Collected Works (Vol. II)

ON WAIKIKI BEACH 33 Now over all that scythe of sleep impending Mows the pale flowers of vision following ; Dryad and bird and fount and valley blending Into one dreamy consciousness of spring ; And all the night and all the world is ending, And all the souls that weep and hearts that sing! So, as the dew hides in the lotus blossom, Sleep draws me with her kiss into her bridal bosom. METEMPSYCHOSIS. Written at Vera Crus. Dim goes the sun down there behind the tall And mighty crest of Orizaba’s snow: Here, gathering at the nightfall, to and fro, Fat vultures, foul and carrion, flap, and call Their ghastly comrades to the doméd wall That crowns the grey cathedral. There they goO— The parasites of death, decay and woe, Gorged with the day's indecent festival. I think these birds were once the souls of priests. They haunt by ancient habit the old home Wherein they held high mass in days of old. But now they soar above it—for behold ! God hath looked mercifully down on Rome, Promoting thus her children to be beasts. ADVICE OF A LETTER! THE Wingéd Bull that dwelled in the north Hath flown into the West, and uttered forth His thunders in the Mountains. He shall come Where blooms the sempiterne chrysanthe- mum. The wingéd Lion, that wrought dire amaze In the Dark Place, where Light was, did his ways 1 With a letter to Ceylon, sent from Mexico in duplicate for certainty by way both of Eng- land and Japan. The allusions are Hermetic or Alchemical. VOL. IT. Take fiery to enkindle a new flame: The Eagle of the High Lands yet that came By the red sunset to an eastern sky Shall plume himself and gather him and fly Even as a Man that rideth on a Beast Trained, to the Golden Dawn-sky of the Kast. Therefore his word shall seek the Ivory Isle By double winds and by the double Style, Twin doorways of the Sunset and the Dawn. And thou who tak’st it, shalt be subtly drawn Into strange vigils, and shalt surely see The ancient form and memory of me, Nor me distinct, but shining with that Light Wherein the Sphinx and Pyramid unite. ON WAIKIKI BEACH.! UPHEAVED from Chaos, through the dark sea hurled, Through the cleft heart of the amazéd sea, Sprang, ’mid deep thunderous throats of majesty, Titanic, in the waking of the world; Sprang, one vast-mass of spume and molten fire, Lava, tremendous waves of earth; sprang higher Than the sea’s crest volcano-torn, to be Written in Cyclopean charactery, Hawaii. Here she stands Queen of all laughter’s lands That dance for dawn, lie tranced in leisured noon, Dreaming through day towards night, Craving the perfumed light Of the stars lustrous, and the gem-born moon, Dewy with clustered diamond, The long land swoons to sleep; the sea sleeps and yet wakes beyond. 1 Near Honolulu.