Rosa Coeli

There as I bowed mine head Upon the amber altar, And shed my life out there before ye all, Careless if I had summoned from the skies Some young true God, or spoiled the sacrifice, And were but dead as any man is dead ! So I have given up my inmost life Even unto you, sweet wife, Careless—yet conscious of the babe-stirred womb Of some dread Mother older than the Tomb, Wiser than Life, more pitiful than Death. IV OUR wine-stained and wine-coloured hair unloosing, Mingle your wine-wise breath, Spiritual siren ! with the scent seducing Your body sheds, scarred with the bleeding kisses My tenderness bit in, Like to a lion feeding in wild white wildernesses, My spirit sensible to your skin : Mingle them to a crescent character That shall set shimmering all the parchment fine And send a steam like wine Laden with ecstasy and pain Choral through all the passion-stained and passion- trembling air. Inspire a closer strain 5 Y