110 
AMBERGRIS 
 
 
 
 
FROM GARGOYLES 
 
Said 
 
The spears of the night at her onset 
Are lords of the day for a while, 
The magical green of the sunset, 
The magical blue of the Nile. 
Afloat are the gales 
In our slumberous sails 
On the beautiful breast of the Nile. 
 
We have swooned through the midday, ex-hausted 
By the lips—they are whips—of the sun, 
The horizon befogged and befrosted 
By the haze and the greys and the dun 
Of the whirlings of sand 
Let loose on the land 
By the wind that is born of the sun. 
 
On the water we stand as a shadow, 
A skeleton sombre and thin 
Erect on the watery meadow, 
As a giant, a lord of the Jinn 
Set sentinel over 
Some queen and her lover 
Beloved of the Gods and the Jinn. 
 
We saw the moon shudder and sink 
In the furnace of tremulous blue ; 
We stood on the mystical brink 
Of the day as it sprang to us through 
The veil of the night, 
And the babe of the light 
Was begotten in the caves of the dew.