Oracles

ANIMA LUNAE I27 Grew as a flower that opens at the dawn Their kiss : for touch of lips is death to love. Even as the gentle plant one finger presses, However soft the tress is Of even the air’s profane caresses, It closes, all its joy of light withdrawn ; The sun feels sadness in his skies above, Because one flower is folded. Thus they floated Most deathlessly devoted Beyond the trees, and where the hills divide To take the nighted tide Into a darker, deeper, greener breast, Maybe to find—what rest ? Now to those girdling mountains moon-exalted Came through the hills deep-vaulted That pearly shallop : there the rocks were rent, And the pale element Flowed idly in their gorges : there the night Admits no beam of light ; Nor can the poet’s eye One ray espy. Therefore I saw not how the voyage ended, Only wherethrough those cliffs were rended I saw them pass : and ever closer bent The lady and the lover ; ever slower Moved the light craft, and lower Murmured the waters and the wind complained ; And ever the moon waned ; Not wheeling round the world, But subtly curved an curled