Page:The Poems and Prose remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, volume 2 (1869).djvu/84



to me, ye mothers of my tent: Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech: Adah, let Jubal hither lead his goats: And Tubal Cain, O Zillah, hush the forge; Naamah her wheel shall ply beside, and thou, My Jubal, touch, before I speak, the string. Yea, Jubal, touch, before I speak, the string. Hear ye my voice, beloved of my tent, Dear ones of Lamech, listen to my speech.

For Eve made answer, Cain, my son, my own, O, if I cursed thee, O my child, I sinned, And He that heard me, heard, and said me nay: My first, my only one, thou shalt not go;— And Adam answered also, Cain, my son, He that is gone forgiveth, we forgive: Rob not thy mother of two sons at once; My child, abide with us and comfort us.

Hear ye my voice; Adah and Zillah, hear; Ye wives of Lamech, listen to my speech. For Cain replied not. But, an hour more, sat Where the night through he sat; his knit brows seen, Scarce seen, amid the foldings of his limbs. But when the sun was bright upon the field, To Adam still, and Eve still waiting by, And weeping, lift he up his voice and spake. Cain said, The sun is risen upon the earth; The day demands my going, and I go.— As you from Paradise, so I from you: As you to exile, into exile I: My father and my mother, I depart.