A Masque of Reason E-Book

Robert Frost

• Herausgeber: Reading Essentials
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

A Masque of Reason purports to be the chapter 43 of the book of Job, which only has 42 chapters. Thus, Frost has written a concluding chapter in the form of this piece. Robert Frost, like John Milton in Paradise Lost, wants to justify God's ways to man.

Leseprobe

The Masque of Death

by Robert Frost

Copyright 1945 Robert Frost

This edition published by Reading Essentials

A MASQUE

OF REASON

BY

A MASQUE OF REASON

A fair oasis in the purest desert.

A man sits leaning back against a palm.

His wife lies by him looking at the sky.

Man

You’re not asleep?

Wife

You’re not asleep?No, I can hear you. Why?

Man

I said the incense tree’s on fire again.

Wife

You mean the Burning Bush?

Man

You mean the Burning Bush?The Christmas Tree.

Wife

I shouldn’t be surprised.

Man

I shouldn’t be surprised.The strangest light!

Wife

There’s a strange light on everything today.

Man

The myrrh tree gives it. Smell the rosin burning?

The ornaments the Greek artificers

Made for the Emperor Alexius,

The Star of Bethlehem, the pomegranates,

The birds, seem all on fire with Paradise.

And hark, the gold enameled nightingales

Are singing. Yes, and look, the Tree is troubled.

Someone’s caught in the branches.

Wife

Someone’s caught in the branches.So there is.

He can’t get out.

Man

He can’t get out.He’s loose! He’s out!

Wife

He can’t get out.He’s loose! He’s out!It’s God.

I’d know Him by Blake’s picture anywhere.

Now what’s He doing?

Man

Now what’s He doing?Pitching throne, I guess,

Here by our atoll.

Wife

Here by our atoll.Something Byzantine.

(The throne’s a plywood flat, prefabricated,That God pulls lightly upright on its hingesAnd stands beside, supporting it in place.)

Perhaps for an Olympic Tournament,

Or Court of Love.

Man

Or Court of Love.More likely Royal Court—

Or Court of Law, and this is Judgment Day.

I trust it is. Here’s where I lay aside

My varying opinion of myself

And come to rest in an official verdict.

Suffer yourself to be admired, my love,

As Waller says.

Wife

As Waller says.Or not admired. Go over

And speak to Him before the others come.