Jephthah and Other Mysteries

174 MYSTERIES : Now Heaven and Hell reject him, And Earth refuses home; He knows not to direct him To Lesbos or to Rome. His life he sees unhidden, A sea of waves unchidden, Devouring things forbidden In sacramental foam. Here come “the loves that wither,” And here their heaviest wings Droop, and “dead years draw hither And all disastrous things.” Pure loves that flowered never, True loves that none might sever, The flame that burns for ever, Love's ruined water-springs. Oh, Death! draw nigh, deliver My passion from its band ; Draw nigh, until I shiver At thy most holy hand. For Earth’s desires have fled me, And Earth’s distrusts have fed me, And Love has come, and shed me As water upon sand.