In this Threnody and Birth-song of the Elements, written in
California some five years ago, I have striven to capture
and present some of the chief-factors and phases of the
eternal drama of Life and Death in the Universe. These powers,
elements and agents I have endowed with human attributes
and human emotions as though it were Man himself who uttered
himself through them.
The actors in this cosmic masque or pageant of the planets
are the Sun, the Moon and the Earth with her four Elements;
for stage there is the limitless background of Time and
Space, and the audience may be conceived as being represented
by Immanent Nature. Creation and Dissolution are her ministers,
twin forces of that divine everlasting Energy which brings
to pass the cycles of the Eternal Recurrence.
The action takes its course with a certain regard for the
laws and revelations of Science, but this compliance is only
such as poetry need observe. Despite the inherent and mystic
majesty of Matter,--too commonly reviled!--fantasy must have
leave, in such a work, to force its way past the barrier of
facts or to reshape them to its needs.
Whether the action begin with the impulse of Dissolution or
with that of Creation does not in any way affect the essentials
of the plan. The alternations of Life and Death, of Cosmic Night
and Day, must inevitably follow and destroy each other, like
the serpents in the ancient symbol. Yet I thought it desirable
to end this work with the larger and salient note of hope and
joy that rings out of the Birth that is Re-birth rather than with
the Passing which is but a recurrent preparation for that Birth.
HERMAN SCHEFFAUER.
London, 1911.