Collected Works (Vol. II)

THE TENTH DAY 67 THE EIGHTH DAY. ‘* A certain aim he took At a fair Vestal thronéd by the West.”’ Midsummer Night's Dream. HERE in the extreme west of all the earth This Vestal sate; and I from Cupid’s bow Loosed a fair shaft of verses shapen so As to fling love through the chaste girdle’s girth, And show my love how meek was my love’s birth, How innocent its being: thus arow Stood the mild lines, immaculate, to show My harmless passion and her own great worth. She could not be offended: and moreover— When at the nightfall I sought Heaven’s light, All my work grew unspotted, done aright ! The high Gods came above my head to hover, Because I worked with a diviner might, The perfect sage being the periect lover. THE NINTH DAY. ‘** How canst thou tell she will deny thy suit Before thou make a trial of her love?”’ 1 Henry VI, I wAs most weary of my work: the mind Shuddered at all the wonders it had written, And the whole body by the spirit smitten Groaned : so I went and left my love behind, Danced the gross “ hula,”’! hardly disinclined, By a new lust emphatically bitten ; And so in flames at harlot glances litten I sought that solace I shall never find. 1 The indecent dance of the South Sea Islands, Fool! not to tell her. Triple fool to fly The sunny glance, the moonlight medi- tation, For even the light of heaven. Flow much worse The dark antithesis, the coarser curse. Of Eden! Pass, O shadows of ‘crea- tion, Into the daybreak of Eternity ! THE TENTH DAY. ‘*O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.”’ Hamlet, THE mere result of all this was a dream. The day passed damned, void of my love’s dear light, And stole accurséd to the endless night, Forgotten (as I trust) by God: no beam Of memory lighting it down Time’s dark stream. I dreamt: my shrine was broken and my might Defiled, and all my Gods abased, in sight Of all blind Heaven exenterate! and extreme.” The foulest traitor of all womankind I ever knew, became my friend :? un- clean Sexual abominations floated through, More foul because a golden cord did wind Unspotted through that revel epicene, The pure faith of one woman that was true. 1 Disembowelled. 2 Used here to mean ‘‘at the last gasp.” 3 This circumstance was later fulfilled: I having judged her actions on insufficient evi- dence. —AUTHOR.