Is not some justice somewhere? Where is he
Hateful to God and man, a misery
To his own vileness by exceeding it,
Who crawls God-cursed throughout eternity?
Nay! sure he lives, and licks his slavered lips,
Laughing to think how the sweet morsel slips,
The breast-flower of my bride; the dainty bit
Fit for—ah God! the pearl-smooth blossom drips
Poisonous blood that will not poison me,
Though I drink deep its fierce intensity.
My lips closed silent on her bosom’s light,
The stung blood springs—like pearls beneath the sea
Whose moony glimmer hath a purple vein
Hidden—so I athirst of the sad stain
Drink up her body’s life, as if to spite
Its quiet, as if the venom were to drain
Into my life—that hurts me not at all,
Struck by a stronger buffet: let me call
All deaths! they come not, seeing I am broken
In this one horror where a man may fall.
I am alive, and live not: I am dead,
And die not: on my desolated head
No dew may drop, no word of God be spoken,
None heard, if by some chance some word be said.
: 12]