116
THE RITES OF ELEUSIS
A priest in the mystical shrine,
1 muttered a redeless rune,
Till the waters were redder than wine
In the blush of the harlot moon.
I and my brother priests
Worshipped a wonderful woman
With a body lithe as a beast's,
Subtly, horribly human.
Deep in the pit of her eyes
I saw the image of death,
And I drew the water of sighs
From the well of her lullaby breath.
She sitteth veiled for ever,
Brooding over the waste‘
She hath stirred 01 spoken never.
She is fiercely, manly chaste!
What madness make me awake
From the silence of utmost eld
The grey cold slime oithe snake
That her poisonous body held ?
By night I ravished a maid
From her father’s camp to the cave.
I bared the beautiful blade ;
I dipped her thrice i’ the wave ;
I slit her throat as a lamb’s,
That the {aunt of blood leapt high
With my clamorous dithyrambs,
Like a stain on the shield of the sky.
With blood and censer and song
I rent the mysterious veil;
My eyes gaze long and long
On the deep of that blissful bale.
My cold grey kissesawake
From the silence of utmost eld
The grey cold slime of the snake
That her beautiful body held.