The Legend of Mirth

The four Archangels, so the legends tell,
 Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, Azrael,
 Being first of those to whom the Power was shown,
 Stood first of all the Host before The Throne,
 And, when the Charges were allotted, burst
 Tumultuous-winged from out the assembly first.
 Zeal was their spur that bade them strictly heed
 Their own high judgment on their lightest deed.
 Zeal was their spur that, when relief was given,
 Urged them unwearied to new toils in Heaven;
 For Honour’s sake perfecting every task
 Beyond what e’en Perfection’s self could ask. 
 And Allah, Who created Zeal and Pride,
 Knows how the twain are perilous-near allied. 

It chanced on one of Heaven’s long-lighted days,
 The Four and all the Host being gone their ways
 Each to his Charge, the shining Courts were void
 Save for one Seraph whom no charge employed,
 With folden wings and slumber-threatened brow,
 To whom The Word: “Beloved, what dost thou?”
 “By the Permission,” came the answer soft,
“Little I do nor do that little oft.
 As is The Will in Heaven so on Earth
 Where by The Will I strive to make men mirth.”
He ceased and sped, hearing The Word once more:
“Beloved, go thy way and greet the Four.” 

Systems and Universes overpast,
 The Seraph came upon the Four, at last,
 Guiding and guarding with devoted mind
 The tedious generations of mankind
 Who lent at most unwilling ear and eye
 When they could not escape the ministry. . . . 
 Yet, patient, faithful, firm, persistent, just
 Toward all that gross, indifferent, facile dust,
 The Archangels laboured to discharge their trust
 By precept and example, prayer and law,
 Advice, reproof, and rule, but, labouring, saw
 Each in his fellows’ countenance confessed,
 The Doubt that sickens: “Have I done my best?” 

Even as they sighed and turned to toil anew,
 The Seraph hailed them with observance due:
 And, after some fit talk of higher things,
 Touched tentative on mundane happenings.
 This they permitting, he, emboldened thus,
 Prolused of humankind promiscuous,
 And, since the large contention less avails
 Than instances observed, he told them tales—
Tales of the shop, the bed, the court, the street.
 Intimate, elemental, indiscreet:
 Occasions where Confusion smiting swift
 Piles jest on jest as snowslides pile the drift
 Whence, one by one, beneath derisive skies,
 The victims’ bare, bewildered heads arise—
Tales of the passing of the spirit, graced
 With humour blinding as the doom it faced—
Stark tales of ribaldry that broke aside
 To tears, by laughter swallowed ere they dried—
Tales to which neither grace nor gain accrue,
 But only (Allah be exalted!) true,
 And only, as the Seraph showed that night,
 Delighting to the limits of delight. 

These he rehearsed with artful pause and halt,
 And such pretence of memory at fault,
 That soon the Four—so well the bait was thrown—
Came to his aid with memories of their own
 Matters dismissed long since as small or vain,
 Whereof the high significance had lain
 Hid, till the ungirt glosses made it plain.
 Then, as enlightenment came broad and fast,
 Each marvelled at his own oblivious past
 Until—the Gates of Laughter opened wide—
The Four, with that bland Seraph at their side,
 While they recalled, compared, and amplified,
 In utter mirth forgot both Zeal and Pride! 

High over Heaven the lamps of midnight burned
 Ere, weak with merriment, the Four returned,
 Not in that order they were wont to keep—
Pinion to pinion answering, sweep for sweep,
 In awful diapason heard afar—
But shoutingly adrift ’twixt star and star;
 Reeling a planet’s orbit left or right
 As laughter took them in the abysmal Night;
 Or, by the point of some remembered jest,
 Winged and brought helpless down through gulfs unguessed,
 Where the blank worlds that gather to the birth
 Leaped in the Womb of Darkness at their mirth,
 And e’en Gehenna’s bondsmen understood.
 They were not damned from human brotherhood. . . .

Not first nor last of Heaven’s high Host, the Four
 That night took place beneath The Throne once more.
 O lovelier than their morning majesty,
 The understanding light behind the eye!
 O more compelling than their old command,
 The new-learned friendly gesture of the hand!
 O sweeter than their zealous fellowship,
 The wise half-smile that passed from lip to lip!
 O well and roundly, when Command was given,
 They told their tale against themselves to Heaven,
 And in the silence, waiting on The Word,
 Received the Peace and Pardon of The Lord!

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