The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX With slow anticipation of delight. Ah! mouth half-opened to the warm spring air! Ah! eyes that smouldering never burst in flame! Ah! thou unsatisfied, immutable one In the key of blue . . . the threefold destiny, Is not for thee, nor ever shall be thine ! The lust of joy incarnate! Incarnate youth Of the world! Alack! No longer art thou King Of the Underworld; no more thy road is peace, For not by longing nor by wonderment Shalt thou gain the drooping west, the starless place, The sun-shot centre of the folden stars, The palace of the cloudy Underworld. Oh! in the key of blue my lyre is tuned To the threefold mystery. O wandering stars! O lonely lights! The mysteries of time Fade and grow pale before the eternal cry! Light! Light! The doom of time is thrown to the winds— And I have set the secret wide and still In the heart of thee, my Mother; I have known The incarnate miracle of the birth of man, The twin of Time, the heir of the gods’ debauch ; The shedder of the raiment of the loom Whereon are woven birth and life and death. Yea! Is revealed the Sword, the eye of light! Hail to the fivefold star! The secret awe Of the world unborn ; and thou, that hast the key, Let the lyre sound before thee! Let thy breath 170