The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

106 OLYMPAS. MARSYAS. THE EQUINOX I love thee. I am drunkenness Of the inmost sense, my soul’s caress Is toward thee! Let my priestess stand Bare and rejoicing, softly fanned By smooth-lipped acolytes, upon Mine iridescent altar-stone, And in her love-chaunt swooningly Say evermore: To me! To me! I am the azure-lidded daughter Of sunset ; the all-girdling water; The naked brilliance of the sky In the voluptuous night am I! With song, with jewel, with perfume, Wake all my rose’s blush and bloom | Drink to me! Love me! I love thee, My love, my lord—to me! to me! There is no harshness in the breath Of this—is life surpassed, and death ? There is the Snake that gives delight And Knowledge, stirs the heart aright With drunkenness. Strange drugs are thine, Hadit, and draughts of wizard wine! These do no hurt. Thine hermits dwell Not in the cold secretive cell, But under purple canopies With mighty-breasted mistresses Magnificent as lionesses— Tender and terrible caresses! Fire lives, and light, in eager eyes; And massed huge hair about them lies.