness, 
 To wreak his vengeance at whate'er the cost. 
 
 31 
 
 " Fear thou then, and have care lest thou attract. 
 To be thy close companions and thy friends, 
 Thosewhom,perchance,apassing lawless thought 
 Has given the easy pass-word to thy mind. 
 
 32 
 " For not alone can thoughts of vengeance draw 
 Horrible shapes of fury from the abyss ; 
 But, no less fearful, thoughts of lustful fire 
 Can summon lecherous legions from the deep." 
 
'4 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 33 
 
 Then said I "But can these arisen fiends, 
 These summoned ministers of deepest hell, 
 Assail alone the dead ; or can they too 
 Instil into the living ear, and urge ? " 
 
 34 
 "To those who live and who still walk the 
 
 earth," 
 He answered, " these same shapes are perilous. 
 If but encouraged, or not thwarted, these 
 Can murmur worse than thunder in the ear. 
 
 35 
 " How many a one hath to the gallows gone, 
 Or hath been sent, in agony, to pine 
 In solitary cell and durance dark 
 And penal silence that destroys the brain ! 
 
CANTO I «S 
 
 36 
 
 " How many a one, by the unseeing judge, 
 All unaware of how the air is thronged 
 By presences pernicious and of power, 
 Hath lightly been despatched to utter doom ? 
 
 37 
 " Yet could he view, as I have viewed so oft, 
 The hideous song and frantic triumphing 
 Of these same spirits, that had lured a soul, 
 Perhaps the voice that sentenced would have 
 shook." 
 
CANTO II 
 
CANTO II 
 
 I 
 
 Still rapt by those same arms that heretofore 
 Had with such strength upheld me, I was borne 
 Into a region cold : the thrilling chill 
 Inflicted frost upon my very soul. 
 
 2 
 
 Now the cold region more I realised 
 
 And clearer saw the place wherein we stood : 
 
 A world of falling snow and glittering ice, 
 
 Of frozen seas and sparkling pinnacles. 
 19 
 
20 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 
 Yet a dead beauty had those wintry spires, 
 A brilliant silence : " Ah what land is this, 
 What country, under more than Arctic chill, 
 Whither thou hast conveyed me?" I exclaimed. 
 
 4 
 " Behold the Cause ! " he answered, and I saw 
 All motionless, upon a frozen Alp, 
 With dreary stare and hands behind him clasped, 
 The Corsican who shook and lost the world. 
 
 5 
 " Is this the image of that dire retreat, 
 When blazing Moscow left him to the snows. 
 And all those legions to an endless frost. 
 Winter, not war, that eagle baffled there ? " 
 
CANTO II 21 
 
 6 
 
 " The Scenery of Ambition here behold," 
 He answered : " and a world of his own mind. 
 Pitiless power hath reared this sombre sky, 
 And ruthless Will this dazzling cold creates. 
 
 7 
 " He thrills from him those spires and crags of 
 
 frost, 
 Reflecting the cold splendour of his dreams. 
 They rise not but by him inspired to rise, 
 And fixed in the cold fury of his soul. 
 
 8 
 " Here his imagination kills the bird, 
 Nor any pasturing creature ventures here, 
 Nor any shy nor gentle thing presumes 
 To mar this glittering desert of the mind. 
 
22 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 
 " Shall any flower in this imperial frost, 
 Or grass amid this mental winter, grow ? 
 The spirit its own scenery creates, 
 And his own thought attracts these floes and 
 bergs." 
 
 lO 
 
 Then, as he spoke, slow flakes began to fall. 
 And white in his own dreams the Emperor 
 
 stood. 
 Roofed by the purple vault of his own mind. 
 And glassed upon a glacier of the soul. 
 
 II 
 
 But when the dreamy storm had ceased to fall. 
 
 Then I perceived how many others stood 
 Around him. Marshals, Captains, soldiers old. 
 Comrades of many battles of the Earth. 
 
CANTO II 23 
 
 12 
 
 Then said I, " Though he rears this world of ice 
 By his own thought, and by his will it stands, 
 Yet these, who still surround him, why do they, 
 Being dead, in the eternal winter live ? " 
 
 13 
 He answered " That same will that hurled them 
 
 then 
 Through Europe, for his sake, still binds them 
 
 here; 
 Though dead, their old fidelity they keep. 
 And all those ghosts to the old eagles throng." 
 
 And still I gazed, and saw how flags they bore. 
 Holy from Areola and Austerlitz, 
 And last with tears that Old Guard I beheld, 
 Dead veterans updrawn in silent line. 
 
24 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 But I no longer could restrain approach 
 To that Grand Prisoner ; and upward climbed 
 By frozen hill and crag, until I stood 
 Before him to have audience of the dead. 
 
 16 
 
 " Motionless Emperor, in this ice engaged, 
 Still on the Earth, while other glories fade. 
 And all into oblivion surely steal. 
 Thy glory waxes, and thy deeds enthrall. 
 
 17 
 " Not least indeed in our foam-sundered isle. 
 Whither sea-gazing thou didst crouch to spring, 
 Art thou in all imaginations throned, 
 Thy face than any living face more real." 
 
CANTO II 2S 
 
 I8 
 He answered, as if answering his own mind 
 Rather than me who spoke, " Behold me caged 
 Here as on earth ! When I had died, I thought, 
 I shall be freed at least if in despair ! 
 
 19 
 " What is this region where I am confined ? 
 Am I a peril to the universe ? 
 And is it feared I shall lay siege to suns, 
 Or bring to planetary battle stars ? 
 
 20 
 " How is this happier than still to and fro 
 To pace the Helena shingle, or to gaze 
 Wistful across the waters evermore ? 
 What Power that is not Europe holds me still ? 
 
26 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 " And yet behold ! this army leaves me not, 
 Their loyalty unshaken by the grave, 
 They stayed not stark upon the battle-field, 
 But being spirits hasted to my side. 
 
 22 
 
 " These are'not happy, save with me unhappy, 
 Their only bliss my sorrow is to share. 
 They would reject a heaven where I am not. 
 And hurry to a hell were I but there." 
 
 23 
 So saying through the host he passed along, 
 I with him, yet a fear took hold on me 
 And awe of him, with whom I silent passed. 
 To see dead men saluting still the dead. 
 
CANTO II 27 
 
 24 
 
 He stayed : " Doth any sun," he murmured still, 
 
 " Into this region peer, or any rain 
 
 Fall on this fixed monotony of ice ; 
 
 Hath God mislaid the secret of the flower ? " 
 
 25 
 As he was speaking, stole a woman up 
 
 Toward him, whose pictured countenance I 
 
 knew. 
 
 Easily passed she o'er the fields of ice ; 
 
 And he beholding her, aloud exclaimed : 
 
 26 
 " O art thou, art thou Josephine indeed ? 
 
 Once were we two how happy on the Earth, 
 
 Till politic fear of an extinguished line 
 
 Divorced thee from my arms though not my 
 
 heart. 
 
28 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 27 
 
 " And left me but a garden and memory." 
 She answered : " But why here dost thou abide, 
 Quenched after death as thou wast quenched in 
 
 life, 
 Reviewing ghostly armies in the snow ? " 
 
 28 
 
 " What Power consigned me here, I cannot tell," 
 He muttered : " but this prison-house of ice 
 I feel I cannot break ; indeed it seems 
 Climate and atmosphere of my own soul." 
 
 29 
 " When I had died," she answered, " I was rapt 
 Into a region all of streams and flowers, 
 Where gentle creatures in a glory moved, 
 And spoke to me in voices low and sweet. 
 
CANTO 11 29 
 
 " But ah ! I withered 'mid celestial flowers, 
 And listened to those voices, hearing not : 
 Sudden thy white face in the garden came. 
 The cold of thee was dearer than that warmth. 
 
 31 
 " I wandered in felicity of woe, 
 
 Remembered amid glory earthly grief. 
 
 The thought of thee threw pallor on those blooms, 
 
 And I began to explore all space for thee. 
 
 32 
 " And many stars and planets I approached. 
 But heard in all the universe no news. 
 Till one I met who told me thou didst live 
 Excluded in a winter of the mind. 
 
3° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 33 
 
 " And in some heartless glory of bright ice 
 Thou didst abide, a lord of armies yet. 
 So to this frozen country have I pierced, 
 Whose numbness gives a pause to love itself 
 
 34 
 " For I had learned that happiness requires 
 Not fruit nor flower nor sweet society, 
 But thrives upon a sternness of the soul, 
 And hath as much of fire in it as light." 
 
 35 
 When she had spoken, to the Emperor's eyes 
 Came a new softness, and in silence both 
 Long looked upon each other ; so that I 
 From that communion like a pagan stole. 
 
CANTO n 3' 
 
 36 
 Then as that softness on the imperial brow 
 Grew, I beheld a few flowers venture up 
 Near to his feet ; and that new tenderness 
 Brought from the vault some faltering drops of 
 dew. 
 
CANTO III 
 
CANTO III 
 
 I 
 
 Yet did that tenderness not long abide ; 
 Again returned the cold and fixed stare : 
 So slow the process of omnipotence, 
 So loth to hurry the immortal soul. 
 
 2 
 
 And she, beseeching him, with arms outstretched 
 
 And shining eyes of sorrow, drew away, 
 
 Over the snow, like to some creature true 
 
 Commanded home, that turns and turns again. 
 35 
 
36 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 
 She vanished, and still colder left that world, 
 Those few flowers withered up, and no dew fell. 
 " There is no future for this fixed mind," 
 He murmured, " I abide but in the past." 
 
 4 
 
 And as he spoke, I saw how drifted past 
 Remembered battle-fields of many lands, 
 Now Syrian sands beneath a blistering sun. 
 Now fields of moonlit grass, now crimson snow. 
 
 S 
 And now arose a wailing on a wind. 
 And in a still procession past him stole 
 Myriads of women, mothers, daughters, wives, 
 Each carrying with them scarred ensanguined 
 forms. 
 
CANTO III 37 
 
 6 
 
 And as they passed, they paused and showed 
 
 to him 
 Marred husbands, wounded fathers, and pierced 
 
 sons. 
 Silent I wept : their dead they seemed to bring 
 Like dreadful gifts to lay them at his feet. 
 
 7 
 And now, behind, more furious faces seen, 
 
 A storm of hands, a tempest of wild arms, 
 
 Invoking from above the Eternal wrath. 
 
 All in a silence worse than any cry. 
 
 8 
 Then, thinking I might move him to a tear, 
 
 "Art thou not moved," I said," by all these ghosts, 
 
 Ecich carrying its burden owed to thee, 
 
 And yonder frenzied faces and wild arms ? " 
 
38 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 
 " Too many fields, too many dead have I," 
 
 He answered, "coldly viewed beneath the moon, 
 
 Now to be moved : what once had brought me 
 
 tears 
 Passes me by, so used to human woe." 
 
 lo 
 
 " Therefore," said I, " this ice surrounds thee, sire, 
 
 And therefore art thou caged in thy own cold. 
 A single tear this mountain would dissolve, 
 A solitary sigh that ocean melt." 
 
 II 
 
 He heard not, spoke not, stirred not : but re- 
 mained 
 Placid, while still those myriad women passed. 
 Each laying her own tribute at his feet. 
 Behind the silent tempest of wild arms. 
 
CANTO III 39 
 
 12 
 Seeing no hope, I turned and found my guide, 
 Who all the while had stood in thought apart. 
 " Now take me hence," I cried, " he stands un- 
 moved, 
 Nor wounds, nor blood, nor fury changes him. 
 
 13 
 " O shall this desolate winter of the soul 
 
 For aye endure ; and must ambition here 
 
 Spend everlasting years in endless ice. 
 
 Though self-created ? Is no limit set ? " 
 
 He answered, " Not for ever shall this snow 
 Hold him. At last the human tenderness. 
 Or the world-pity to his brain shall steal. 
 And all the numb Inferno shall dissolve. 
 
4° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 IS 
 
 " Then shall be heard again the voice of the bird 
 And all this desert burst to leaf and bloom, 
 Perhaps a young face on those battle-fields, 
 Which float before him still, shall wring his heart. 
 
 i6 
 " Then shall those heavy legions be dismissed, 
 And on a kindlier flight that eagle soar. 
 Not now to bloody plains, but on some quest 
 Of sunnier purpose, brighter ministry." 
 
 17 
 " Why then," I said, " doth not Omnipotence 
 Suddenly strike a warmth into his heart, 
 And, intervening, end his world of ice. 
 Release the mighty prisoner from himself? " 
 
CANTO III 4" 
 
 l8 
 
 " The slow Benignity that upward draws us," 
 He answered, " intervenes and hastens not ; 
 A dreadful leisure is permitted us, 
 An endless leave to shun felicity. 
 
 19 
 
 " Were it not so, how hollow were that bliss, 
 How unperpetual, not self-built and sure ! 
 In his own time Napoleon shall dissolve 
 His self-created hell of dazzling ice." 
 
 20 
 When he had spoken, rose a sound of storm, 
 And all the glittering region moaned and sighed, 
 I trembled and clung fast unto my guide, 
 Who held me to him as a father might. 
 
42 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 Now falling pyramids I seemed to see, 
 And toppling cities, fire, and burning towns, 
 Whirlwinds of cavalry, storms of spears, and 
 
 heard 
 Trumpets and neighing.drums, cannon,and cries. 
 
 22 
 
 " Fear not," the Shadow said, " for that which 
 
 seems 
 An earthy tempest here is but the storm 
 Raised by his mind, a thunder of the soul. 
 The electric tumult of some memory." 
 
 23 
 Sudden as tropic anger it had passed. 
 
 And all again grew glittering and still. 
 
 " Tell to the world what here thou hast beheld," 
 
 He said, " and thus to her some solace bring." 
 
CANTO III 43 
 
 24 
 So saying in his arms he lifted me. 
 Then a deep sleep came down upon my eyes, 
 Till slowly on the Earth at dawn I woke, 
 And heard the bird beginning in the leaves. 
 
 25 
 How good to hear the patter of earthly rain, 
 After that silent arctic of the soul ; 
 Noises of summer dawn, and far away 
 A sweet monotony of creeping seas ! 
 
CANTO IV 
 
CANTO IV 
 
 I 
 
 In falling gloom and hour of kindling lights, 
 It seemed that from the body I was borne 
 Upward, until upon the bounds of Earth 
 Hovering, I felt near by my former guide, 
 
 2 
 " Not now," he said, " to glittering winter spires, 
 Or frozen ocean or dumb fields of snow. 
 Which pitiless Ambition rears and holds, 
 
 Making its proper scenery in the void ; 
 
 47 
 
4= THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 " Not now into Napoleon's mental ice, 
 Shall I convey thee, but slow, wandering, 
 In the near atmosphere shall we abide, 
 Contented with the boundaries of the Earth. 
 
 4 
 " Here may we see and here perhaps have speech 
 With those who, of the body now bereft, 
 Have not put off the body's appetites, 
 Spirits enchained in memories of the flesh. 
 
 5 
 " Millions about the Earth and on the Earth 
 Revisit still the scenery of their sins. 
 And cannot tear them from the ancient lure, 
 Which made that mortal life so briefly sweet. 
 
CANTO IV 49 
 
 6 
 
 " Here one still craving, without lips of flesh, 
 The ancient draught, though dead, yet still 
 
 athirst. 
 Another, though his body long ago 
 Has rotted, still with the old lust inflamed. 
 
 7 
 " A quivering spectator he can still 
 Behold the couch, the lamp, the hot embrace, 
 And from the living spectrally enjoy, 
 Possessing them, a furious habitant. 
 
 8 
 " Or on some famous city's pavement stand, 
 A dreadful and invisible introducer 
 Of breathing women unto breathing men, 
 With ghostly smile and shadowy invitation. 
 
5° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 
 " Or here a mother that in vain pursues, 
 
 From place to place, from hour to hour, unseen, 
 
 Her deeply loved and deeply tended son ; 
 
 He, deaf to her, plunges through pleasure down. 
 
 10 
 " Here the seducer, stung with strong remorse. 
 Follows, with wild, inaudible entreaty, 
 Her whom he softly motioned hell-ward first ; 
 But she his lesson taught too well has learned. 
 
 II 
 
 " Here one so deeply injured, that the grave 
 Cannot distract him from his injury. 
 His living enemy pursues. These ghosts 
 Not any stars nor peace from Earth can draw. 
 
CANTO IV S' 
 
 12 
 
 " And here a tender woman cannot leave 
 Home and the old trees and the rising spire, 
 Or the familiar room where still he sits, 
 Gazing before him, fixed in memory." 
 
 13 
 
 Sudden a spirit Earthward-flying stayed 
 His flight, beholding us, and cried aloud, 
 " Ye who are dead, yet still ye can enjoy. 
 Away with me ! Pleasure hath perished not. 
 
 14 
 " Look on me, though beneath the sunlit sward. 
 And peaceful steeple where my father taught. 
 My body long since mouldered, yet I taste 
 Still the old rapture, still I live and lust. 
 
52 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 " Aye, though our flesh is to corruption turned, 
 Yet can we borrow bodies of the living. 
 And these inhabiting with these enjoy. 
 Using their eyes, their ears, their lips, their hands. 
 
 16 
 
 " Away ! away ! the earthly night begins ! 
 Then hurl yourselves with me back to the world, 
 Shatter this grey monotony of gloom. 
 Still joy and laughter, and all desire endures." 
 
 17 
 " Were it not," said my guide, " that I perceive 
 Fall on you a divine, defending dew, 
 I would not urge you on this perilous flight. 
 But being so aided we will go with, him." 
 
CANTO IV S3 
 
 I8 
 
 Imagining from these his fearful words, 
 That to some town of torment we were bound, 
 Yet now familiar all the place appeared, 
 Streets, buildings, spires as in a dream arose, 
 
 19 
 The ancient river running, whose grey wave 
 Is heavy with the bodies of the unhappy, 
 And rolleth slow with all those memories, 
 And tardy from the plunge of desperate hands. 
 
 20 
 " Whither now are we come?" I asked my guide. 
 That to some crimson hell we three were making 
 I feared, yet in my fear desired to view. 
 " Is this not London, that the dome of Paul ? " 
 
54 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 " This is that city where his life was Hved, 
 And in no other city can he live. 
 His thirst contracted, and his lust indulged, 
 Still backward hither whirls the yearning ghost." 
 
 22 
 Instantly in a tavern of old time 
 We hovered to and fro ; the place I knew, 
 The spurt of the drawn cork, the sippers weary, 
 The hazy fume, tobacco's clinging reek. 
 
 23 
 Reflected, women upon benches sat, 
 Grown garrulous with gin, and silly tears 
 Started to foolish eyes, as they repeat 
 All the pent trouble of long alleys drear. 
 
CANTO IV SS 
 
 24 
 
 But gazing on a scene so well remembered, 
 Sudden my eyes were opened, and I saw 
 That all the air was dense with ghostly forms, 
 Urging, cajoling these who lived, to drink. 
 
 25 
 O listen, thou who readest or dost lean 
 Easily o'er the counter all regarding, 
 Blinded with eyes, and by the ear made deaf. 
 Ah, couldst thou see but once as now I saw ! 
 
 26 
 For as the living drank, the dead did drink, 
 And through the living satiated thirst, 
 That not the grave or long corrupted flesh 
 Could stifle ; still a borrowed joy they drew. 
 
S6 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 27 
 
 Here one that turned to go, yet turned again, 
 Led backward by some spirit unsatisfied. 
 I saw the very dead reel to and fro, 
 And ghosts that stumbled, slept, and wept and 
 laughed. 
 
 28 
 And this not all ; lightnings of lust were sent 
 
 From living eyes through the dense fume and 
 
 haze, 
 
 Instilled by shadows yearning still for blood, 
 
 And for the corporal means of old desire. 
 
 29 
 And here a girl that laughed a wicked laugh. 
 
 But I, I only, knew wherefore she laughed. 
 
 Another laughed behind her ; and at times 
 
 I saw the dead into the living pass ; 
 
CANTO IV S7 
 
 Possess and use them ; moving as they moved, 
 Drinking as they drank, lusting with their lust, 
 And all transparent human bodies seemed 
 With furious real inhabitants in them. 
 
 31 
 But now the vision of the tavern smote 
 My heart so sorely, to my guide I said, 
 " Hence let us fly, and for a time at least 
 Forget," and on the word we passed without 
 
 32 
 Still hovering on the boundary of the Earth, 
 " How," said I, " with this hell shall be compared 
 That pale Elysium of futile folk. 
 Imagined by the Hellenes, and the slow stream? 
 
S8 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 33 
 
 " How shall that shadowy kingdom of vain shapes 
 Surpass in terror or in thought that scene ? 
 Or formal torment by the Italian shown, 
 Physical anguish, with that sight compare ? 
 
 34 
 " For now I see that Hell no city is. 
 Nor place appointed, that no judge presides, 
 Nor our Creator in his anger sits 
 To sentence, and to punish the freed soul. 
 
 35 
 " Far worse ! the stain contracted leaves us not. 
 
 No deepest grave obliterates a fault, 
 
 But to the Earth the immortal spirit clings, 
 
 And being spirit in greater madness burns. 
 
CANTO IV 59 
 
 36 
 
 " How then shall living creatures to account 
 Be called, if urged by these besieging ghosts ? 
 How do I sin, if one within me sins. 
 Using my body for remembered guilt ? 
 
 37 
 " How many crimes, if we the truth could gauge, 
 
 H ave been committed by the dead ? What thefts, 
 
 What murder, madness, ravishing, disease. 
 
 The furious dead through living things have 
 
 wrought ? 
 
 38 
 " Who then can say henceforth : ' This act was 
 
 mine ' ? 
 
 Awful the white throne in the heaven set. 
 
 The separation of the sheep and goats. 
 
 But ah, far worse, the human will to lose. 
 
6o THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 39 
 
 " Far worse to be the living house of these, 
 Whom we have seen, or even more miserable. 
 Ourselves to inhabit others wickedly, 
 Still to promote, impel, persuade to guilt." 
 
 40 
 My guide replied to me : " But answer that 
 And all is answered, the long why of time ; 
 Little more light as yet have I than thou ; 
 iEons alone this question shall resolve. 
 
 41 
 
 " But others are there of a different bent, 
 Yet clinging earthward, on far other quests, 
 By sorrow more than fury here impelled ! 
 One now approaches, we will speak with her." 
 
CANTO V 
 
CANTO V 
 
 I 
 
 A WOMAN towards us flying with wild arms 
 I now perceived, who flying cried aloud 
 " O you, if you have suffered, aid me now ! 
 If any still you love on yonder Earth. 
 
 2 
 
 " There is a lovely star, set round with peace. 
 
 Which nightly I would gaze at from the Earth, 
 
 Pondering its glory amid evening dew ; 
 
 Thither at death with ease I did arise. 
 63 
 
^4 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 
 " There flowers at last can speak unto the soul 
 With delicate voices half of bloom and scent, 
 Murmur to odour, and odour to murmur blown, 
 And gardens send deep music to the heart. 
 
 4 
 " And trees are there which lull to a perfect sleep 
 And seas with silent foam from fairy land, 
 And birds that reconciled us unto God, 
 When dawns were ghostly and when moons 
 were low. 
 
 5 
 " There spirits who have suffered slide though 
 
 calm 
 Stealing as swans upon the unruffled stream ; 
 Our life is to forget that we have lived ; 
 Recovering from the bright wound of the Sun. 
 
CANTO V 6s 
 
 6 
 
 " Yet, tho' so needed, yet this peace I left ; 
 Since neither flowers that speak at last to souls, 
 Nor birds of the low Moon, nor fairy heave 
 Of foam, could e'er one memory dispel. 
 
 7 
 " My son ! my son ! " So piercingly she cried, 
 That all that lovely star had faded quite, 
 And with us was a woman in her woe, 
 And wild and weak and of the tragic Earth, 
 
 8 
 " Such hopes I had of him ! His father now 
 Is vanished into gloom I cannot pierce, 
 Sunk in some deep and spiritual gulph, 
 I cannot reach him ; but the boy yet breathes. 
 
66 
 
 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 " Aid me to stay him in headlong career ! 
 He grew beside me like a rosy day, 
 That rises in silent summer without cloud. 
 Did he but stir in sleep, my day had come, 
 
 lO 
 
 " Like the lashed pane my face was in its tears, 
 When in the aisle I kneeled and first his lips 
 Touched from the cup the blood that seemeth 
 
 wine. 
 If prayer could save, already was he saved. 
 
 II 
 " Too much perhaps I sheltered him ; too close 
 Watched every step and pondered every word. 
 Then luring London caught him from my arms, 
 And his first manhood into madness plunged. 
 
CANTO V 67 
 
 12 
 
 " Wine and the lips of women him enthrall, 
 And I being dead through him have learned of 
 
 life 
 More than I living guessed ; Earth to have left 
 Is Earth to know at last, alas how well. 
 
 13 
 " Yet still I leave him not and I endure 
 The tossing bed, the night that burneth down 
 To ashy morning ; can ye not conceive 
 How from the scene I quail, yet quailing stay. 
 
 14 
 " He cannot bear my earnest, earnest words. 
 Nor see this face that hath survived the tear, 
 And if he once remembers, thinks me cold 
 For ever and beyond the reach of grief. 
 
68 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 " So am I still spectator of these sins, 
 And in a meek obedience follow him 
 To tavern and to parlour fruitlessly. 
 They call me from your violet star in vain. 
 
 16 
 " He lied that wrote ' she sleepeth ' on my 
 
 tomb, 
 There is no slumber for immortal souls. 
 Now I am further from my God since death. 
 Than in the old credulity of life. 
 
 17 
 " Can ye not aid me ? " Turning to my guide, 
 " Thou seemest strong, and of authority. 
 Able to pierce the porches of the ear, 
 And with a sudden sight astound the eye." 
 
CANTO V ^ 
 
 l8 
 
 " Fain would I help, were help permitted me," 
 Answered my guide, " but here I cannot stir, 
 Feeling no deep commission from on high. 
 Nor special leave transmitted from above. 
 
 " I on a different errand am despatched, 
 And with no less of love have I been winged, 
 Than thou thyself; the time, the hour, none 
 
 knows, 
 But what thou seekest, the high leisure grants." 
 
 20 
 "Thy grief! What is thy grief with mine 
 
 compared ? " 
 Broke in another voice, and I beheld 
 One so distraught, and by such memories urged, 
 That even the grieving woman I forgot. 
 
7° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 "Thou hast not sinned, thou hast not led to 
 
 doom, 
 However deep thy woe," this spirit cried. 
 " Thou wouldst reclaim what thou hast injured 
 
 not, 
 I cannot save her that to doom I sent. 
 
 22 
 
 " I even as thou am following, following ever. 
 And follow evermore as thou in vain, 
 But with a dreadful difference pursue, 
 I cannot stay what first I kissed to hell. 
 
 23 
 " And the sweet Earth did aid us to this woe ; 
 
 Dew and the Moon and fragrance of the field. 
 
 Her mother's harshness and blind blood of youth, 
 
 Drew to that grassy couch of endless woe ! 
 
CANTO V 71 
 
 24 
 " So sweet, so brief! and for all time to pay! 
 O, who shall measure inconsiderate joy ? 
 Or put a period to one moment's lust ? 
 Eternity avenges a wild kiss. 
 
 25 
 " She then whom ne'er I loved, but then desired. 
 
 Is now a market for the drunkard's purse, 
 
 At beck and call ; her heart is turned to stone, 
 
 She paces without soul the London flags. 
 
 26 
 " Vain were all living voices in her ear. 
 Vain the appeal of woman or of man, 
 A dreadful smiling is her sole reply. 
 But vain, more vain, the accent of the dead. 
 
72 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 27 
 " From street to street to tavern house and 
 
 bridge, 
 I, but a fruitless shadow, her pursue ; 
 And in her maddest moment am I near. 
 Beseeching still the ruin I have made. 
 
 28 
 " Ah God, could I regain the corporal power, 
 The hands, the human speech, the touch of 
 
 Earth ! 
 I am so near, yet further than the Sun, 
 How close, and yet more distant than a star ! 
 
 29 
 " No sea that ever rolled 'twixt living souls 
 So severs as the river we call Death, 
 Ah, is not my repentance deep, my pain 
 Sufficient, hath the human fault no cure ? 
 
CANTO V 73 
 
 " She whom so lightly on this path I sent, 
 Hath now become my lonely universe, 
 And laughter and soft whispers weave a hell. 
 A little madness : what sane punishment ! 
 
 31 
 " So am I her companion till she die ; 
 And being dead what meeting will be ours ! 
 What disembodied accusation hers ! 
 What challenge by the spirit free of flesh ! 
 
 32 
 " Into what gulph, what darkness may she pass, 
 By me invited, by a few soft words, 
 Plunged into ageless gloom ; that soul is mine. 
 Mine by its memory, by its ruin mine ! 
 
74 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 33 
 
 " Now must I hence and close attend on her, 
 In wild and vain entreaty." Saying thus 
 He vanished, and the woman with him fled. 
 Back to the Earth to shadowy labour vain ! 
 
 34 
 " Not all by fury or by misery 
 Are earth-bound," said my guide, " that woman 
 
 see 
 Who softly as a twilight bird returns 
 To the remembered trees and fields of earth." 
 
 35 
 Toward us she floated, gentle as a dove. 
 Quite without pain, at peace upon the air, 
 No anguish, and no trouble discomposed 
 Her placid face, or quiet brow disturbed. 
 
CANTO V 75 
 
 36 
 " Thou, thou," I said, " who so serenely goest 
 Whither so many go in agony, 
 Back to the Earth ; what human quest is thine. 
 On what sweet errand dost thou calmly pass ? " 
 
 37 
 " I am not freed as yet of earthly thought," 
 She answered, " though a starry home is mine, 
 Yet still from time to time I must return. 
 Revisit the old garden and the house. 
 
 38 
 " And he, he sits most lonely, whom I loved 
 Through the long years of difficulty dark, 
 He knows not I am with him in the room. 
 Or that I walk beside him in the field. 
 
76 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 39 
 
 " Hard is the separation without sound, 
 But I in silent knowledge visit him, 
 Printing a spirit kiss on earthly brows, 
 I cannot speak, I touch him and depart. 
 
 40 
 " There comes a luring from more lustrous orbs, 
 There steals a summons from more perfect stars, 
 But in no brighter light could I abide 
 As yet ; the imperfect Earth enthralls me still." 
 
 41 
 So speaking quietly she floated down, 
 Reseeking the old places of the Earth, 
 And Earthward was I whirled without a thought. 
 Till I awoke in dawn remembering. 
 
CANTO VI 
 
CANTO VI 
 
 I 
 Thence onward journeying, a dreadful hush 
 Worse than all tempest, or despairing cries, 
 Seized on my spirit till at last he stood 
 Amid a heavy region without sound. 
 
 2 
 
 " Behold these prostrate forms ! " the spirit said, 
 
 " All these upon themselves laid violent hands. 
 
 Some poison drank ; some slit the vein and died. 
 
 Here now they lie as though they ne'er would 
 
 rise. 
 
 79 
 
So 
 
 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 
 " For to a spiritual exile these 
 Are now committed ; if they lie not thus 
 Then do they wander outcast in the void ; 
 No place appointed, homeless as are winds." 
 
 4 
 " But these,'' I said, " I know not from what 
 
 cause 
 Self-slain ; requested no permission 
 Or leave to live the difiScult Earthly span. 
 They sued not sunbeam, no, nor falling dew. 
 
 5 
 " Elected to exist, chosen to breathe. 
 Or creatures of the last cup of the night 
 Born of an animal whim, or sudden clasp. 
 They battered them against the Earthly law. 
 
CANTO VI 8i 
 
 6 
 " And some with wild impulses of the blood 
 Inherited ; by insane thirst or lust 
 Transmitted, from the cradle to the grave 
 Fettered and futile, beaten from the start ; 
 
 7 
 " The odds too heavy, howsoe'er gallant 
 The rush and desperate thunder to the goal. 
 Places can kill, the very streets can slay, 
 And sad conditions wear away the soul. 
 
 8 
 " Why then should these, and many such there 
 
 be, 
 Not put away the cup they loathe to quaff? 
 Hurled upon life, they know not why or whence, 
 And sentenced to the womb without their leave, 
 
 G 
 
^2 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 
 " Why even here should doom pursue this folk, 
 Exiled thou sayest and from bliss cut off, 
 The sad result of a wild midnight kiss, 
 To be for aye excluded in the dusk ? 
 
 lo 
 " Why should one then be forced upon the 
 
 wrack, 
 Or driven to the shambles like a cow ; 
 Scenting the place, yet onward plied with blows. 
 What final wisdom lies behind this woe ? 
 
 II 
 
 " Or are we to suppose the universe 
 Does by a whirling accident cohere, 
 That myriad atoms, as Lucretius thought. 
 Combined to build this orb as now it rolls ? 
 
CANTO VI 83 
 
 12 
 
 " Then were this causeless misery explained, 
 That man, o'er sensitive, by accident 
 Slowly into a cold world did arise, 
 More moral than his Maker, suffers thus. 
 
 13 
 
 " For even from what little has been seen, 
 I see no reason for the inflicted pain, 
 Unless some demon gloats upon the woe. 
 And wrings from torture his sole happiness. 
 
 14 
 " And yet the grand process of Nature makes 
 Against this thought fantastic. Nature too. 
 Not cruel, but indifferent to pain. 
 Slowly her path she goes, and cares for none. 
 
84 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 IS 
 
 " Yet she can suffer even the helpless sheep 
 Prostrate to lie while his two eyes are wrung 
 Out from his head by the black wandering crow, 
 O she is full of torture and of toil ! 
 
 i6 
 
 " And hundreds upon thousands will she whelm 
 By earthquake : women, children without cause. 
 These innocent lives by sudden crash dissolved, 
 What had they done to be in dark involved ? 
 
 17 
 " If then no cause nor reason we can find 
 For sudden death's deliberate cruelty 
 There on the Earth, here too the law will hold. 
 And in the world of spirits the sane mind." 
 
CANTO VI 8s 
 
 I8 
 " Now think and tremble ! " said to me my 
 
 guide ; 
 
 " Consider yonder prostrate woman form ! 
 
 She drugged herself into a dreamy death 
 
 Endeavouring to escape the edge of life, 
 
 19 
 " A spirit beautiful in all things else ; 
 
 But unto her intolerable grew 
 
 The to and fro of life ; and slightest things 
 
 Better put by, had power to stab her soul. 
 
 20 
 " Until a careless gesture or wild word 
 
 Was brooded on till solemn it appeared, 
 
 And fraught with all too false significance 
 
 She hugged slight injuries and clasped them 
 
 close. 
 
86 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 " And ever with more melancholy rose 
 The sun, and with more misery the moon ; 
 And she beheld the stars but through her tears, 
 Yet a few flowers with passion would she tend. 
 
 22 
 
 " And nearest came she to a kind of peace 
 When over them in earliest dew she leaned. 
 But being in an agony one night 
 With pain, the sleepy drug that was her doom 
 
 23 
 " Was given her by authority ; and she 
 Henceforward that oblivion could not fly, 
 Nor false forgetfulness could ever shun. 
 And still more languid through the months she 
 grew. 
 
CANTO VI 87 
 
 24 
 
 " At length she passed unconscious to this 
 
 place 
 Now listen and of Time take thou account ! 
 'Tis sixty years as measured on the Earth 
 That she hath lain as now thou seest her lie. 
 
 25 
 " And only now, and slow, from time to time, 
 Comes a slight stir upon her, as a brief 
 Awakening shiver on that fell repose 
 And centuries may pass ere she shall rouse." 
 
 26 
 I on the slumbering form long gazing stood 
 And never a quiver or slight tremble passed 
 Over that drugged recumbency of soul 
 For opium furnished her eternity. 
 
88 
 
 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 27 
 
 Then said I, " Here again the punishment 
 Seems all too mighty for the weakness shown, 
 She did but tranquillise the flinching nerve 
 And lacked the courage the drear days to face ? 
 
 28 
 " And why if this so heinous is a sin, 
 To snatch at laudanum and opium, 
 To deaden and subdue too fierce a grief, 
 Why are the means for this damnation sent? 
 
 #■ 
 
 29 
 " 'Tis the old story of the garden snake 
 Here is the sweet temptation to our hand ; 
 Yet if we fall, then yonder dreadful sleep. 
 And sleep prolonged as to eternity. 
 
CANTO VI 89 
 
 "And when she wakes all those she loved on 
 
 Earth 
 Will long since have gone onward into light ; 
 
 Or wheresoe'er their destiny is set, 
 She will awake in dark and loneliness." 
 
 31 
 " None now could aid that soul," the spirit said, 
 " But be assured that ministering shapes 
 Hover around, to thee invisible. 
 
 Ready to seize the first moment of hope. 
 
 » 
 
 32 
 " All eager with divine impatience fired. 
 Sweetly and skilfully that soul they'll woo 
 Back to the real life that once she feared. 
 Not without pain and slow is that return ; 
 
9° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 33 
 
 " More slow, in that the taking of the drug 
 So easy seemed, and so to smooth her way ; 
 Ah ! they must speak to her as to a child 
 And lead her with great gentleness to light." 
 
 34 
 Long stood I musing on that woman soul, 
 And still no slightest stir of life or hope. 
 " How long ? " I cried ; " how long ? " but turning 
 
 saw 
 My guide more sternly beckon me away. 
 
CANTO VII 
 
CANTO VII 
 
 I 
 
 The falling kindness of the silent sun, 
 The rose and the melodious lily besieged 
 These must we leave, when it arrives to die, 
 And dare the dark realities of mind. 
 
 2 
 
 Again upon the earth-plane, spirit rapt, 
 
 I wandered till we came unto a space 
 
 Where rose what seemed a building of this 
 
 world 
 
 Of gloomy masonry resembling stone. 
 93 
 
94 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 
 "Behold," then said my guide, "this woeful 
 
 house, 
 Those purgatorial pillars of remorse. 
 Those penitential walls and grieving roof! 
 Hear'st thou the sighing of the souls within ? 
 
 4 
 " Hither are brought, or hither of free-will 
 Spirits repair who still by old desires 
 And sensual yearnings to the earth are bound. 
 With difficulty to divest themselves and pain. 
 
 5 
 " But none may be by force detained within. 
 Freely they come, and freely may depart. 
 And often are they whirled back to the earth. 
 By some compelling fury of old sins." 
 
CANTO VII 95 
 
 6 
 Entering I saw the gloomy mansion filled 
 With suffering shadows, some in anguish strewn 
 On seeming couches, ministering shapes 
 Bending above them with mesmeric aid. 
 
 7 
 At times a music dropping from the spheres, 
 Merciful melodies from some high place, 
 Assuaged a moment pangs of memory. 
 At times a voice assured them of a hope. 
 
 8 
 One passing I accosted, " Who art thou ? 
 Whence art thou come and wherefore art thou 
 
 here ? " 
 " I on the Earth," he said, " in fleshly lust 
 Enthralled my soul and now would I be free. 
 
96 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 
 " By ministering spirits hither brought, 
 I and all these around in such a gloom 
 With pain, with sharpest anguish, strive to purge 
 How slowly ! the contracted ancient stain. 
 
 lO 
 
 " You see me withered and bowed and loathsome 
 
 grown. 
 But I in life was fair and strong to view, 
 But ah, the very soul can stain through flesh. 
 Can dwindle and peak, and scar and wound incur. 
 
 II 
 " I who in strength and splendour paced the 
 
 Earth 
 
 Unbridled, lecherous, victorious, proud, 
 
 Now wander in the guise of my desires, 
 
 At last revealed and in my proper shape. 
 
CANTO VII 97 
 
 12 
 " Slowly I trust by ministry and aid 
 Of others the old fury to dispel 
 Yet oft the ancient passions seize on me, 
 Nigh uncontrollable, and earthward urge. 
 
 13 
 Thou seest the eternal twilight where we dwell, 
 This atmosphere of dim and striving things ! 
 But me the glimmering dusk that lifts not ever 
 Distresses most, for from the South I came. 
 
 14 
 Ah ! God, for glowing Italy again ! 
 And all the glory wherein I was born ! 
 But here we have not yet attained to day, 
 But grope amid the glimmer we create." 
 
 H 
 
98 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 IS 
 
 So passed he on. Then to my guide I said, 
 " Is it so true that lust and thirst incurred 
 On earth can to the spirit reach and scar 
 And brand the dead with all the sin of life ? " 
 
 i6 
 
 " Alas, most true," replied he, " since the shape 
 He weareth now was in the body hid. 
 When to corruption has that body turned, 
 tie stood apparent, visible at last. 
 
 17 
 " Here the immortal body but reflects 
 And registers too faithfully all stain ; 
 Here none deceives at last : beauty and 
 
 strength 
 Lie in the grave, the spirit standeth clear." 
 
CANTO VII 99 
 
 l8 
 " Then shall these scars for ever cling to him ? " 
 I questioned, " must he live for ever on 
 So marked, so dwindled, in such hideous guise? 
 Is there no healing of the wounds of earth?" 
 
 19 
 
 " Even as he said," my guide replied, '' can he 
 Slowly by ministering aid and love 
 Grow beautiful and yet more beautiful. 
 Emerge at last in glory grander far. 
 
 20 
 " His face shall take a light from his own deeds, 
 His body a splendour from a mighty love. 
 And he shall dazzle all who look on him 
 With radiance from his own redemption caught." 
 
'°° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 He finished. And there came a rushing sound 
 As of a multitude of furious wings, 
 And a great host of spirits past us flew 
 With yearning faces and remembering arms. 
 
 22 
 
 Earthward they swept as in a sudden blast. 
 And as in autumn woods the crisped leaves 
 On some still day all motionless recline 
 Yellowing the ground beneath some aged tree ; 
 
 23 
 
 Sudden a wind will whirl them afar off", 
 Filling the air with flying forms : so these 
 Were on a sudden past us earthward whirled 
 By some compelling blast of old desire. 
 
CANTO VII lo" 
 
 24 
 
 " Some shall return," my guide said, " some 
 
 remain 
 To haunt the violent pleasure of the earth, 
 And as thou sawest, living bodies use 
 To gratify their unsubdued desires." 
 
 25 
 Thence issuing one accosted us who seemed 
 In doubtful mind to wander to and fro. 
 Now right, now left he looked uncertainly. 
 Then in bewildered voice he thus addressed us ; 
 
 26 
 " Sirs, can ye point me whither I am bound ? 
 I am but late from earth, and lived content. 
 No crime have I committed, and no shame 
 Incurred, then wherefore do I wander thus? 
 
>°2 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 27 
 
 " In the respect of all my neighbours I 
 A husband faithful, and a father true, 
 To business and to duty gave my time 
 Punctual ever and of scandal clear. 
 
 28 
 " And yet I cannot rest. The lower worlds 
 Beneath the earth no mansion have for me. 
 Unto the higher spheres I am not called ; 
 Here to and fro I drift uncertainly. 
 
 29 
 " And yet more lucky I account myself 
 Than many suffering souls that pass me by. 
 I have no scar on me nor gloomy stain, 
 Nor no revealing mark of earthly sin. 
 
CANTO VII «°3 
 
 " If I in this uncertainty am plunged, 
 There is no agony upon my face ; 
 No furious lust impels me to the earth 
 No passion of love or hate my soul disturbs." 
 
 31 
 
 He passed from us. Then to my guide I said 
 " He, he at least of all whom I have seen. 
 Maintains a tranquil, if not happy, life, 
 Unscorched, unlured,and by no anguish touched. 
 
 32 
 " He, he alone the lesson of the earth 
 Hath truly learned, to clip the soaring mind. 
 To damp and cow and cool the aspiring spirit, 
 To bow to all conditions that are set. 
 
'°4 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 33 
 
 " Unfired he lived and in a slow content ; 
 Here too hath he escaped the enthralling pang. 
 Here even he boasts of his security, 
 And sees a million sufferings pass him by." 
 
 34 
 " Envy him not," replied he : " though he roam 
 Hither and thither in security. 
 None hath a harder upward way than he, 
 None longer to attain the final light." 
 
 3S 
 " He was of that untempted average, 
 Who daily to and fro through London pass. 
 For ever hurrying in spotless dress, 
 In solemn grey respectability. 
 
CANTO VII '"S 
 
 " Yet think you thSt this colourless pale soul 
 Shall always claim immunity from pain ? 
 Not yet entitled to the tears of Hell ? 
 Many a murderer faster soars than he. 
 
 37 
 " Crime not to have committed, sin not sinned, 
 These open not the gate ; but the drawn face. 
 The wild rememberingeyes, the imploring hands. 
 The deed done and repented turns the key. 
 
 38 
 " If without hope the souls of any here, 
 His were most hopeless, and all like to his. 
 For what appeal of angel or of God, 
 Can stir a quiver in that deep content ? 
 
io6 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 39 
 
 " So those whom ye call wicked, shut in prison, 
 Or hanged ; their fury faded, have in them 
 Some blinder truer impulse to the stars, 
 Than he in all that sad security. 
 
 40 
 " Come ! and no more the earth-plane to revisit. 
 But the dark fury of ungoverned souls 
 These will I show thee next " : and now a sound 
 As of a storm upon the wind I heard. 
 
CANTO VIII 
 
CANTO VIII 
 
 " Beware thee now ! " said then my guide, " for 
 
 thou 
 Must voyage through the sea of lawless 
 
 thoughts, 
 Sent up from spirits in these darker spheres, 
 But I am by thy side ; then fear thou not." 
 
 2 
 
 Now roaming apprehensions caught my soul, 
 
 And chilled me in mid-space ; then voices sweet, 
 
 Wooing me unto wild tempestuous lusts. 
 
 Then was I blown by mad ungoverned minds. 
 109 
 
"° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 
 At times a cold doubt stayed me as a cloud, 
 And now a wandering despair delayed, 
 That floated on the soul like endless ice. 
 No longer I believed, nor hoped, yet lived. 
 
 4 
 From these emerging as a swimmer, still 
 Horrible drifted thoughts assailed my brain. 
 Old schemes of murder and of wild revenge, 
 Besieged me, loitering in the gloomy void. 
 
 5 
 And were it not for him that guided me, 
 I had been swept into infinity 
 By mind-created winds of furious hate. 
 Or hurried hell-ward by some blast of rage. 
 
CANTO VIII "» 
 
 6 
 
 " This is the stormy atmosphere of souls, 
 Who the dark spheres inhabit," said my guide, 
 " And were it not for special help of heaven, 
 Thou hadst been seized by tumult of these minds. 
 
 7 
 
 " For the dark thoughts in lowest gloom re- 
 volved, 
 Take on a furious life, and fly through space. 
 Infesting in material shape the soul. 
 And now like wind or cloud or sea assail. 
 
 8 
 " And so from that reared wave of human souls. 
 That breaks for ever hoarse upon Hell-beach, 
 So from that breaking sea, whose shore is hearts, 
 Those winds arise, and all these tempests blow. 
 
"2 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 
 " And some not guarded by this starry aid, 
 Have by such dark ungovernable souls 
 Been whirled for ages to and fro the void, 
 Or prisoned in some glacial still despair. 
 
 10 
 " Think not the murderer when the act is o'er, 
 That act hath ended : but a dreadful life 
 The thought takes on, and wings begets in 
 
 space, 
 The violent mind still violently lives. 
 
 II 
 " And he who lusts, a living lust creates. 
 Able to seize on others and impel, 
 A being human with inhuman power. 
 Wrapping like flame or whirlwind the weak soul. 
 
CANTO VIII "3 
 
 12 
 
 " But now in deepest night we needs must 
 
 plunge, 
 Night from the spirit shed without a star, 
 A midnight emanating from the soul, 
 The self-created darkness of the mind, 
 
 13 
 
 " For as Napoleon reared those icy spires, 
 
 Or as that soul in twilight wandering. 
 
 So these the murk of their own thought enwraps, 
 
 They rage and hate in darkness for a time." 
 
 Then said my guide, for night enwrapped us, 
 
 "Ere 
 To the dark orbs of fury we descend, 
 First to the pleasant hell of deep content 
 We will repair and speak with those therein." 
 
"4 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 Much wondering at his words, with him I went, 
 And now into a flowery valley came. 
 Like to that land of lotus and low-moon. 
 By Homer and our English minstrel sung. 
 
 16 
 For all therein were lying in deep peace. 
 Plucking sweet fruit, and music in their ears 
 And distant rivers like to slumber flowed, 
 A noise of flowing waters afar off. 
 
 17 
 
 And all therein were lying without thought. 
 In utter ease without a hope or wish, 
 None turned to greet us, so at peace were they, 
 But indolently murmured, each to each. 
 
CANTO VIII "S 
 
 I8 
 Then to my guide I said, " If this be Hell, 
 What fear to die or whither to repair ? 
 Many a wretch upon the bank of Thames, 
 Nightly endures the cold and sleety fall ; 
 
 19 
 "They starve, and if they sleep with hunger 
 
 drowse, 
 Their river is a water of the dead, 
 The plunge of the unhappy and the mad. 
 But thesewho are they,and how came they here?" 
 
 20 
 " Those whom thou seest, here, have no desire," 
 Answered he, " and no sail to any wind 
 Have ever spread ; in dreadful deep content 
 Here they repose, it seems, for evermore. 
 
"6 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 " But worse than the fierce fires of memory, 
 More hopeless than the fury we shall view, 
 Of those whom passion or vengeance still 
 
 enthralls. 
 This silent acquiescence and content." 
 
 22 
 
 Then toward us, indolently, turning, one 
 Addressed us in soft accent : " Friends," he said, 
 " On the far earth with fear were we baptised. 
 And sprinkled with the water of despair, 
 
 23 
 " They told us of an everlasting fire, 
 Of weeping souls and the undying worm. 
 But I, and those about me, have not lived, 
 Unstained, and yet a deep security 
 
CANTO VIII "? 
 
 24 
 
 " Here we possess ; no wish have we, no hope ; 
 But purple flowers and ever gliding streams 
 Amuse and the soft language of the dead, 
 How strange those furious memories to recall ! 
 
 25 
 "If this be hell, in hell who would not be? 
 And yet at times we are disturbed, and glance 
 Fearfully on each other ; storms of hope. 
 Tempests of truth that thunder to the soul. 
 
 26 
 " Yet rare are these ; and dying leave us still 
 Untroubled ; for the Almighty vexes us 
 Not long: and these sweet skies resume their 
 
 blue, 
 Cloudless, and perfect noon returns again. 
 
ii8 
 
 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 27 
 
 " Sudden unrest these rolling storms impart, 
 Passing discomfort from those thunderous 
 
 winds, 
 But less and less we heed them as we lie 
 And sweeter after this repose appears." 
 
 28 
 " At last the lurid country we approach," 
 Said then my guide, " ringed with a wall of fire, 
 Emitted from the furious minds therein. 
 Which serves them as a bastion or a screen. 
 
 29 
 " Else all is dark, save on the rolling cloud 
 Behold a brighter light that comes and goes ! 
 Thrown by the mighty Intellects of Hell, 
 Who reign despotic, and by love unreached." 
 
CANTO VIII "9 
 
 Passing that wall of fire, we entered now 
 
 Into what seemed a city of old Spain ; 
 
 Here street and bridge and wall and market 
 
 place 
 Solid arose as on the plane of earth. 
 
 31 
 
 "Is this a city reflected on the air, 
 The ghost of some old city of the Earth, 
 Have buildings then a soul that still endures," 
 I asked ; " do very walls immortal prove ? " 
 
 32 
 " This city which thou seest," answered he. 
 Is builded by the thoughts and loves of those, 
 Who on the earth inhabited therein. 
 Stone upon stone it rises, wall on wall." 
 
I20 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 33 
 
 On passing, to an open space we came, 
 Where flared a raging fire, and one within 
 Burned, and in flickering flame writhed to and 
 
 fro. 
 Around him spirits danced in furious glee. 
 
 34 
 " This soul, whom here thou seest," said my 
 
 guide, 
 
 " Was upon earth that Grand Inquisitor, 
 
 Whose name were best forgotten, save by those. 
 
 Who round his torment dance in furious joy. 
 
 35 
 " These did he in his day commit to fire, 
 
 And having tortured, burned them here alive. 
 
 Here on this open space where now we stand. 
 
 Here now he burns and they his anguish watch." 
 
CANTO VIII '21 
 
 36 
 
 " Then true the tale of everlasting fire," 
 I said ; " which we on earth interpret now 
 The flame but of repentance and remorse. 
 But see this fire consumes as erst on earth." 
 
 37 
 " This flame," he answered, "is the flame awaked 
 By the still living fury of the dead, 
 Remembrance here consumes and vengeance 
 
 hot 
 Wraps him from those whom on earth he slew. 
 
 38 
 " Here must he burn until this very fire 
 Himself has wakened in the minds of these. 
 Shall slowly burn out, and release his soul, 
 Not till their vengeance dies can he depart." 
 
'" THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 39 
 
 Then from that furnace came a rending cry, 
 " God, is this just ? These whom to flame I sent, 
 Could die at least, and ashes, could escape. 
 But I can never die for evermore. 
 
 40 
 " For now I feel this is a spirit fire, 
 That wraps me, kindled by the vengeful 
 
 thought, 
 Of those who round me dance and mock and 
 
 jeer, 
 Is any limit to their vengeance set ? 
 
 " What water of tears, or river of remorse 
 Can quench the raging flames myself have lit ? 
 They never shall forget ; but evermore 
 Slake with perpetual flame the thirst of hate." 
 
CANTO VIII "3 
 
 42 
 
 "Thou seest," said my guide, "how he that 
 
 burns, 
 Believes this fire to be unquenchable. 
 Whereas his own mind hath enkindled it, 
 And must, with time expiring, leave him free. 
 
 43 
 " Each furious thought or act on earth begun 
 Hath here its vent in ice or flame or wind 
 As where we saw Napoleon hemmed in frost 
 Of his own mind, or here this soul that burns." 
 
 44 
 And now I marked that one, now two, of those, 
 Who had in furious glee about him danced. 
 Withdrew away, their vengeance sated quite. 
 And their withdrawal paled and dimmed the fire. 
 
'24 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 45 
 
 As still we watched, one coming cried aloud, 
 " Ye two, who even as I are ever urged 
 Through this dark region without hope of rest, 
 Who are not suffered to slumber or to pause ; 
 
 46 
 " Is there no way out of eternal life ? 
 Nor no escape from immortality? 
 For I who slew myself in hope to cease. 
 But plunged again in this more furious life. 
 
 47 
 " Did I or thou or he crave to be born ? 
 When did we clamour for the grievous womb? 
 Did I entreat the burden of the sun ? 
 Or all the sorrow falling from the moon ? 
 
CANTO VIII I2S 
 
 48 
 
 " Did That which made us say ' Choose ! wilt 
 
 thou live ? 
 I show thee all ! be now the choice with thee ! ' 
 But hurled from darkness to an endless life, 
 We grope and stumble amid laws unknown ! 
 
 49 
 " Could I prevent the sudden kiss, the clasp 
 Which hurled me all unconscious into light. 
 Even as she that bore me had been hurled 
 Herself headlong into that ftay of earth. ? 
 
 50 
 " How sweet to cease ! how beautiful to die ! 
 What bliss to be beyond the reach of bliss, 
 How many sheer extinction do implore, 
 Soliciting eternal apathy. 
 
'2^ THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 SI 
 " If but this ' I,' this personality, 
 Might be resolved upon a thousand winds, 
 Dispersed, distributed, in dark dissolved, 
 And I could shelve this entity at last ! " 
 
CANTO IX 
 
CANTO IX 
 
 I 
 
 Then said I to the spirit that near us paused, 
 Sorely lamenting immortality : 
 " How cam'st thou hither ? By sad slow degrees, 
 Or instantly at death to darkness hurled ? " 
 
 2 
 
 " In riches was I born, in riches reared," 
 
 He answered ; " and of every pleasure drank. 
 
 When all my heritage was thieved from me, 
 
 I through my desperate brain the bullet sped, 
 K 129 
 
'30 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 3 
 
 " Thinking that thus should be an end of life, 
 An iron pellet kill the immortal soul ; 
 Vain hope ! for from some deep unconscious- 
 ness 
 I waked and lo by my own body lay. 
 
 4 
 " A few feet under Earth my flesh decayed, 
 A few feet under Earth my spirit pined. 
 Then all disintegrating pangs I shared, 
 My very spirit rotted with the flesh. 
 
 5 
 " Too soon, too suddenly, I burst the bonds 
 That held my soul ; and like a fruit-stone torn 
 From the unripe fruit, I, ere my time, was bared, 
 And, though a spirit, felt the worm at work. 
 
CANTO IX '3« 
 
 6 
 
 " At last my spirit tore itself apart, 
 And on a dreadful freedom entered now, 
 Unwelcomed, unexpected, with no place 
 Prepared, unripe and sullen wandering. 
 
 7 
 
 " But that which drew me hither, here to dwell, 
 
 With furious spirits and with raging winds. 
 
 Was the desire of vengeance in me lit, 
 
 On those who robbed and drove me to that death. 
 
 8 
 " This passion of revenge and burning hate, 
 This maketh immortality seem rich ; 
 So can infinity be put to use. 
 And through Eternity a purpose run. 
 
'32 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 9 
 
 " For arts in this dark region I have learned, 
 Expounded by dark spirits of the place, 
 By which the dead can on the living work, 
 Tempt and confound, and madden and destroy. 
 
 lO 
 
 " And one have I at last to murder driven. 
 And one into a house of madness sent ; 
 The others wait my time ; this wall detains not, 
 But my own fury whirls me back to Earth. 
 
 II 
 " There can I plan and spoil, persuade, and mar 
 Invisibly to evil there impelling, 
 They feel no presence near them, hear no voice. 
 Ah God, they are not 'ware how close am I ! " 
 
CANTO IX ^33 
 
 12 
 
 So saying, earthward through the wall of fire, 
 Easily he departed, safe in hate, 
 What cause had he to fear that bound of flame, 
 Who bore within him that which fiercer burned ? 
 
 13 
 
 " So long as this desire of vengeance holds. 
 So long as this deep hate his soul inspires. 
 So long the darkness is to him as light. 
 So long shall Hell his home be," said my guide, 
 
 14 
 Passing, we stole into a ruined room. 
 Where a sick moon through rotting rafters 
 
 peered ; 
 And one in torment chained unto the wall 
 I saw ; who writhed, and yet might ne'er be freed. 
 
'34 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 IS 
 
 Then was I 'ware how one beside him stood 
 With folded arms and mortal gaze of hate, 
 Which seemed to feed upon the other's pain ; 
 Motionless he beheld the writhing form. 
 
 16 
 Then said my guide, " Regard the man who 
 
 stands 
 So fixed, so motionless, by vengeance held. 
 That other, who so writhes against the wall, 
 Robbed him in life of all that he held dear. 
 
 17 
 
 " His wife he stole, and to such misery brought. 
 That she in madness ended her dark life. 
 The only pleasure in eternity 
 Left to that other is to watch his pain. 
 
CANTO IX "35 
 
 I8 
 
 " There standing, as he stands, and moving not, 
 For nigh two centuries his rage endures, 
 Meantime his wife repenting her wild act, 
 For evermore is calling him in vain." 
 
 19 
 So saying, toward the rapt and gloating form 
 
 Moving, my guide soft touched him that he 
 
 turned. 
 "Knowest thou not," he said, "thy wife and 
 
 child 
 Implore thee to forgive and leave this man ? 
 
 20 
 " For ever are they murmuring in thine ear, 
 Forgive, forget, and hither come to us 
 And join us in felicity at last.' 
 How long this fixedness of barren hate ? " 
 
'36 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 21 
 
 Suddenly then he trembled, and was changed, 
 And seemed to listen to some voice unheard. 
 Then shone a glory on that spirit dark, 
 He passed us and vanished into some great light. 
 
 22 
 
 And as he passed, that other writhing form 
 No more detained by that immortal hate, 
 Broke free and fled away — whither who knows? 
 Now faded all the chamber and sick moon. 
 
 23 
 " Once more thou seest," said my guide, " how 
 
 thought. 
 Passion or action on the earth begun, 
 Here still endures as through eternity, 
 Till the fire fade, the poison lose its sting. 
 
CANTO IX 137 
 
 24 
 
 " That moment that the fix^d figure changed, 
 Melting to other voices from above, 
 That moment might the writhing form escape ; 
 Fled is he ; and the room no more remains. 
 
 25 
 " Now hast thou what may for a time suffice 
 To set down in such melody as flows 
 Easily from the theme, and grave, and pure. 
 Consoling her above thee in high pain. 
 
 26 
 " Here but a vast suggestion for mankind ! 
 A shadowing prophecy of what shall be, 
 And is ; a prospect for the mind to weigh. 
 Later a fuller light shall be vouchsafed. 
 
'38 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 27 
 
 " Here hast thou learned at least enough to know 
 There is no region of eternal fire, 
 No fix^d city of torment for the bad, 
 No red metropolis of misery. 
 
 28 
 " For thou hast seen the Conqueror in the ice, 
 And snow, and bitter peaks of his own mind 
 Engaged ; and thou didst fear that thrilling 
 
 world 
 And glittering plains of intellectual might. 
 
 29 
 " Then him whom the old thirst infested still. 
 Though spirit, in fury whirled back to the Earth, 
 To enjoy through others still of flesh and blood. 
 What star could call him from the terrene 
 draught ? 
 
CANTO IX 139 
 
 " Thou sawest all that crowd of the Earth-bound 
 Whose hell was not in space, but on the Earth, 
 Haunters of taverns, and of brothels still. 
 Sucking existence out of breathing things. 
 
 31 
 " These didst thou see ; and a far different woe, 
 That mother who for ever close pursues 
 The still beloved child from worse to worst. 
 All undistracted by Elysium. 
 
 32 
 
 " And his more cruel lot thou didst perceive, 
 Striving in spirit to redeem the flesh, 
 And with a tearless agony distraught. 
 Vain-whispering to undo what once was done. 
 
'4° THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 33 
 
 " So with a calmer soul thou didst have speech 
 Who the old trees and lawn revisited, 
 Content to float round the familiar form 
 Invisible, unheard, yet satisfied. 
 
 34 
 "Then with that other who might neither 
 
 heaven 
 Nor hell attain ; but grateful to escape 
 The deep scar, and the torment of those souls. 
 Who in their mightier woe did pass him by. 
 
 35 
 " The vale of acquiescence we espied 
 Broken by dreadful thunder of a hope. 
 And heavenly storms that to the spirit called. 
 These the inhabitants unheeding heard. 
 
CANTO IX '41 
 
 " Him too thou sawest in that darker night 
 By fire impaled from those whom he had 
 
 wronged, 
 Like flame their vengeance seemed to leap and 
 
 dance 
 About him, and their ire to lick him up. 
 
 37 
 " Him too thou sawest bound against the wall 
 By the fixed fury of his enemy, 
 Who motionless regarded him in hate 
 And by immortal memory detained. 
 
 38 
 " And yet now wooed out of the upper air, 
 By voices of his wife and of his child 
 He left a dead hate for a living joy 
 And sprung in glory to aethereal spheres. 
 
'42 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 39 
 
 " This much at least thou canst discern and tell ; 
 That hate, on earth begotten, here is hate ; 
 That vengeance there conceived, consumes us 
 
 here; 
 That here the soul lives as on earth it lived. 
 
 40 
 " That the discarding of the body of Earth, 
 Sends not to sudden pain, or sudden joy, 
 But the loosed spirit the lone journey takes. 
 Perhaps for aeons to work out its fate. 
 
 " Fear then no more the dread avenging God ! 
 The judgment morn with souls to answer risen. 
 The trumpet summoning the entombed dead. 
 The scroll unrolled and endless doom pro- 
 nounced. 
 
CANTO IX H3 
 
 42 
 
 " Fear then no more the eternal fields of fire, 
 The wailing and gnashing of teeth in outer dark ; 
 Nor thrilling floes of ice by Shakspeare feared, 
 Nor any doom inflicted from without. 
 
 43 
 " Since each of us hurries hither carrying 
 Within him his own doom, a seed to break, 
 And flower for more sethereal bliss or woe. 
 But never for eternity of woe. 
 
 44 
 " And though the ancient hell we fear no more, 
 More worthy of boys or fools to be believed, 
 Still a more dreadful hell is it to haunt 
 Invisible the tavern of old days. 
 
■44 THE NEW INFERNO 
 
 45 
 
 " There through the living only to exist, 
 Though dead, yet with insatiable thirst, 
 Or ever, invisible to seek to foil 
 The deeds that we ourselves on Earth set on. 
 
 46 
 " Aye, or to carry far beyond the grave 
 A lighted vengeance that ne'er smoulders out ; 
 Or smouldering, too slowly smoulders out, 
 A worser hell than by the priests designed. 
 
 47 
 " Yet ever is there hope, tho' long delayed, 
 Even for spirits, who for seons shun 
 A vast immensity of bliss prepared, 
 Some star above the desperate risen red," 
 
CANTO IX '45 
 
 48 
 So saying, he vanished ; and I earthward 
 
 passed 
 As in a dream through all the gleaming orbs 
 Until emerging, as from a deep sleep, 
 I saw the earthly sunrise pale the stars. 
 
NEW POEMS 
 
 BY STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 Crown 8vo. Price 4s. 6d. net. 
 
 SOME PRESS OPINIONS 
 
 Spectator, — ** Itis with no small pleasure that we record the appearance 
 of Mr, Stephen Phillips's new volume of poems . , . poems almost without 
 exception characteristic of Mr. Phillips's best work ... * Cities of Hell/ 
 exceedingly stirring and original. ... * Grief and God,' soul-moving, . . . 
 The Son,' most poignant and terrible. . , . Exquisite is Endymion's 
 address to Selene. " 
 
 Standard. — "A remarkable volume, rich in the pure gold of poetry. . . . 
 Mr.^ Philliiis possesses the sovereign gift of imagination. . . . He can 
 conjure up in a few virile lines of haunting beauty a picture which makes 
 its own instant appeal even to the most fastidious of critics. This volume 
 . . . will widen the circle of those readers who have already learned to look 
 to Mr. Phillips for the sort of poetry which is always rare and, perhaps, 
 never was more so than to-day." 
 
 Daily TeUp^aph, — " The book is one of outstanding importance. ... It 
 is no little thing that Mr. Phillips should sustain, with such emphatic dig- 
 nity, the high level of thought and utterance which has characterised all 
 the best of his work. The present volume is packed with striking and 
 essential poetry." 
 
 Morning Leader, — "Passages like this . . . are worthy in their noble 
 splendour of Keats or Marlowe at his best in this vein of air and fire. . . , 
 Mr. Phillips ... is a master of beauty, a real poet of whatsoever is lovely 
 and of picturesque report." 
 
 _ Liverpool Post, — " Mr. Stephen Phillips is one of the few poets of our 
 time._ ... In the lyric ' A Poet's Prayer we have something that baffles 
 definition. _ It is the mysterious spirituality which surrounds Gray's 
 'Elegy' ; it is the profound sense of poet responsibility which Wordsworth 
 has shown us in many places, which Browning proclaimed as the poet's and 
 the musician's privilege." 
 
 Scotsman, — "lole ... a one-act tragedy which reads beautifully, a 
 dignified, calm, and statuesque exposition. . . . Next in importance is an 
 Endymion narrative in that delicate, nervous, and shimmering blank verse 
 of which, alone among moderns, this writer has the secret, a mystery he 
 illustrates, without giving away, also in 'The Parting of Launcelot and 
 Guinevere^' and in a fine dramatic monologue, 'Orestes.' These are 
 accompanied by exquisite lyrical pieces of varied forms." 
 
POEMS 
 
 By STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 FOURTEENTH EDITION 
 
 Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net. 
 
 Times. — " Mr. Phillips is a poet, one of the half-dozen men 
 of the younger generation whose writings contain the indefinable 
 quality which makes for permanence." 
 
 Spectator. — " In his new volume Mr. Stephen Phillips more 
 than fulfils the promise made by his ' Christ in Hades ' : here 
 is real poetic achievement — the veritable gold of song." 
 
 Academy. — "How should language, without the slightest 
 strain, express more ! It has an almost physical eflect upon 
 the reader, in the opening of the eyes and the dilation of the 
 heart." 
 
 Westminster Gazette. — "But the success of the year is the 
 volume of poems by Mr. Stephen Phillips, which has been 
 received with a chorus of applause which recalls the early 
 triumphs of Swinburne and Tennyson." 
 
 The Onlooker in Blackwood's Magazine. — " This volume 
 has made more noise than any similar publication since 
 Alexander Smith shot his rocket skyward. But in this case the 
 genius is no illusion. There are passages here which move with 
 the footfall of the immortals, stately lines with all the music and 
 the meaning of the highest poetry." 
 
 Mr. W. L. Courtney in Daily Telegraph. — ' ' The man who, 
 with a few graphic touches, can call up for us images like these, 
 in such decisive and masterly fashion, is not one to be rated 
 with the common herd, but rather as a man from whom we have 
 the right to expect hereafter some of the great things which will 
 endure." 
 
PAOLO & FR ANCESCA 
 
 By STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 TWENTY.FIFTH THOUSAND 
 
 Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net. 
 
 Times. — "Simple, direct, concerned with the elemental 
 human passions, and presenting its story in the persons of 
 three strongly-defined characters of the first rank, it should 
 appeal to the dramatic sense as well as to the sense of poetic 
 beauty. A very beautiful and original rendering of one of the 
 most touching stories in the world." 
 
 Mr. William Archer in Daily Chronicle. — "A thing of 
 exquisite poetic form, yet tingling from first to last with intense 
 dramatic life. Mr. Phillips has achieved the impossible. 
 Sardou could not have ordered the action more skilfully. 
 Tennyson could not have clothed the passion in words of purer 
 loveliness." 
 
 Mr. W. L. Courtney in Daily Telegraph. — "We possess in 
 Mr. Stephen Phillips one who redeems our age from its com- 
 parative barrenness in the higher realms of poetry." 
 
 Westminster Gazette. — "This play is a remarkable achieve- 
 ment, both as a whole and in its parts. It abounds in beau- 
 tiful passages and beautiful phrases. A man who can write like 
 this is clearly a force to be reckoned with." 
 
 Mr. Owen Seaman in Morning Post. — " Mr. Phillips has 
 written a great dramatic poem which happens also to be a great 
 poetic drama. We are justified in speaking of Mr. Phillips's 
 achievement as something without parallel in our age." 
 
 Standard. — "A drama which is full of golden lines. A 
 powerful but chastened imagination, a striking command of 
 the resources of the language, and an admirable lucidity alike of 
 thought and expression are combined to produce a. play which 
 will give pleasure of a lofty kind to multitudes of readers." 
 
HEROD : A Tragedy 
 
 By STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 TWENTY-FIRST THOUSAND 
 Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net. 
 
 Daily Telegraph. — "It is simple, magnificent, grandiose, 
 awaking, as Aristotle demanded, our pity and our terror." 
 
 Mr. Max Beerbohm in Saturday Review. — "His drama is 
 so fiery coloured, so intense, the characters so largely projected, 
 the action so relentlessly progresses, till the final drops of awe 
 are wrung from us, that only the greatest of dramatic poets 
 could accompany with verse quite worthy of it." 
 
 AthencBum. — "Not unworthy of the author of the 'Duchess 
 of Malfi."' 
 
 Globe. — "Its grim imagination and fantasy may be compared 
 with that of Webster." 
 
 Daily Graphic. — "Intensity which entitles it to rank with 
 the works of Webster and Chapman." 
 
 Mr. William Archer in the World.— "T^& elder Dumas 
 speaking with the voice of Milton." 
 
 Times. — " In other words, Mr. Stephen Phillips is not only 
 a poet and a rare poet, but that still rarer thing, a dramatic 
 poet." 
 
 Spectator. — "The purely dramatic quality of the play is 
 surprisingly high. There remains the literary quality of the 
 verse, and here, too, we can speak with few reserves. Mr. 
 Phillips's blank verse is flexible, melodious, and majestic. He 
 coins splendid phrases to fit the grandiose imaginings of the 
 distempered mind of the King. 
 
 * The red-gold cataract of her streaming hair 
 Is tumbled o'er the boundaries of the world ' 
 
 is an image worthy of Marlowe, of whom we are again and 
 again delightfully reminded." 
 
 Daily Chronicle. — "A gain to the British acting drama, 
 no less than to the loftier literature of our time." 
 
ULYSSES: A Drama 
 
 IN A PROLOGUE AND THREE ACTS 
 
 By STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 TENTH THOUSAND 
 . Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net, 
 
 SOME PRESS OPINIONS 
 
 Daily Telegraph. — " It is a grateful task to discover in the 
 new volume many indications of that truly poetic insight, that 
 vigorous expression of idea, that sense of literary power and 
 mastery which have already made Mr. Stephen Phillips famous. 
 . . . There is a finely perceptive quality in all Mr. Phillips's 
 scenic touches which, combined with rhetorical fervour and the 
 most indubitable natural vigour, makes the new dramatic poem, 
 ' Ulysses,' a very worthy contribution to modern literature." 
 
 Daily Chronicle. — "Mr. Phillips is, in the fullest sense of 
 the word, a dramatic poet. Any critic who has bound himself 
 to canons of dogma which would exclude such work as Mr. 
 Phillips has hitherto given us had better unbind himself with 
 what speed he may ; for this is a case in which the poet will 
 assuredly have the last word." 
 
 Standard. — "'Ulysses' will add to Mr. Phillips's reputation 
 as one of the few living masters of English song." 
 
 Daily Mail. — "In the power of its imagery and the beauty 
 of its phrase it is not unworthy to stand beside 'Christ in 
 Hades ' and ' Paolo and Francesca.' " 
 
 Mr. James Douglas in the Star. — "' Ulysses' is a splendid 
 shower of dazzling jewels flung against gorgeous tapestries that 
 are shaken by the wind of passion. Mr. Stephen Phillips is the 
 greatest poetic dramatist we have had since Elizabethan times." 
 
TWENTIETH THOUSAND 
 
 MARPESSA 
 
 By STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 FLOWERS OF PARNASSUS. Volume 3 
 
 With about 7 Illustrations. Demy i6mo (5i x 4i inches). 
 Bound in Cloth, is. net. 
 Bound in Leather, is. 6d. net. 
 
 OTHER VOLUMES IN 
 
 FLOWERS OF PARNASSUS 
 
 Demy l6mo (si x 4i inches). Gilt Top. 
 Bound in Cloth, Gilt Top. Price is. net. 
 Bound in Leather, Gilt Top. Price is. 6d. net. 
 
 A Series of Famous Poems Illustrated under the 
 General Editorship of Francis Coutts 
 
 GRAY'S GLEjGY 
 
 BROWNING'S THE STATUE AND THE BUST 
 
 ROSSETTI'S THE BLESSED DAMOZEL 
 
 THE NUT-BROWN MAID 
 
 TENNYSON'S A DREAM OF FAIR WOMEN 
 
 TENNYSON'S THE DAY DREAM 
 
 SUCKLING'S A BALLADE UPON A WEDDING 
 
 FITZGERALD'S OMAR KHAYYAM 
 
 POPE'S THE RAPE OF THE LOCK 
 
 WATTS-DUNTON'S CHRISTMAS AT THE "MERMAID" 
 
 BLAKE'S SONGS OF INNOCENCE 
 
 SHELLEY'S THE SENSITIVE PLANT 
 
 WATSON'S WORDSWORTH'S GRAVE 
 
 RELIQUES OF STRATFORD-ON-AVON 
 
 MILTON'S LYCIDAS 
 
 WORDSWORTH'S TINTERN ABBEY 
 
 LONGFELLOW'S THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP 
 
 WATSON'S THE TOMB OF BURNS 
 
 CHAPMAN'S A LITTLE CHILD'S WREATH 
 
 MORRIS'S THE DEFENCE OF GUENEVERK 
 
 HOGG'S KILMENY 
 
 DAVIDSON'S THE BALLAD OF A NUN 
 
 WORDSWORTH'S RESOLUTION AND INDEPENDENCE 
 
 KEATS'S ISABELLA 
 
 TENNYSON'S MAUD 
 
 THE SONG OF SONGS, WHICH IS SOLOMON'S 
 
 LONDON : JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD, VIGO STREET, W.