AMBERGRIS 
41 
Light is extended.  I and Thou 
Are as they had not been. 
 
So on my head the light is one, 
Unity manifest ; 
A star more splended than the sun 
Burns for my crown’d crest ; 
Burns, as the murmuring orison 
Of waters in the west. 
 
What angel from the silver gate 
Flames to my fierier face ? 
What angel, as I contemplate 
The unsubstantial space, 
Move with my lips the laws of Fate 
That bind earth’s carapace ? 
 
No angel, but the very light 
And fire and spirit of Her, 
Unmitigated, eremite, 
The unmanifested myrrh, 
Ocean, and night that is not night, 
The mother-mediator. 
 
O sacred spirit of the Gods ! 
O triple tongue !  Descend, 
Lapping the answering flame that nods, 
Kissing the brows that bend, 
Uniting all earth’s periods 
To one exalted end ! 
 
Still on the mystic Tree of Life 
My soul is crucified : 
Still strikes the sacrificial knife 
Where lurks some serpent-eyed 
Fear, passion, or man’s deadly wife 
Desire, the suicide !