The Last Ritual

HYMN TO PAN Thrill with lissome lust of the light, O man ! My man ! Come careering out of the night Of Pan ! Io Pan . Io Pan ! Io Pan ! Come over the sea From Sicily and from Arcady ! Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards And nymphs and styrs for thy guards, On a milk-white ass, come over the sea To me, to me, Come with Apollo in bridal dress (Spheperdess and pythoness) Come with Artemis, silken shod, And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God, In the moon, of the woods, on the marble mount, The dimpled dawn of the amber fount ! Dip the purple of passionate prayer In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare, The soul that startles in eyes of blue To watch thy wantoness weeping through The tangled grove, the gnarled bole Of the living tree that is spirit and soul And body and brain -come over the sea, (Io Pan ! Io Pan !) Devil or god, to me, to me, My man ! my man ! Come with trumpets sounding shrill Over the hill ! Come with drums low muttering From the spring ! Come with flute and come with pipe ! Am I not ripe ? I, who wait and writhe and wrestle With air that hath no boughs to nestle My body, weary of empty clasp, Strong as a lion, and sharp as an asp- Come, O come ! I am numb With the lonely lust of devildom. Thrust the sword through the galling fetter, All devourer, all begetter ;