AMBERGRIS 
129 
 
 
 
FROM ORPHEUS 
 
Invocation of Hecate 
 
O triple form of darkness !  Sombre splendour ! 
Thou moon unseen of men !  Thou huntress dread ! 
Thou crown’d demon of the crownless dead ! 
O breasts of blood, too bitter and too tender ! 
Unseen of gentle spring, 
Let me the offering 
Bring to thy shrine’s sepulchral glittering ! 
I slay the swart beast !  I bestow the gloom 
Under the waning moon, 
At midnight hardly lightening the East ; 
And the black lamb from the black ewe’s dead womb 
I bring, and stir the slow infernal tune 
Fit for thy chosen priest. 
 
Here where the band of Ocean breaks the road 
Black-trodden deeply-stooping to the abyss, 
I shall salute thee with the nameless kiss 
Pronounced toward the uttermost abode. 
Of thy supreme desire. 
I shall illume the fire 
Whence thy wild stryges shall obey the lyre, 
Whence thy Lemurs shall gather and spring round, 
Girdling me in the sad funereal ground 
With faces turn’d back, 
My face averted !  I shall consummate 
The awful act of worship, O renowned 
Fear upon earth, and fear in hell, and black 
Fear in the sky beyond Fate ! 
 
I hear the whining of thy wolves !  I hear 
The howling of the hounds about thy form, 
Who comest in the terror of thy storm,