Collected Works (Vol. III)

160 ORPHEUS With swift hard rhythm, the remorseless clang ; Or as a serpent loosening his fang To bite more deeply—this inane distress More than despair or death’s detested pang. I live—that shames me! Iam not a man. Nothing can I to sharpen or to span My throat with iron fingers, or my sword In my heart’s acid where the blood began Long since to leap, and now dropsdeadly slow, Clotted with salt and sulphur and strong woe. I shall not die: the first sight of the sward Stained with the spectral corpse had stung me so, Not stabbed me, since I saw her and survive. I shall not die—Ah! shall I be alive? This hath no part ineither: bale and bliss Forget me, careless ifI rot or thrive. Heaven forgot me—or she were not dead! And Hades— or I should not raise my head Now, and look wildly where I used to kiss, Gaze on the form whence all but form has fled! I am alone in all the universe, Changed to the shape and image of a curse, Muffied in self-confusion, and my brain Wakes not nor sleeps : its destiny is worse. It thinks not, knows not, acts not, nor appeals, But hangs, remembers ; it abides and feels As if God's vulture clung to it amain, And furies fixed with fiery darts and wheels Their horror, thought-exceeding, manifold, Vertiginous within me—and the cold Of Styx splashed on me, making me im- mortal, Invulnerable in its bitter mould5 Leaving its own ice, penetrating streams, Grim streaks, and dismal drops, abysmal beams Thrown from the gulph thorough the place and portal, Each drop o’erladen with a curse that steams Unnatural in the coldness: let me be Alone, inviolate of eternity! Let all the winds of air leave me, nor fan: Nor wash me all the waves of all the sea! Let all the sun’s light and the moon’s be blind, And all the stars be lampless to my mind, Until I see the destiny of man And span the cruelty that lurks behind Its beauty, and its glory, and its splendour !— The girl-babe’s face looks up to the mother tender, Looks for a kiss in dumb desire, and finds Her jaws closed trap-like to expunge and end her! Let all the life and dream and death be done, And all the love and hate be woven in one, All things be broken of the winter winds, No soul stand up and look upon the sun ! Save only mine !—that my voice may con- found The universe, and spell the mighty sound To shake all heaven and earth, to mingle hell In chaos, in some limitless profound ; That it may tear Olympus from its place, Mix it with Hades, change the Ocean space, Level the tides of time that sink and swell, And curse my very father to his face! O father, father Apollo, did I wrong Thy chariot and thy horses in my song? Why clove thine arrow the unseated air, The heaven void of thee, why the thunder- thong Slipped from the tether, and the fatal stone Sped not to my heart, not to mine alone? Ah why not? but to hers as she lay sleep- ing By hate, not fate, quelled, fallen, and over- thrown ?