Orpheus

I cannot have you dead, and live: let death Strangle my breath Now as I kiss you still—Eurydice! Come back to me! Fling down the foolish lyre, the witless power! Cast the dead laurel in the dust! The flower Of all the world is marred, the day’s desire Distorted in the eclipse, the sun’s dead hour. Let me fall down beside thee! Let me take The kisses that thou canst not give, and slake Despair in purposeless caresses, dire Shames fang-wise fastened of the eternal snake. Is there no warmth where beauty is so bright? No soul still flickering in the lambent light Still shed from all the body’s excellence? No lamp unchidden of the utter night? Cannot my life be molten into thee Or thy death fall with rosier arms on me Or soul with soul commingle without sense, As the sun’s rays strike deep into the sea? O beauty of all beauty—central flower Of all the blossoms in the summer’s bower! Fades not all Nature in thy fall? the sun Not darken in the miserable hour? H? 113