Through Out Last Night The Tempest Over The Town Raged Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Voice One:

Through out last night the tempest over the town raged.
And through its ancient heart the bastions assailed


Voice Two:

But ay! remember Dawn if there be night what follows
Is not Dawn?


Voice Three:

The heavens speak but let us whisper for
the ancient town awakes.

See, see, beyond the clouds there comes
Minerva on her throne for wisdom more
than strength is foundation for Earth:
ah! that wisdom more foundation be
than strength and its offspring power
and glory. How wry the face of Beauty
turns when power and glory on strength prevail.


Director:

The Voices whisper between them.

Enter the Spirits, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Storms,
the Spirit of Power and Other Spirits


Director:

All emotions and phenomenons Spirits have
To each his Spirit and now all are
gathered here.


Chorus:

Power has its reign as glory has
but wisdom rule; power and glory fade
at the frail flower at the gelid touch
of the first frost begot at the red dusk
and the star chill of the deepening nights.

Spirit of Life:

I will not assail you Spirit of Power


Spirit of Power:

Will you assail the stronger?
You assail not because you fear

Chorus:

Power has its reign as glory has
but wisdom rule; power and glory fade
at the frail flower at the gelid touch
of the first frost begot at the red dusk
and the star chill of the deepening nights.

I

We sing, we Spirits, sing and march,
undeterred, noble, proud, as of right,
the world and Earth are our in the night
and the orb eager for our processions high
and the sea and ocean for our chants and
song with expectation still await.

Spirits:

We all together be brethren and so must
You Spirit of Power remember that from dust
you rose and to it will return. A fading
flower is as your cycle.

Chorus:

A

See, see, beyond the clouds there comes
Minerva on her throne for wisdom more
than strength is foundation for Earth:
ah! that wisdom more foundation be
than strength and its offspring power
and glory. How wry the face of Beauty
turns when power and glory on strength prevail.


B

the sea-waves speak, and in their whisperings
be the syllables of wisdom inspiring.
Go to the shore to hear the sea-waves
by some bay derelict when the coves and
caves still to each other as from night
respond.


C

Toil we, toil we, humans, over land, over sea,
and through the night the wheels of mills
turn all as in magic though no Merlin comes
No, no Prospero, with the closing of his book
Nor any nocturnal witch with haggard look.


D

In verses, not resplendent, wisdom too her
seat will have, and be as plenteous and
more than in verses that resound with sound
and beauty of word and splendor of the notes:
The humble verses no less proud be they
Than other verse.


E

when on the Earth the spirits take their
charge; fear with wry face to its lair
retires fast; as the red dusk before
the cunning night as red before the dark
till the dawn's reign and coming of a lark.


F

In togas bound, in hoods dressed, with
brows furrowed and vexed, with chin in hand
one after another the august thinking band
paced slow through the walk amidst the trees
and the soft winnowing of a silent breeze.


G

Come night, come night, let the dark cover
our loves from eyes of curious men
and draw the bustling loud from town and street
Till the dawn once again start on her beat.


H

Power has its reign as glory has
but wisdom rule; power and glory fade
at the frail flower at the gelid touch
of the first frost begot at the red dusk
and the star chill of the deepening nights.


I

We sing, we Spirits, sing and march,
undeterred, noble, proud, as of right,
the world and Earth are our in the night
and the orb eager for our processions high
and the sea and ocean for our chants and
song with expectation still await.


Voice One:

Would you bring Prospero? He closed his books
and now must be revived
magic by magic; spell by spell.


Voice Two:

In this fragmented world we sing fragmented
verse, yet in it there grows experiment
as seed that finds the fertile soil
to grow.


Voice Three:

Would you bring Merlin? For long ago he was.
And many incantations would for him do.


Toil we, toil we, humans, over land, over sea,
and through the night the wheels of mills
turn all as in magic though no Merlin comes
No, no Prospero, with the closing of his book
Nor any nocturnal witch with haggard look.


Director:

In the halls of kings and lords where
they assert that poesy was born
where and when harps and lyre strung upon
the first sweet notes, the first verses
raw at first but sweeter grew
with more experiment and experience too.


Chorus:

See, see, beyond the clouds there comes
Minerva on her throne for wisdom more
than strength is foundation for Earth:
ah! that wisdom more foundation be
than strength and its offspring power
and glory. How wry the face of Beauty
turns when power and glory on strength prevail.


B

the sea-waves speak, and in their whisperings
be the syllables of wisdom inspiring.
Go to the shore to hear the sea-waves
by some bay derelict when the coves and
caves still to each other as from night
respond.


C

Toil we, toil we, humans, over land, over sea,
and through the night the wheels of mills
turn all as in magic though no Merlin comes
No, no Prospero, with the closing of his book
Nor any nocturnal witch with haggard look.


Spirits:

Over the airs
Sail we
Facing
The aggressive
Tempests
That
Rose
On air
In
Sea and ocean
And
The clouds
Our
Confessors
Be
As we
Fly
Over them
As bees over
Flowers.


Director:

We into the sub-conscious have wandered
Far; though in the conscious we too
Are.


Chorus:


See, see, beyond the clouds there comes
Minerva on her throne for wisdom more
than strength is foundation for Earth:
ah! that wisdom more foundation be
than strength and its offspring power
and glory. How wry the face of Beauty
turns when power and glory on strength prevail


Director:

I direct.
For in al, and all in all, is there not
In prose, in poetry, in literature,
That quantum, that percentage minimal
Of both the conscious and sub-conscious
Too in all of them?
To vary those proportions is an ever-increase
As it be relative.
And experiments vary as in equation form
In as direct proportion to the variations that
Percentages of the conscious and sub-conscious
Have, obtain and manifest
At the moment time of the event.


Spirit of Life:

Ah! how glows at birth the machine
That’s born!
In its new relatively unused mode
How strength in it
Gathers as it grow.
Like climbing a hill for children or
For youth.
But on reaching the top what glories
Does one view when all below
The plains and oceans stretch and
All the glories of the nether Earth:
That is the mid-day of life:
The top of the mountain
From thence
We to the other side opposite whence
We climbed go down.
Easier to go down but there at the foot
Drear and oblivion masked await.


Chorus:

In verses, not resplendent, wisdom too her
seat will have, and be as plenteous and
more than in verses that resound with sound
and beauty of word and splendor of the notes:
The humble verses no less proud be they
Than other verse.


Spirit of Power:

Though you Spirit of Life, life celebrate
The strength of Power you ignore:
What be life without power?
What be life to serve and obey?
Is that the Individual Sovereign Will?


Spirit of Life:

Ay! The Individual Sovereign Will by power shackled is


Spirit of Power:

Shackled?


Spirit of Life:

Yes because its freedom conditioned be
By the exigencies and fretting of power


Spirits:

Spirit of Power keep your silence!
You recollect how many wars you
Brought?
How many corpses strewn on battlefields?
Speak!


Spirit of Life:

You see friends; he speaks not.


Chorus:

Power has its reign as glory has
but wisdom rule; power and glory fade
at the frail flower at the gelid touch
of the first frost begot at the red dusk
and the star chill of the deepening nights.


E

when on the Earth the spirits take their
charge; fear with wry face to its lair
retires fast; as the red dusk before
the cunning night as red before the dark
till the dawn's reign and coming of a lark.

F

In togas bound, in hoods dressed, with
brows furrowed and vexed, with chin in hand
one after another the august thinking band
paced slow through the walk amidst the trees
and the soft winnowing of a silent breeze.

G

Come night, come night, let the dark cover
our loves from eyes of curious men
and draw the bustling loud from town and street
Till the dawn once again start on her beat.


H

Power has its reign as glory has
but wisdom rule; power and glory fade
at the frail flower at the gelid touch
of the first frost begot at the red dusk
and the star chill of the deepening nights.

I

We sing, we Spirits, sing and march,
undeterred, noble, proud, as of right,
the world and Earth are our in the night
and the orb eager for our processions high
and the sea and ocean for our chants and
song with expectation still await.


A

See, see, beyond the clouds there comes
Minerva on her throne for wisdom more
than strength is foundation for Earth:
ah! that wisdom more foundation be
than strength and its offspring power
and glory. How wry the face of Beauty
turns when power and glory on strength prevail.


B

the sea-waves speak, and in their whisperings
be the syllables of wisdom inspiring.
Go to the shore to hear the sea-waves
by some bay derelict when the coves and
caves still to each other as from night
respond.


C

Toil we, toil we, humans, over land, over sea,
and through the night the wheels of mills
turn all as in magic though no Merlin comes
No, no Prospero, with the closing of his book
Nor any nocturnal witch with haggard look.


D

In verses, not resplendent, wisdom too her
seat will have, and be as plenteous and
more than in verses that resound with sound
and beauty of word and splendor of the notes:
The humble verses no less proud be they
Than other verse.


E

when on the Earth the spirits take their
charge; fear with wry face to its lair
retires fast; as the red dusk before
the cunning night as red before the dark
till the dawn's reign and coming of a lark.


F

In togas bound, in hoods dressed, with
brows furrowed and vexed, with chin in hand
one after another the august thinking band
paced slow through the walk amidst the trees
and the soft winnowing of a silent breeze.


G

Come night, come night, let the dark cover
our loves from eyes of curious men
and draw the bustling loud from town and street
Till the dawn once again start on her beat.


H

Power has its reign as glory has
but wisdom rule; power and glory fade
at the frail flower at the gelid touch
of the first frost begot at the red dusk
and the star chill of the deepening nights.


I

We sing, we Spirits, sing and march,
undeterred, noble, proud, as of right,
the world and Earth are our in the night
and the orb eager for our processions high
and the sea and ocean for our chants and
song with expectation still await.