The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX Because the priest is risen from the sod, Because he bears the mantle of a god. The hour has struck at last ; henceforth the Way Is sundered from the sunlight and the day. No one shall heed my singing; there shall be —How well I know !—no seer that shall see. And none shall know the secret thing I write With speeding pen in the dim candle-light. Because my Rose is mine, no man shall find Wherefore I know, that was erewhile so blind; Nor wherefore, by the light of one dim star, I see thee here, Lady of the Rose, Istar. XXI THE POET SPEAKS HIERE shall be set the sigil of the sun, Gray world, soft light, strong wind, and burning day, L take the arrows cast by Blake away, Andfling them surely at the sacred One. And the barbed arrow on its way shall run More swiftly; my swift heart tt shall obey ; And it shall hit! And thou no more shalt say The archer was blind, for the thing that I have done. Swift night, slow-burning stars, the wavering lyre Breathes fitfully beneath the moon's white fire, In vrhythin to the cadence of the sigil Whose symbols sing, making the night to swoon, The day to tremble: from my secret vigil I shall return to meet thee, Love, and soon. 186