Proem

They took him into confidence--each oak
Of the far forest: and all day he sat
Hearing of Nature from an autocrat,
An oak--so old, Dodona might have spoke
Its infant oracles through it; that, part
Of the oracular beauty of the gods,
Yet irresponsible, down in its heart
Still felt the rapture of their periods.

They took him into confidence--the skies;
And all night long he lay beneath one star,
Hearing of God.... One that was chorister
At Earth’s first morning; that beheld fierce eyes
Of rebel angels, and the birth of Hell;
Whom God set over Eden and o’er them,
The Two, as destiny; that did foretell
How Christ lay born at far-off Bethlehem.