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…d of all of us, By that fierce superflux of pain, That battling with strange enemies, The awful holocaust of gain, And golden rushing of men slain Before Thy throne, whose woven lies, Fixed by enchantment in the dome Of fiery aether, burn with eyes Insatiate of Paradise— Fixed, if the curse of brackish foam Upon the salt unpiteous sea Be fixed, or if the faith of Rome Shall find in hearts of men a home
102 VICTORY As swords that flash forget the rust That clings them round, as fighting men Forget their wounds, with no distrust Of death. Yea, dust may turn to dust, Man’s spirit to his God again, But memory cannot fade, and while My hot devouring kisses rain On thy worn face, in writhing pain Biting my lips, that fiercely smile As tigers’ lips, and gnaw thy mouth, Till the blood spurts in dainty style And blinds and bruises me awhile, Yet satiates the awful drouth ; I suck, and shudder, and rave, and clutch, Thy breasts, with wounds and sores u…
… no longer any doubt of his complete insanity ; for three weeks he had been raving with absinthe, and satyriasis. He survived his confinement no long time ; the burning of the asylum with its inmates was one of the most terrible events of the war of 1870. So died one of the most talented Englishmen of his century, a man who for wide knowledge of men and things was truly to be envied, yet one who sold his birthright for a mess of beastlier pottage than ever Esau guzzled, who sold soul and body to Satan for sheer love of sin, whose mere lust of p…
…arity as a reflection of the age he lived in. “ Tennyson,” he says, “ will die before sixty years are gone by : if I am to be beloved of men, it shall be because my work is for all times and all men, because it is greater than all the gods of chance and change, because it has the heart of the human race beating in every line. ” This is a patch of magenta to mauve, undoubtedly ; but—! The present collection of verses will hardly be popular ; if the lost works turn up, of course it may be that there may be found “ shelter for songs that recede.” …
…w of womanhood ! Divinest token of sterility, Strange barren fountain blushing from the womb, Like to an echo of Augustan gloom When all men drank this wine ; it maddens me With yearnings after new divinity, Prize of thy draught, some where beyond the tomb.
…t leap, Chain thee with lips that leave Kisses of blood to weave Castles of hope in sleep. Poppy ! best flower whose bud Sends dreams to men that die, I drain thy drowsy flood That our impatient blood May mingle utterly. So, Hermes, thou art wed, So, Aphrodite, mine, In one sweet spirit shed
…s, in the wood They breathe no murmur that is good, and Satan in their blossom smiles. They murder with the old perfume that maddens all men’s blood ; we die Fresh from some corpse-clothed memory, some secret redolence of gloom, Some darkling murmurous song of lust quite strange to man and beast and bird, Silent in power, not overheard by any snake that eats the dust : No crimson-hooded viper knows, no silver-crested asp has guessed The strange soft secrets of my breast ; no leprous cobra shall disclose The many-seated, multiform, divine, essen…
36 CONTRA CONJUGIUM T. B. B. Thou wouldst not do. And shall the King Of Kings do only what men ask ? Thou empty mask ! “ Repentance is too late, lost fool, Dead flower, salt fountain, rusty sword, This curse is on thee for thy dule, That thou shalt know and be assured I am the Lord.” The loud-voiced choir would drown in song The voice of God ; their music woke Echoes through chancel weird and long— In thunder and fierce fire and smoke Jehovah spoke. “ On with the farce ! My perjured priests, The wolves that raven through my flock, Nay, wolves i…
…r, A children’s snare ? “ But I am here, I will not heed, I will not give more signs ; But I Will come with heavy hand and deed And give men knowledge ere they die How their priests lie. “ A gospel marred, a bastard creed, A dogma out of hell ye teach ! False shepherds, ye shall learn your meed ; Not as waves breaking on the beach My wrath shall reach ! “ I forget not—heed not my cry, Play out the farce, wed fast the twain !— Red judgment and black death draw nigh, Your blasphemies shall all be vain, And your souls slain. “ Vipers ! on him my m…
100 VICTORY While men are living, fair and free— Ah me, since justice must endure And draw her sword at last, and be The eternal conqueror of Thee. And I, shall my support be sure In that great day of righteous war ? Is my soul free ? Is my heart pure ? Shall life diseased in death find cure ? Or shall the shameless barren whore That rules my ways be found my guide, Wed in bad bands so foul and sore That Liberty shall be not more Within my heart or at my side ? O Pleasure, whom I made my god, And based my forehead for thy pride And took thy bas…
…and from madness Deletes its indelible brand ; For life shall spring where they have smitten, And Love rise from under the rod, Till all men behold what is written, The kingdom of God !
…o tempt, to win Another sacrifice to sin, another poet’s heart to gnaw With dubious remorse. Oh ! flame of torturing flower- love ! sacrament Of Satan, triple element of mystery and love and shame, Green, gold, and crimson, in my heart you strive with Jesus for its realm, While Sorrow’s tears would overwhelm the warriors of either part ! Jesus would lure me : from his side the gleaming torrent of the spear Withdraws, my soul with joy and fear waits for sweet blood to pour its tide Of warm delight—in vain ! so cold, so watery, so slack it flows,…
…s under the Empire that perished in the struggle of 1870, that whirling tumult of pleasure, scheming, success, and despair, the minds of men had a trying ordeal to pass through. In Zola’s “ La Curee ” we see how such ordinary and natural characters as those of Saccard, Maxime, and the incestuous heroine, were twisted and distorted from their normal sanity, and sent whirling into the jaws of a hell far more affrayant than the mere cheap and nasty brimstone Sheol which is a Shibboleth for the dissenter, and with which all classes of religious hum…
…ought a golden crown, bejewelled o’er With precious rubies beyond price, and cried “ The world is young, thy name shall evermore Ring in men’s ears, stately and glorified ” But I, with shuddering lips, to him replied “ Fame is the amaranth that fools desire My soul’s price is beyond thy jewels’ pride Thou has a guerdon, is it not for hire ? ” “ Wealth brought to me a purse, whose glancing gold Mocked the sun’s rays, grown dull as iron rust,
22 A FRAGMENT Th’ Eternity of an immortal self That is, and shall be while the stars endure, Or while a God of Love is pitiful Of all men’s sorrows, and most happy in Their joys— She. Ah ! joys are fleeting !— He. But our love Is anchored in the portals of the dawn Where heaven begins. She. And heaven begins with us This day. Behold the flowers, whose kindly gaze Of modest love is on us as we stand, And clasp fond hands before high Heaven to swear Truth an eternal bond, no parchment scroll Of perishable matter ill devised And scored upon with p…
…pittle weaned, Fire my fierce brain ! resolve my rotted heart ! Fill me with drunkenness ! How changed thou art, Body, from that these women loved so well ! God ! will they still lust after me in Hell ? But this is Hell ! Aha ! if you were me, Blind staring cripple yonder, you should see Whether I lie ! A cripple are you then ? Look upon me, the leper among men, The corpse among the living ! Intercede, Good pitying pitiable Christ ! My need Is viler than my sins ! Old sins, you tire ! Come, some new devilry to reinspire My lips with frenzied la…
…e sleepy waters of mere sensualism ; the pace quickens, he grows fierce in the mysteries of Sapphism and the cult of Venus Aversa with women ; later of the same forms of vice with men, all mingled with wild talk of religious dogma and a general exaltation of Priapism at the expense, in particular, of Christianity, in which religion, however, he is undoubtedly a believer till the