The Equinox (Volume I, Number V)

84 THE RITES OF ELEUSIS Spouse, daughter, mother of God, Queen of the blest abode In Cyprus’ splendour singly glittering. Sweet sister unto me, I cry aloud to thee! I laugh upon thee laughing, Ο dew caught up from sea! Drawn by sharp sparrow and dove, And swan’s wide plumes of love, And all the swallow’s swifter vehemence, And, subtler than the Sphinx, The ineffable iynx Heralds thy splendour swooning into sense, When (rom the bluest bowers And greenest—hearted hours Of Heaven thou smil'st toward earth, a miracle of flowers! Down to the loveless sea Where lay Persephone Violate, where the shade of earth is black, Crystalline out of space Flames the immortal face! The glory of the comet-tailed track Blinds all black earth with tears Silence awakes and hears The music of thy moving come over the starry spheres. Wrapped in rose, green, and gold, Blues many and manifold, Α cloud of incense hides thy splendour of light; Hides from the prayer’s distress Thy loftier loveliness, Till thy veil’s glory shrouds the earth from night; And silence speaks indeed, Seeing the subtler speed Of its own thought than speech of the Pandean reed ! [LIBRA returns.