Oracles

ASSUMPTA CANIDIA 97 “ I 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