Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE FATAL FORCE 145 CHORUS. Slow wheels of unbegotten hate And changeless circles of desire, Formless creations uncreate, Swift fountains of ungathered fire, The misty counterpoise of time, Dim winds of ocean and sublime Pyramids of forgotten foam Whirling, vague cones of shapeless sleep And infinite dreams, and stars that roam, And comets moving through the deep Unfathomable skies, Darker for moonlight, and the glow-worm eyes Of dusky women that were stars, And paler curves of the immutable bars That line the universe with light, Great eagle-flights of mystic moons That dip, while the dull midnight swoons About the skirts of Night : These bowed and shaped themselves and said : “* Tt shall be thus !” And the intolerable luminous Death that is god bent down his head And answered : ‘‘ Thus, immutably, Above all days and deeds, shall be!” And the great Light that is above all gods Lifted his calm brow, spake, and all the seas, And all the air, and all the periods Of seasons and of stars gave ear, and these Vaults of the heaven heard The great white Light that shaped its secrecies Into one holy terrible word, Higher than all words spoken ; for He said : ‘‘ Death is made change, and only change is dead.” For the most holy spirit of a man Burns through the limit of the wheels that ran Through all the unrelenting skies When Icarus died, And leaps, the flight of wise omnipotent eyes, When Deedalus espied An holy habitation for the shrine Solitary, ’mid the night of broken brine VOL, I. | Dead. That foamed like starlight round the desolate shore.! So to the mine of that crystalline ore Golden, the electric spark of man is drawn Deep in the bosom of the world, to soar New-fledged, an eagle to the dazzling dawn With lidless eyes undazzled, to arise, Son of the morning, to the Southern skies ; And fling its wild chant higher at the fall Of even, and of bright Hyperion ; To mix its fire with dew, to call The spirit of the limitless air, made one In the amazing essence of all light Limitless, emanation of the migh’ Of the great Light above all gods, the fire Of our supreme desire. So out of grievous labyrinths of the mind The soul's desire may find Some passionate thread, the clear note ofa bird, To make the dark ways of the gods as light, And bring forth music from slow chants un- heard, And visions from the fathomless night. So is the spirit of the loftier man Made holy and most strong against his fate ; So is the desolate visage of the wan Lord of Amenti? covered, and the gate Of Ra made perfect. So the waters flow Over the earth, throughout the sea, Till all its deserts glow, And all its salt springs vanish, and night flee The pinions of the day wide-spread, and pure Fresh fountains of sweet water that endure Assume the crown of the wide world, and lend A star of many summits to his head That rules his fate and compasses his end, And seeks the holy mountain of the dead To draw dead fire, and breathe, and give it life ! But thou, be strong for strife, And, as a god, cry out, and let there be The mark of many footsteps on the sea 1 See Vergil, Aen. vi. Il. 14-109. 2 The West: the Egyptian Land of the rK