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ALICE The roses of the world are sad, The water-lilies pale, Because my lover takes her lad Beneath the moonlight veil. No flower may bloom this happy hour— Unless my Alice be the flower. The stars are hidden in dark and mist, The moon and sun are dead, Because my love has caught and kissed My body in her bed. No light may shine this happy night— Unless my Alice be the light. 45
…t clusters Round your face as a rosebud withdrawn, New splendour springs carmine and lustres Your cheeks with the coming of dawn, Love’s light as an army that musters its plumes—and is gone. For fear as a fountain, that trembles With wind, is arisen, and hides The light of your love, and dissembles The roar of the passionate tides ; Though a flickering flame it resembles, love is, and abides. 49
I see through the moonlight that covers (As a mist on the mountain) your head The flame of your heart as a lover’s Shine out in your face and be shed, A ruby that flashes and hovers and droops and is dead. As a saint in a vision half hidden I see the sweet face in a mist, A nimbus of glory unbidden That shades you or shows as you list. But I, as a bridegroom, unchidden, may kiss—and am kissed. In the light and the manifest splendour That shows you in darkness a bride, Pale blossom of moonlight and slender, A lily that sways in the tide, A star …
WHITE POPPY Amid the drowsy dream, Lit by some fitful beam Of other light Than the mere sun, supreme On all the glint and gleam Shooting through night, Above the water-way Where my poor corpse must stay, I bend and float away From human sight. 3
…se marvellous beauty it was his mission (who may doubt it ?) to reveal. For the burning torch of truth may smoke, but it is our one sure light in passion and distress. The jewelled silence of the star is, indeed, the light of a serener art ; but love is human, and I give nothing for the tawdry gems of style when the breast they would adorn is that of a breathing, living beauty of man’s love, the heart of all the world. Nor let us taint one sympathy with even a shadow of regret. Let us leave him where “ Sight nor sound shall war against him more…
…isper o’er the wave The name of Margaret. A heart of gold, a flower of white, A blushing flame of snow, She moves like latticed moons of light— And O ! her voice is low, Shell-murmurs borne to Amphitrite, Exulting as they go. 14
O fearful firstling dove ! My dawn and spring of love, Love’s light and lure ! Look (as I bend above) Through bright lids filled thereof Perfect and pure, Thy bloom of maidenhood. I could not : if I could, I would not : being good, Also endure ! Cruel, to tear or mar The chaliced nenuphar ; Cruel to press The rosebud ; cruel to scar Or stain the flower-star With mad caress. But crueller to destroy The leaping life and joy Born in a careless boy From lone distress. 37
AFTER Now, when the sun falls in the dismal sky And no light leaps beneath the plunging prow, I know the fullness of my sorrow now :— That all my talk and laughter was a lie ; That as each hour widens the gulfs that sigh Between us ; the truth scores upon my brow Sigils of silence, burns in me the vow “ I love you, and shall love you till it die.’ Whether next year, as fondly we made oath Shall see us meet at least, whether as wife I shall at last gather the whole vow’s breath— Not heaven nor hell shall break our solemn troth. love you, and sha…
…s at harlot glances litten I sought that solace I shall never find. Fool ! not to tell her. Triple fool to fly The sunny glance, the moonlight meditation, For even the light of heaven. How much worse The dark antithesis, the coarser curse Of Eden ! Pass, O shadows of creation, Into the daybreak of Eternity ! 31
…nd me, wondered whether Fate Had found at last a woman’s love for me. I had no hope : she was so grave and calm, So shining with the dew-light of her soul, So beautiful beyond a woman’s share. Yet—here ! Soft airs, and perfume through the palm, And moonlight in the groves of spice, control The life that would not love and yet be fair. 22
…mlet. I was so hopeless that I turned away And gave my love to foul oblivion, Shuttered my bosom’s window from the sun, Kindled a corpse-light and proclaimed “ The day ! ”; Lurked in Aeaean fens to elude the ray Whose beauty might disturb me : I did shun The onyx eyes that saw me not as one Possible even for a moment’s play. Thus I was tangled in some house of hell, Giving mine own soul’s beauty up to lust, Hoping to build some fort impregnable Against my love : instead the deep disgust Of my own beasthood crushed it into dust, And left my manh…
…e into my room to-night. So ? I was acquiescent, sharp despair And nervous purpose mixing in me there The while I waited : then I glided light (Clad in the swart robe of an eremite) Across the passage and, all unaware My kisses underneath the veil of vair Woke her : she turned and sighed and held me tight. Her child slept gently on the farther side. But we took danger by the throat, despised All but the one sole splendour that we prized ; And she, whose robe was far too slight to hide The babe-smooth breasts, was far to frail to cover Her heart…
…at vast Voices of misery had held her fast, And made her curse her own lock’s cruelty. So by her beauty and my love we swore, And by the light within mine eyes, by her Sweet shame : that never so we sunder again. But she : “ You swear ‘ by thy bright face ’ in vain ; ‘ By thy sweet self ’ you grow a perjurer ; Who have shamed my face and made me but an whore.” 73
…, to show My harmless passion and her own great worth. She could not be offended : and moreover— When at the nightfall I sought Heaven’s light, All my work grew unspotted, done aright ! The high Gods came above my head to hover, Because I worked with a diviner might, The perfect sage being the perfect lover. 30
…nd Juliet. Sleep, O deep splendour of disastrous years, Gone like a star fallen at the fall of night ! Wake, O mute mouth and majesty of light, Made of no sound that even silence hears, But born of strings intangible, of spheres Shaken of love, a mightier music’s might Frailer to sound than dewfall is to sight ! Wake, O sweet soul incorporate of tears ! Or else dream on and let no tears begem Love’s crown of thorns, ensanguine diadem, But let pale kisses blossom, starry shrine Of lips most deathlike, that endure divine Past sleep’s, or parting’…
…-game—the kiss ! Her moving body sobs above, And calls its lechery true love. Out from the flame of heart she plucks One flower of fiery light, and sucks Its essence up within her lips, And flings it into mine, and dips And bends her body, writhes and swims To link the velvet of our limbs, My drouthy passion worn and keen, And lusty life of Messaline. The heart’s blood in her boiling over She sucked from many a dying lover : The purple of her racing veins Leapt from some soul’s despairing pains ; She drinks up life as from a cup ; 10
Some blood-stain filtered from the soul ; The light and shadow shed between My soul and God from Messaline. And even as a dark and hidden Furnace roars out in woods forbidden, A sullen tide of molten steel Runs from deep furrows in the wheel ; So from afar one central heat Sends the loud pulse to fever beat ; So from one crown and heart of fire Spring the vast phantoms of desire, Impossible and epicene, Familiar souls of Messaline. And as, when thunder broods afar Imperial destinies of war, Men see the haze and heat, and feel The sun’s rays lik…
…ace, were it not that I have bad dreams.” Hamlet. The mere result of all this was a dream. The day passed damned, void of my love’s dear light, And stole acursed to the endless night, Forgotten (as I trust) by God : no beam Of memory lighting it down Time’s dark stream. I dreamt : my shrine was broken and my might Defiled, and all my Gods abased, in sight Of all blind Heaven exenterate and extreme. The foulest traitor of all womankind I ever knew, became my friend* : unclean Sexual abominations floated through, More foul because a golden cord d…
That the light of heaven is shaded, The sound of the sea is made still, The climax shall come unupbraided Obedient alone to our will, And the flowers that were fallen and faded drink dew to their fill : Dew filling your eyes and their lashes With tender mirage of a tear ; Dew fallen on the mouth as it flashes, The kiss that is master of fear ; Dew covering the body that dashes and clings to me here. O fairest, O rose among roses ! O flower of the innermost fire ! O tune of my soul that encloses All life, the tempestuous lyre ! O dawn of my dawn…