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Robert Laurence Binyon - Shelley’s Pyre
Work rating: Low

The Spirit of Earth, robed in green; 
The Spirit of Air, robed in blue; 
The Spirit of Water, robed in silver;
The Spirit of Fire, robed in red. 
Each steps forward in turn.

Spirit of Earth 
 I am the Spirit of Earth.

Spirit of Air 
 I am the Spirit of Air.

Spirit of Water 
 I am the Spirit of Water.

Spirit of Fire 
 I am the Spirit of Fire.

All [together] 
 This is the shore of the sea. Stillness and hot noon;
 Stillness after storm. The sun scorches the sand.
 On the sand of the sea is a pyre:
 On the pyre a young man`s body,
 White and naked,

Spirit of Earth 
 A child of Earth,

Spirit of Water 
 Out of the sea he is come

Spirit of Earth 
 To the last shore.

All 
 Ringed with flames this body lies; flames shining, flames entwining,

Spirit of Fire 
 Vaulting,

 Assaulting,

Spirit of Fire
  Dancing,

All
  Lancing
 On the noon intenser light,
 Branding on the air a fierier fire.

Spirit of Water 
 The slow sea--ripple sparkles up the sand.

All 
 Afar the mountains look down on the land.

Spirit of Air 
 He was swiftness.

Spirit of Earth 
 He is still.

Spirit of Water 
 A wave breaking; a wave broken.
 At the sea`s will.

All 
 His eyes drank of the world`s beauty;
 His eyes wept for the world`s wrong.

Spirit of Fire 
 His eyes shine on the world no more.

All 
 Out of his mouth came forth song,
 Wondering, trembling, triumphing, lamenting.

Spirit of Earth 
 His mouth will utter songs no more.

All 
 A Power breathed, a Power filled, a Power kindled and made strong
 The heart this mortal throbbed with. O whence came it? O whence came
 Power to frailty, hope to anguish? He was swift and he was strange,
 Swift as stream, swift as wind; strange to all he came among.

Spirit of Fire 
 Leap, my flames! tower and quiver!

All 
 So into the world he came.

Spirit of Fire 
 No wind blows, the fire to bend.
 It springs right upward to the sun.
 Mount, my flames, ascend, ascend!

Spirit of Earth 
 Out of me this spirit rose,
 His cradle green and sleepy earth;
 A seed sown in a chance place,
 Where--from, who knows?
 Yet from my womb was his birth.

Spirit of Water 
 He was my lover. In river and sea
 He plunged his body; his ardour flowed
 With the flow of the streams, and the rain and the cloud.
 Now I have rendered up my lover.

Spirit of Fire 
 Higher, higher, higher
 In wild dishevelled blaze
 Single plumes of light aspire
 To be lost in the noon`s haze.

All 
 These flames are your thoughts, these fires your desires, O Mortal!
 Speeding before you, as you, the far forerunner
 Outstript, O spirit arrayed in the sanguine colour
 Of cloud at dawn, the laggard, the lulled and dulled,
 Announcing a dawn too dazzling for your kind.

Spirit of Fire
  You left them behind!

All 
 And winged in a radiant mist of love, you flew
 Onward, alone: not on earth was a home for you,
 Where men oppressed and trafficked, and hope was foiled,
 Soiled, despoiled! Yet hope was the breath you drew.

Spirit of Air
  The white body is changing: it has taken the swift shape
 Of fire, and the fire passes, dazzling the noon,
 Shedding all but swiftness and the ecstasy of flight,
 Of the light into light.

Spirit of Fire 
 Sink my flames!

Spirit of Water 
 As a falling fountain
 The flames sink down,

Spirit of Earth 
 But the heart remains
 Unconsumed; it is mine in earth.

All  
Out of the fire, O spirit, come forth
 To us, who have been from the beginning.
 Bond by bond, chain by chain,
 Our hands are untwisting what bound you; we free you,
 Release you from Time
 And the harsh taste of the cold world,
 Custom, calumny, ignorance, pain.
 Come away! Noon is silent in heat that trembles,
 Silent the sea that took you, and all the winds,
 Silent the shadowy mountains; they look down;
 And the stars that are known but in darkness to men,
 They also, the true stars.
 They are the silence; you the voice!
 And the voice soars upward, singing,
 From where the sparks expire
 And the embers of fire darken,
 A fountain cascading in drops as of light,
 Flowing over, invading the silence, in joy to be free.
 It ascends in its radiance, singing, singing; and we,
 We hearken.
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