Alice: An Adultery

THE FORTY-FOURTH DAY “ lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death.” Romeo and Juliet. Sleep, O deep splendour of disastrous years, Gone like a star fallen at the fall of night ! Wake, O mute mouth and majesty of light, Made of no sound that even silence hears, But born of strings intangible, of spheres Shaken of love, a mightier music’s might Frailer to sound than dewfall is to sight ! Wake, O sweet soul incorporate of tears ! Or else dream on and let no tears begem Love’s crown of thorns, ensanguine diadem, But let pale kisses blossom, starry shrine Of lips most deathlike, that endure divine Past sleep’s, or parting’s, or death’s spoil of them In the pomegranate walks of Proserpine ! 86