Collected Works (Vol. II)

28 ORACLES I came to where the Gate of Heaven shone, Battled with comet and with meteor. Behold within that crested House of War, One central glory of a sapphire stone, Whereon there breathed a sense, a mist, a sun! I stood and Jaughed upon the Ancient One. For He was silent as my body’s kiss, , And sleeping as my many-coloured hair, And living as my eyes and lips ; and where The vast creation round him cried “ He Is!’’, No murmur reached ]1im ; He was set alone, Alone and central. Ah! my eyes were dim. I worshipped even; for I envied Him. So, moving upward to the azure throne, I spread my arms unto that ambient mist ; Lifted my life and soul up to be kissed ! A million million voices roared aloud ! A million million sabres flashed between ! Flamed the vast falchion! Fiery Cherubin Flung me astounded to the mist and cloud. A stone, flung downward through eternal space, I dropped. What bitter curses and despair Rang through wide aether! How the trumpet blare Cursed back at me ! Face ! Equal and Spouse? Bring forth the Virgin Dower, Eternal Wisdom and Eternal Power! Thou canst not see His I woke! and in a well’s untroubled pool I saw my face—and I was ugly now! Blood-spattered ebony eyelash and white brow ! Blood on my lips, and hair, and breast! ‘‘ Thou fool !” A horrid torture in my heart—and then I licked my lips: the tigress tasted blood. My changéd features—wash them in the flood Of murder! This is power over men And angels. I will lift the twisted rod, And make my power as the power of God ! I made my beauty as it was before. I learned strange secrets; by my love and skill I bent creation to my wanded will. I tuned the stars, I bound the bitter shore Beyond the Pleiads: until the Universe Moved at my mantra?: Heaven and Hell obeyed ; | Creation at my orders stayed or swayed. ‘* Take back,” I cried, ‘‘ the mockery of a curse !” “T wield Thy Power.” With my magic rod Again I strode before the Throne of God. ‘*Forgone my Virgin Splendour ! I aspire No longer as a maiden to thy Love. We twain are set in majesty above : My cloud is mighty as thy mystic Fire.” Vanished the mist, the light, the sense, the throne ! Vanished the written horror of the curse ; Vanished the stars, the sun, the Universe. I was in Heaven, lost, alone. Alone! A new curse gathered as a sombre breath: ‘“Power without Wisdom is the Name of Death !” And therefore from my devastating hand (For I was then unwilling to be dead) I loosed the lightning, and in hate and dread Despairing, did I break the royal wand. Mortal, a plaything for a thousand fears, I found the earth; I found a lonely place To gaze for ever on the ocean’s face, Lamenting through the lamentable years ; Without a god, deprived of life and death, Sensible only to that sombre breath. Thus wait I on the spring-forgotten shore ; Looking with vain unweeping eyes, for aye Into the wedding of the sea and sky, (That do not wed, ay me !) for evermore Hopeless, forgetting even to aspire Unto that Wisdom ; miserably dumb ; Waiting for the Impossible to come, Whether in mercy or damnation dire— 1 The Hindu equivalent for ‘‘ spell.”’