[00:02.702]Luciferians:
[00:02.702]How oft belief proves but delusive hope!
[00:05.739]Alas! how things have changed.
[00:10.244]We deemed no rank than ours more happy in this rising Realm,
[00:14.989]Yea, thought our state even like unto God's own,
[00:18.743]More blessed than Earth and e'er unchangeable.
[00:23.236]Till Gabriel met us with his trumpet bold,
[00:26.742]And from the golden port the hosts astounded
[00:29.483]With this new-made decree,
[00:33.428]that shall deprive the Angels of the good, the highest good,
[00:37.424]First from the Godhead's breast to them outpoured.
[00:42.183]How is our glory dimmed!
[00:45.192]O unexpected blow and change of lot!
[00:48.431]Ah! comrades in one grief.
[00:51.426]Ah! come and gather round in groups and sigh
[00:55.432]And weep with us together here.
[00:57.442]Tis time to rend this shining raiment, meet for feasts,
[01:01.921]To voice our plaints; for none can this forbid.
[01:06.426]Our gladness fades and our first sorrow dawns.
[01:10.682]Alas! alas! ye choristers of Heaven,
[01:14.936]O brothers, tear those garlands from your brows
[01:18.431]And change the blithesome livery of joy
[01:21.426]For sorrow's gruesome garb.
[01:24.677]Oh! droop your eyes.
[01:27.673]Seek shadows even as we; for sorrow shuns the light.
[01:32.421]Let each one raise his voice to ours and utter fearful plaints.
[01:36.925]Drown in your grief; sink down in mournful thought.
[01:42.673]To voice your woe, the burdened heart relieves.
[01:47.189]Now joy to groan: For groaning heals the smart.
[01:54.179]Now shout aloud, As with one voice,
[01:56.929]and follow these our woes:
[02:03.874]Alas! where is our bliss departed?
[02:13.333]Alas! where is our bliss departed?
[02:19.099]where is our bliss?
[02:22.333]Alas! where is our bliss departed?
[02:29.597]Alas! alas! where is our bliss departed?
[02:37.340]where is our bliss, Alas!
[02:40.775]Chorus of Angels.
[02:40.775]What plaint arises here, unpleasant sound?
[02:44.550]The Heavens shrink back in fright.
[02:47.530]This air on high hath not been wont to hear the wail of woe
[02:52.049]On sad notes sobbing through these joyful vaults.
[02:55.857]Nay, wreaths and palms and loud triumphal song
[03:00.607]And tuneful harps are far more meet for us.
[03:04.113]What can this be?
[03:06.863]Who crouches here with head Down-hanging,
[03:10.103]sad, forlorn, and needlessly oppressed?
[03:15.861]Who gave them food for grief?
[03:18.355]Who can the reason guess?
[03:20.852]O fellow choristers, come then,
[03:24.106]'tis needful that we ask the cause
[03:26.352]Of their lament and this dark cloud of woe,
[03:29.608]That robs our splendor of its radiance
[03:32.858]And dims and dulls the bright translucent glow of the eternal feast.
[03:38.118]Heaven is a court where joy and peace and all delights abound.
[03:42.612]Grief never nestled 'neath these lucid eaves,
[03:45.606]Nor woeful pain. Ah! fellow choristers.
[03:50.354]Oh! come, console them in their heaviness.
[03:59.291]Luciferians:
[03:59.291]O brothers, can ye ask with earnestness
[04:02.800]Why we thus grieve?
[04:04.796]Did ye also not hear what Gabriel's trump revealed:
[04:09.290]how we through this new-given command,
[04:12.799]down from our state are thrust into a slavery of Earth
[04:16.543]and of as many souls as from a little blood
[04:19.040]And seed may haply spring?
[04:21.791]What have we done amiss?
[04:23.291]how erred, that God a water-bubble,
[04:27.298]Blown full of vapid air, exalts.
[04:30.048]His sons,The Angels, to abase
[04:34.286]a bastardy exalts, formed out of clay and dust?
[04:41.514]Chorus:
[04:41.514]Companions dear in our high happiness.
[04:44.511]Oh! brothers, why? Oh! sons of the glad Light,
[04:50.019]Why thus depressed at heart?
[04:53.015]Ye had begun to lift your heads aloft to Heaven,
[04:56.021]To bloom amid the day,
[04:58.272]whose lustre streams from God's deep glow.
[05:01.517]The Heavens brought you forth
[05:04.263]To mount in rapid flight from firmament
[05:07.014]To firmament beyond, from court to court;
[05:10.523]To flit amid the shadeless light content,
[05:13.771]In one delightful life, an endless feast;
[05:17.183]Luciferians:
[05:17.183]Alas! where is our bliss departed?
[05:26.135]Alas! where is our bliss departed?
[05:32.147]where is our bliss?
[05:35.154]Alas! where is our bliss departed?
[05:42.389]Alas! Alas! where is our bliss departed?
[05:50.151]where is our bliss, alas?