The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

ROSA IGNOTA Come to me here in the great, slow silences, In the radiant dimness of the after-glow Of the passionate ache of the world : Iam Pan no more, But on my brow is set Diana’s tiar! Diana, O Diana of the woods! Lie thou with me, for I am Pan no more, But the Virgin of the Star-drift of the world ! Here in the silence, in the great green woods, Lie thou with me! Slumber with me to-night Under the stars, and the yellow, drifting moon. We will love no more as Syrinx and Pan: Diana! Come unto me, and I will grant the thing Thou cravest! Oh! the foaming milk of the stars ! I bear the red-tipped lilies under the moon ! Rosa Ignota! Ah! the pale moon-flowers, The soft, shy glances, and the virgin unwon ! Oh! the sweet burden of the sunless hours: Love! I amconquered! Nay, love! I have won! O feeble moonlight! O sweet stars undone By the pale longing of eld! O virgin word! Under the silent moon I bear the sword ! Oh! the soft burden of the sunken sun ! I bear a chalice of lilies under the moon! I bear the red-tipped lilies under the moon! Light is no more: oh! let us swoon and die! And the secret way is star-lit, star-bestrewn, Star-guarded, star-set, under the starry moon ! Is there no way but this under the sky? Oh, moon of Eld, ah! shall we die or swoon? 175