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…where frost has laid his iron hand, Save only that it fastens on my heart ; Save only that it grips with icy fire These veins no fire of hell could satiate ; Save only that it quenches this desire. Let me pass out beyond the city gate. 8
…ouded, (By whom, and for whose sake ?) With visions dimly lighted, By its own shade affrighted, In its own light benighted, The doors of hell may shake. Unbidden spring the spectres (Whence come, where bound ?) To baffle those protectors Whose wings are broad around. Uprise they and upbraid, Till life shrinks back afraid, And death itself dismayed Sinks back to the profound. 81
…e furies of the air caress The sorceress Whose bosom beats in unison with shame, A flower of flame Whose root most secretly made fast in hell Is watered by the seraphim that fell. The heart wherein is lit the sacred fire Of high desire, Burnt clean from all untruth and sacrilege, Her wings may fledge, And fly a little in the broad sweet air, Till unaware 102
Accurst, detestable, In which I laugh with hell, And furies chant the knell Of all things clean. Ah God ! the shapes that throng ! Ah God ! what eyes ! The souls grown sharp and strong That my lips made their prize, The ruined souls, the wrecks Of bodies fair of flecks Long since, ere God did vex My soul with sacrifice. Pale youth and bloodless maiden Whose breasts have bled, With wrath or mercy laden, By love or terror led, Reproachful or reviling, Some pure and some defiling, Some fearful and some smiling, Some living and some dead. 83
… And bring to birth New thoughts with which life long has travailed ; As if one dead Should rise and utter secrets of the tomb, And from hell’s womb Or heaven’s breast bring all the load of fears, Toils of long years, Sorrows of life and agonies of death, Hard caught-up breath, The labouring hands of love, the cheeks of shame, The gloomy flame 99
…SOVER. BLOOD on the lintel ! On the outer side Death stood with wing implacable, with sword Steeped in the furnace cruel and abhorred Of Hell, in Styx well tempered. Far and wide Its adamant smote out, a full fierce tide Of vengeance and destruction from the Lord, While past yon door with blood well overscored Safety and Peace and Passover abide. Blood on the lintel ! But within our gates Spilt our own blood lies curdling on the ground, Crying to God from each envenomed wound While the fierce combat yet no whit abates, And though protected, con…
… slept, and wove its golden hair Most mournfully ; The rending of the earth at his command Who wields the wrath of heaven, and is dumb ; Hell starts up—and before his hand Is overcome. It heard these voices, and beheld afar These dread works wrought at his behest : And on his forehead, lo ! a star, And on his breast. 87
… and strives All heaven to enchain, As who should grasp a thousand lives, And draw their breath again Into some cavern where he dives, A hell of grisly pain. And now behold ! the barren Cross Bursts out in vernal flowers ; The music weeps, as on the moss The summer’s kissing showers, And there sweep, as sweeps an albatross, The happy-hearted hours. 93
…st. To storm the gates Were to have found out God and all delight, Conquered for all thy fellow-men the fates, And found out Paradise in Hell’s despite.” I heard them laugh, the Harpies and the Hates . . . Then fell, like death, the intolerable night. 31
Of lust, the cruel torment of desire More than hell fire, And bid them fade, as if the bryony Let her flower die, And banished them through space, as if a star Dropped through the far Vault of the sky, and, as a lamp extinct With blood-red tinct, Went out. So lonely in mysterious night A wild, strange light Flickers around the sacred head of man, And bids him scan The scroll of heaven, and see if there be not, Black with no blot Of cloud, but golden lettered on the blue That mothers dew, This message of good hope, good trust, good fate And good…
…veins, To freshen them, who stood like death, Our Lady of ten thousand Pains With heavy kissing breath. I said : Our Lady is as God, Her hell of pain as heaven above ; Death’s feet, like Sleep’s, with fire are shod, And Lust is likest Love. Our Lady crushed me in her bed, Between her breasts my life was wet ; My lips from that sweet death were fed ; I died, and would forget. 22
…atcher, unmoved, looks on the face of the night ; Sees the strong hosts that unite, a fervent implac- able river Foaming from heaven and hell, two armies of crimson and white ; Flecked is the sky with their blood shed as by sabres of light. Now they are clutching his arms, the phantoms that throng there behind him, Foul and distorted, whose sight may not on men ever dawn ; Now they entice and entreat, now strive with fresh fury to bind him, Cords that are cut by an angel whose sword is unceasingly drawn, Glitters, and bids them fall back as if …
Which dips, one wide black shaft, most horrible, Down to the nether Hell. Yet there seems time. God’s grief has not forgotten His mighty arm, and with His pitying breath A strong wind woke me ere my boat grew rotten With venom of the stream, that quivereth Now as He blew upon it—fish and bird Live at that silent word ! And I arose to seek the oars of Lying Wherewith I had embarked—the wind had torn Their wood to splinters—“ Jesus ! I am dying ! Send me Thy cross to fashion some unborn Oarage of Truth to quit this stream of Death ! ” O vain, O w…
…ars to tell, And every blade of grass that makes the dell Is counted and divined by me, who stare With eyes half blinded by the fires of Hell That my wild brain imagines everywhere, Roaring and raging round with red infernal glare. The yellow sand toward the deep sky extends : A dusky mirage would confuse my view ; 44
… And mock his might ; They rush upon him like a wave, and break In fiery foam against him, and they shake Life in its citadel, They open Hell To let the Furies and the Fates spring forth On their wild chargers of the icy North To quench the holy lamp. His spirit and his life within him quail, And all the armaments of sin assail With deadly tramp, And swordless fury that devours and bites And tears and clutches him, whom heavenly lights Shield and lead on afar, Where beyond storm and passion is the sky, And where the sacred hand of the Most High…
…agic spell Are suddenly around me. And above I hear the voice my visions know so well : “ Well striven all this day against the power of Hell ! ” I know these mercies still diviner grow Each day I strive, but should I sit and rest One hour of dawn, and cry, “ I will not go Another step without more sleep,” that blest Dove flies away, the fountains are repressed, The grass is withered, and the angry sky Rages more fierce that day, and from the crest Of black foul mountains comes a bitter cry : “ He that returneth now shall in destruction die.” S…
…is form to whom I turn, And break my bondage and would touch anew His holy lips ; my body and spirit yearn ; He fades away, and fires of Hell within me burn. Still, as I journey through the waste, I see A silver figure more divine arise ; The Christ usurps the horizon for me, And He requickens the forgotten skies ; His golden locks are burning on my eyes, And He with rosy finger points the way, The blood-wrought mystic path of Paradise That leads at last through yonder icy spray Of Death to the blue vaults of the undying day. But oh ! this dese…
…rgle on the ground ; I drop to drink, and hear the horrid strain Of chuckling devils, that grimace around, And think I catch the note of Hell’s three-headed Hound. 49