VIIl
Even that taunt has left you smiling still,
And silent still — and that is ten times worse.
Where is my will, my adamantine will?
Curse God and die? I can nor die nor curse.
Ah, but I can. The agony extends —
Iam wrapt up all in an equal hell.
There is a point at which emotion ends.
Tam come through to peace, though pain yet swell
Its paean in my every vein and nerve.
Try me, o God, convulse me to the marrow !
I am its element ; I shall not swerve.
Lam Apollo too; I loose one arrow
Swift enough, straight enough to conquer you.
O Sphinx! Gaze on! I can be silent too.
IX
Now then the pressure and the pain increase,
And ever nearer grows the exulting rose
Your face; and like a Malay with his kriss °
That runs amok your passion gleams and grows.
It shakes me to the soul: by that you arestilled :
You hold yourself together, like a man
Stabbed to the heart, who, knowing he is killed,
Lets his whole life out in his yataghan, °
And strikes one masterstroke. So now you breathe
Close on my face; you strip me of defence;
You sing in obscure words whose crownsenwreathe
My forehead with their viewless violence,
So that I lie, as at the appointed term,
Awaiting the foul kisses of the worm.