Jephthah and Other Mysteries

LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. 179 SONNET FOR G. F. KELLY’S DRAWING OF AN HERM- APHRODITE. BODY pale and beautiful with sin ! O breasts with venom swollen by the snakes Of passion, whose cold slaver slimes and slakes The soul-consuming fevers that within Thy heart the fires of hell on earth begin ! O heart whose yearning after truth forsakes The law of love! O heart whose ocean breaks In sterile foam against some golden skin ! O thou whose body is one perfect prayer, One long regret, one agony of shame, Lost in the fragrance, speeding, subtle and rare, Up to the sky, an avenue of flame! My soul, thy body, know the same delight, And burn that incense still in Heaven’s despite.