Alice: An Adultery

Some blood-stain filtered from the soul ; The light and shadow shed between My soul and God from Messaline. And even as a dark and hidden Furnace roars out in woods forbidden, A sullen tide of molten steel Runs from deep furrows in the wheel ; So from afar one central heat Sends the loud pulse to fever beat ; So from one crown and heart of fire Spring the vast phantoms of desire, Impossible and epicene, Familiar souls of Messaline. And as, when thunder broods afar Imperial destinies of war, Men see the haze and heat, and feel The sun’s rays like a shaft of steel, Seeing no sun ; even so the night Clouds that deep miracle from sight : Until this destiny be done Hangs the corona on the sun ; And I absorbed in those unclean Ghost-haunted veins of Messaline. 12