Cain and Abel

III.

* CAIN REPENTANT.

(See the picture now at the Royal Academy.)*

Black to the heart and calcined to the bone,

With love that desolates and fills no sphere,

The barren love that holds the sole self dear,

Which makes the hell wherein it reigns alone;

So wanders Cain till self to self is grown,

A spectre which, in flying, he falls sheer -

Bowed to God's all-consuming breath – a mere

Dumb sacrifice on Abel's altar-stone.

Then lo, the cloud that darkened all his day

And hid the watchful angel of God's love,

The angel's stormy hand has rent away;

Pure light of life beats on him from above,

Cool tears of dawn make soft his hardened clay,

And heal the frenzied heart God's lightnings rove.