The Star in the West

THE MOTHER 137 power of love caught in the arms of restraint slowly smoulder into a burning desire : Passion to feed upon your shoulders bare , And pass the dewy twilight of our sin In the intolerable flames of hair . Give thee my body as a fire to hold O love, no words , no songs—your breast my bower ! In “ Jezebel ” we find the same desire , but unfanned by restraint , in whose place stands a woman's disdain . He , the prophet , goes to curse her—but loves her instead : For lo ! she saw me , and beheld My trembling lips curled back to curse, Laughed with strong scorn , whose music knelled The empire of God's universe. And on my haggard face upturned She spat ! Ah God ! how my cheek burned ! Then as a man betrayed , and doomed Already , I arose and went , And wrestled with myself, consumed With passion for that sacrament Of shame . From that day unto this My cheek desires that hideous kiss. Her hate , her scorn , her cruel blows , Fill my whole life , consume my breath ; Her red - fanged hatred in me glows , I lust for her , and hell , and death . I see that ghastly look , and yearn Toward the brands of her that burn .? Sleep shuns him , and his parched throat thirsts for the blood of her veins , “ Aching with all the pangs of night ”; his vision grows more monstrous , a horrible 1 Jezebel : and other Tragic Poems , vol . i, p . 133 . 2 lbid . vol . I, pp . 130-131 .