The Mother’s Tragedy

( 90) THE LESBIAN HELL HE unutterable void of Hell is stirred By gusts of sad wind moaning; the inane Quivers with melancholy sounds unheard, Unpastured woes, and unimagined pain, And kisses flung in vain. Pale women fleet around, whose infinite Long sorrow and desire have torn their wombs, Whose empty fruitlessness assails the night With hollow repercussion, like dim tombs Wherein some vampire glooms. Pale women sickening for some sister breast; Lone sisterhood of voiceless melancholy That wanders in this Hell, desiring rest From that desire that dwells for ever free, Monstrous, a storm, a sea. In that desire their hands are strained and wrung; In that most infinite passion beats the blood, And bursting chants of amorous agony flung To the void Hell, are lost, not understood, Unheard by evil or good.