Oracles

94 ASSUMPTA CANIDIA That draw out night in kisses to the day ! So was I to my seeming as I lay. That soft smooth-moving ocean of the west Under the palm and cactus as it rolled, Immortal blue, fixed with immortal gold, Moving in rapture with my sleeping breast ! The young delicious green, the drunken smell Of the fresh earth, the luxury of the glow Where many colours mingled into snow, Song-marvels in the air desirable. So lazily I lay, and watched my eyes In the deep fountain’s sun-stirred harmonies. I loved myself ! O Thou ! (I cried) divine Woman more lovely than the flowers of earth ! O Self-hood softer than the babe at birth, Sweeter than love, more amorous than wine, Where is thy peer upon the face of life ? I love myself, the daughter of the dawn. Come, silken night, in your deep wings withdrawn Let me be folded, as a tender wife In my own arms imagined ! Let me sleep, Unwaking from the admirable deep ! My arms fell lazily about the bed. I lay in some delicious trance. I fell Deep through sleep’s chambers to the gate of Hell, And on that flaming portalice I read