Collected Works (Vol. III)

LIBER PRIMUS VEL CARMINUM 153 I hear not a word, Though my music be rolled As the song of a bird Through fields of gold. Hast thou not heard? Have I not told The magic that bridleth the Gods, the Gods in their houses of old? Art thou elder than they In their mountain of light? Is thy fugitive way Lost in uttermost night? Shalt thou not obey, Or my lyre not affright, If I call thee by Heaven and Earth with a God’s tumultuous might? If I curse thee or chide Shalt thou tremble not, Thou? Not move thee and hide From the light of my brow? Shall my arrows divide Not the heart of thee now? Art thou cased in strong iron to mock the spells that all others avow? Art thou muffled or hidden In adamant brass? Is my music forbidden In Orcus to pass? Have I cursed thee and chidden? My flesh being grass, I curse not as yet, but command thee; the names that avail I amass. No sound ? no whisper? No answer to me? From dawn-star to Hesper I call upon thee! In the hour of vesper I change the key ! I cry on Apollo to aid, I lift up my lyre on the sea. Thou reaper of fear, Accurst of mankind, I charge thee to hear, Deaf horror deep-mined In hell! O uprear On the front of the wind! I curse thee! Thou hearest my hounds of thunder that mutter behind? How strange is the dark And the silence around ! Hardly the spark Of my silvery sound Moves, or may mark The heaven’s dim bound. How strange! I have sought him in vain— perchance not in vain have I found! No! Life thrills in me; Vibrates on the lyre; The Fates still spin me Their thread of desire : Still, woo and win me Soft eyes, and the dire Low fervour of sensual phrase, song kin to the nethermost fire ! In silence I wait For his voice to roll, For the coming of Fate, The strength of my soul. My words create One glorious whole From the fragments divided that seem past a man’s or a god’s control. I, seeing the life Of the flowers renew, The victorious strife Of the spring run through, The child’s birth rife With loftier dew— I know the deep truth in myself; see acacia in cypress and yew.