Collected Works (Vol. III)

176 ORPHEUS Shaped like a shroud, And all the illusion Draped like a pall, Is fallen to the ground. I shrink not ; I fall The warders are beaten To the blackness below They go in confusion; - With my soul aglow. Their place is not found. No taint of a fear ! The air hath eaten For I know, I know With wide-gaping jaws Eurydice near, A furious folk. Eurydice here! The purpose divine Thrills my soul as wine. NowI pass to the soul of the dark, confront- ing the innermost shrine. . Lost is the cause In Tartarean smoke. I, through the wall Of impassable gloom, Apart from the sun, Pass as a ghost, Hail to ye, warders Bearing the lyre. That guard the borders The sad notes fall Of Hades! All hail to ye, dwellers To the sorrowful womb; of night ! One after one But I am the soul In a man’s control. Ye have nought to do with the dweller of light ! They leap as a host With weapons of fire On a desolate coast, Where love is lost And the bitterness clings of fear, and the Hail to ye, hail sadness dogs of desire ! In the hollow vale, Your weapons are lifted against me in vain. Thrice girded with brass, My lyre shall charm ye, Thrice bound with iron, My voice disarm ye, The gate is in three For I am the soul overshadowed of Pillars of gold, pain ! But I will pass (My heart as a lion, Hail to ye, wardens My lyre as a key !) Of Death’s grey gardens ! To the gates of old, O flowerless and vineless your bower- To the place of despair less vale ! And the walls of dread, But I must alone The halls of the doomed, To the wonderful throne. The homes of the dead, Let fall the vain spears, shadows! The houses where Hailto ye! Hail! The beautiful air Is as air entombed. The phantoms diminish, Nothing can shake The shadows fall back. Those terrible walls. Lost in the vision No man can wake In fires that finish With silver calls Stark and black The home of the lost and the lone, the gate With lust and derision ; of the Stygian thralls.