Collected Works (Vol. III)

132 ORPHEUS Ye fieriest flowers, Life-stream of the world, In passionate bowers Of mystery curled, Come forth! for the powers Of my crying are hurled :— Come forth! O ye souls of the fire, where the sound of my singing is whirled ! Ye blossoms of lightning, Bare boughs of the tree Of life, where the brightening Abysses of sea Reveal ye, the whitening Swords kindled of me. Come forth ! I invoke thee, O lightning, the flames of the Gods flung free ! THE LIGHTNING. The wand of Hermes, the caduceus wonder-working, Sweeps in mid-zether— Where we are lurking It finds us and gathers. By our mother the amber In her glorious chamber; By the flames that enwreathe her ; By the tombs of our fathers; Awake! let us fly, the compeller is nigh. Strike ! let us die! ORPHEUS., Ve powers volcanic, Cyclopean forces, Workers Titanic, I know your courses. By fury and panic, By Dis and his horses, Come forth! I invoke ye, volcanoes, arise from your cavernous sources ! THE VOLCANOES. The Hepheestian hammer on the anvil of hell, In the hollows accurst, Falls for the knell Of the children of earth. By the strength of our fires, The fierce force of our sires, Let us roar, let us burst ! By the wrath of our birth, Up! and boil over in rivers of lava ! Uncover! Uncover! ORPHEUS. Lift up thine amber Lithe limber limbs, Lissome that clamber Like god-reaching hymns ; The flame in its chamber Of glory that swims, The spirit and shape of the fire, mine eyes with fine dew that bedims! Exempt from the bond All others that binds, As a flowery frond The spark of thee blinds, Within and beyond As a thought of the mind’s In all, and about, and above! I invoke thee, my word as the wind’s. THE FIRE. I, raging and lowering, I, flying and cowering, I, weaving and woven, Budding and flowering, Spiring and showering, Cleaving and cloven ! My being encloses Fountains of roses, Lilies, and light ! I wrap and I sunder! I am lightning and thuiuder ! The world-souls wonder At me and my might ! All-piercing, all-winding, All-moving, all-blinding, All shaken in my hissing; My life’s light finding All spirits, and binding Their love with my kissing ;