X
We tread on earth in our divine disdain
And crush its blood out into purple wine,
Staining our feet with hot and amorous stain,
The foam involving all the sensual shrine
Of love whose godhead dwells upon your mouth
Wherein the kisses clustering overflow
With brimming ardour of the new sin’s growth
Till round us all the poisonous blossoms blow,
And all the cruel things and hideous forms
Of night awake and revel in our revel,
While in us rage the devastating storms
Whose dam is Luxury and their sire the devil...
It is well seen, however things intend,
The Gods have given for this — no happy end.
XI
Crown me with poppy and hibiscus! crown
These brows with nightshade, monkshood and vervain!
Let us anoint us with the unguents brown
That waft our wizard bodies to the plain
Where in the circle of unholy stones
The unconsecrated Sabbath is at height ;
Where the grim goat rattling his skullsand bones
Makes music that dissolves the dusk of night
Into a ruddy fervour from the abyss
Such as I see (when cunning can surprise
Our Argus foe and give us leave to kiss:
Within your deep, your damned, your darling eyes.
Ay! to the Sabbath where the crowned worm
Exults, with twisted yard and slime-cold sperm.