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…picene, 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 like a shaft of steel, Seeing no sun ; even so the night Clouds that deep miracle from sight : Until this destiny be done Hangs the corona on the sun ; And I absorbed in those unclean Ghost-haunted veins of Messaline. 12
THE DAY WITHOUT A NUMBER “ O never shall the sun that morrow see.” Macbeth. We lost a day ! Nor kisses, nor regret, Nor fear, nor pain, nor anything at all ! The day was lost, evanished past recall, That saw no sunrise, never saw sun set— For East and West invisibly were met In gateways neither glad nor musical Nor melancholy nor funereal. Nought is there to remember nor forget. Yet in my westward journey many hours I stole, and now must pay them back again. I plucked not one flower, but an hundred flowers ; I bore an hundred passions in my bra…
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
…art to sing. What offering may I bring, Alice, to thee ? My great love’s lifted wing Weakens, unwearying, And droops with me, Seeing the sun-kindled hair Close in the face more fair, The sweet soul shining there For God to see. 35
… 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
And wide they sunder, wide They fall into the tide Of fallen things. Me, me, O meek-browed bride, Horrible faces hide And devilish wings. Me the grim harpies hold In kisses slaver-cold, Mute serpent-shapes of gold With serpent stings. The dreadful bridal won, The demon banquet done, My flesh let loose :— Rises a strange red sun, A sight to slay or stun ; Sepulchral dews Fall from the rayless globe, Whose sightless fingers probe My golden-folded robe, My soul’s misuse. 6
Not only as the kiss of tender lovers— Let mingle also the sun’s kiss to sea, Also the wind’s kiss to the bird that hovers, The flower’s kiss to the earth’s deep greenery. All elemental love closes and covers Both you and me. All shapes of silence and of sound and seeing, All lives of Nature molten into this, The moonlight waking and the shadows fleeing, Strange sorcery of unimagined bliss, All breath breathing in ours ; mingled all being Into the kiss. 65
… Gods or Greeks, The whole sky’s way gives place : Open the walls of space, And silence speaks. See ! I am floating far Beyond space and sun and star, As drifts a nenuphar Down lilied creeks. Beyond the heavens I see The pale embroidery Of some wan child Waster by earth and sea, Whose kisses were too free, Too swift and wild ; A Maenad’s floating tress Lost in the wilderness Of death’s or my caress, Discrowned, defiled. 4
…deep Of my slow soul, and hurled Through lampless lands, and furled, Sharp folds and steep : Till all unite in one, Seven planets in the sun, And I am deeplier done Into full sleep. 8
…gtime that bended Its delicate head to the breeze Is crimson and stately and splendid Now summer is here and at ease ; Love risen as the sun hath transcended its passion and peace. In a garden of dark foliage that 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 ; Tho…
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…
…o crack, no water to make tunes, No air to blow us hither and thither ; well ! At our own will through cosmic space we wander Alive, the sun’s beam mixing with the moon’s. 80
… danger of desire.” Hamlet. 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 …
…” II. King Henry VI. At noon she sailed for home, a weeping bride Widowed before the honeymoon was done. Always before the rising of the sun I swore to come in spirit to her side And lie like love ; and she at eventide Swore to seek me and gather one by one The threads of labyrinthine love new spun, Cretan for monstrous shadows serpent-eyed. So the last kiss passed like a poison-pain, Knowing we might not ever kiss again. Mad tears fell fast : “ Next year ! ” in cruel distress We sobbed, and stretched our arms out, and despaired, And—parted. Ou…
…y with even a shadow of regret. Let us leave him where “ Sight nor sound shall war against him more, For whom all winds are quiet as the sun, All waters as the shore.” NOTE.—The sudden and tragic death of the Editor has necessitated the completion of his task by another hand. The introduction was, however, in practically its present form. xii