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Page 1 of 21905 · PDF PAGE 11
LINES ON BEING INVITED TO MEET THE PREMIER IN WALES, SEPTEMBER ’92 I WILL not shake thy hand, old man, I will not shake thy hand ; You bear a traitor’s brand, old man, You bear a liar’s brand. Thy talents are profound and wide, Apparent power to win ; It is not everyone has lied A nation into sin. And look thou not so black, my friend, Nor seam that hoary brow ; Thy deeds are seamier, my friend, Thy record blacker now. Your age and sex forbid, old man, I need not tell you how, Or else I’d knock you down, old man, Like that extremist cow.* You’v…
1905 · PDF PAGE 12
LINES ON BEING INVITED 7 You bear a traitor’s brand, old man, You bear a liar’s brand ; I will not shake thy hand, old man, I will not shake thy hand. [And I didn’t.
1905 · PDF PAGE 108
…ay and woe, Gorged with the day’s indecent festival. I think these birds were once the souls of priests. They haunt by ancient habit the old home Wherein they held high mass in days of old. But now they soar above it—for behold ! God hath looked mercifully down on Rome, Promoting thus her children to be beasts. I03
1905 · PDF PAGE 56
…even the cursed pariah, Hast taught by love the taste of heavenly fire ! O Satan, have pity of my long misery ! Thou who on Death, thine old and strong leman, Begottest Hope—a charming madwoman ! O Satan, have pity of my long misery ! Who knowest in which caves of envious lands God has hid precious stones with jealous hands ! O Satan, have pity of my long misery ! Thou whose clear eye discerns the arsenals deep, Where the small folk of buried metals sleep ! O Satan, have pity of my long misery ! Whose broad hand hides the giddy precipice From s…
1905 · PDF PAGE 119
…soul’s life out as some shadow brushed My body and passed in ? All sense allows At last the fearful truth—This is the house ! This is my old house on the marsh, and here, Here is the terror of the distant sea Moaning, and here the wind that wails, the drear Groans like a ghost’s, the desolate house of fear Whence I fled once from my great enemy— This is the house ! O speechless misery ! Here the great silver candlesticks illume The agèd book, the blackness blazoned o’er With golden characters and scarlet bloom Twined in the blue-tinged sigils w…
1905 · PDF PAGE 28
IN A LESBIAN MEADOW I UNDER the summer leaves In the half-light Love his old story weaves Far out of sight. Here we are lone, at last. Heaven is overcast Yet with no night. Ere her immortal wings Gather the thread of things Into her might, Up will the moon arise Through the black-azure skies : Birds shall sing litanies Still of delight. II Let my lips wander where Tender moss grows, Where through their dusky air Beams a red rose. Where the bee honey sips Let my desirous lips, Kissing, unclose 23
1905 · PDF PAGE 27
22 ODE TO SAPPHO As we lie and behold All the wonders untold That the joys of desire In their secrets enfold, As the pillars of fire On the ocean of old ! O Lesbian maiden ! The delight of thy lips Is the voice of the Spring That the nightingales sing Over Winter’s eclipse, While my fingers enring The white limbs of thy sleep And my lips suck the lips Of the house of my dream, And press daintily deep, Till the joys are supreme That thine amorous mouth On the home of thy love Would exhaust the fierce drouth Of the rivers thereof, Till thy white …
1905 · PDF PAGE 49
44 THE BLOOD-LOTUS So in some damned abyss of woe thy chant should dazzle as of old, Thy kisses burn like molten gold, thy visions swing me to and fro. Strange fascinations whirl and wind about my spirit lying coils ; Thy charm enticeth, for the spoils of victory, all an evil mind. Thy perfume doth confound my thought, new longings echo, and I crave Doubtful liaisons with the grave and loves of Parthia for sport. I think perhaps no longer yet, but dream and lust for stranger things Than ever sucked the lips of kings, or fed the tears of Mahomet…
1905 · PDF PAGE 46
THE BLOOD-LOTUS 4I 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, essential joys that these Dank odours bring, that starry seas wash white …
1905 · PDF PAGE 89
84 HYMN TO APOLLO All the old worship in this land is broken ; Yet on my altar burns the ancient censer, Frankincense, saffron, galbanum, intenser ! Ornaments glisten. Robes of thy colour bind me for thy token. My voice is fuller in thine adoration. Thine image holds its god-appointed station. Lycian, listen ! My prayers more eloquent than olden chants Long since grown dumb on the soft forgetful airs— My lips are loud to herald thee : my prayers Keener to follow. I do aspire, as thy long sunbeam slants Upon my crown ; I do aspire to thee As no …
1905 · PDF PAGE 117
THE HOUSE A NIGHTMARE Written at Anuradhapura. I MUST be ready for my friend to-night. So, such pale flowers as winter bears bedeck The old oak walls : the wood-fire’s cheerful light Flashes upon the fire-dogs silver-bright. Wood ? why, the jetsam of yon broken wreck Where the white sea runs o’er the sandy neck That joins my island to the land when tides Run low. What curious fancies through my brain Run, all so wild and all so pleasant ! Glides No phantom creeping from the under sides Of the grey globe : no avatar of pain Gathering a body from…
1905 · PDF PAGE 167
SONNET FOR A PICTURE “ ‘ ποικιλοθρον’ , ἀθανατ’ ’ Αφροδιτα. ” Σαπφω. “—We have seen Gold tarnished, and the gray above—” —SWINBURNE. AS some lone mountebank of the stage may tweak The noses of his fellows, so Gavin Tweaks with her brush-work the absurd obscene Academicians. How her pictures speak ! Chiaroscuro Rembrandtesque, form Greek ! What values ! What a composition clean ! Breadth shaming broadness ! Manner epicine ! Texture superb ! Magnificent technique ! Raphael, Velasquez, Michael Angelo, Stare, gape, and splutter when they see thy co…
1905 · PDF PAGE 143
… smoothly runs the ancient rhyme. (I have imitated the punning of the Pali by the repeated rhymes, which further gives the flavor of the Old English proverbial saw.) The truth that “ here we all must die ” those others do not comprehend ; But some perceiving it, for them all discords find an utter end. Sodden * with passion, unrestrained his senses (such an one we see), Immoderate in the food of sense, idle and void of energy , Him surely Mara overcomes, as wind throws down the feeble tree. Careless of passion, well restrained his senses, such …
1905 · PDF PAGE 58
…held, like lavers, rise The nude empurpled breasts that tempted him. Some, by the dying torch-light call thy name, In the dumb hollow of old pagan fanes, To succour feverish shriekings of fierce flame, O Bacchus, soother of men’s ancient pains. Others, whose throat is thirsty for breast-blood, To hide a whip ’neath flowing robes are fain, Mingling in lonely night and darksome wood The foam of pleasure and the tears of pain. O virgins, demons, monsters, O martyrs ! Great souls contemptuous of reality ! Seekers for the Infinite, satyrs, worshippe…
1905 · PDF PAGE 159
… QUEST Stood in the sky reversed, and utmost Love Entered the sadness of Gethsemane. So did the king ; so did the priest above Place his old hands upon the Earl’s, decree The splendid and the solemn accolade That he should go forth to the world and be Knight-errant ; so did then the fairest maid Of all that noble company keep hid The love that melted her ; she took the blade Blessed by a mage, who slew the harmless kid With solemn rite and water poured athwart In stars and sigils,—fire leapt out amid, And blazed upon the blade ; and stark cold …
1905 · PDF PAGE 158
…s, and the shapeless toads Fed by their lovers duly on the draught That bloats and blisters, blackens and corrodes. These had he seed of old ; so now he laughed, Not without bitterness deep-lying, that erst He had esteemed such foolish devil’s craft Part of his quest, his qest when fair and first He flung the last, the strongest horseman back With such a buffet that no skill amerced Its debt but headlong in his charger’s track He must be hurled, rib-shattered by the shock ; And the loud populace exclaimed “ Alack ! ”, Their favourite foiled. Bu…
1905 · PDF PAGE 118
…y mind. Why, surely it must be the hour ! My friend is coming through the wet wild weather Across the moor’s inhospitable heather To the old stately tower—my own dear tower. He will not fail me for a sudden shower ! My friend ! How often have I longed to see Again his gallant figure and that face Radiant—how long ago we parted !—we The dearest friends that ever were ! Ah me ! I curse even now that hateful parting-place. But now—he comes ! How glad I am ! Apace Fly the glad minutes—There he is at last ! I know the firm foot on the marble floor. …
1905 · PDF PAGE 177
…e spray of the dawn. And the life of the mountain swims through me (So the song of a thrush in me thrills) And the dawn speaks to me, of old for it knew me The soul of the hills. I stand on the mountain in wonder As the splendour springs up in the East, As the cloud banks are rended asunder, And the wings of the Night are released. As in travail a maiden demented, Afraid of the deed she hath done, By no man lamented, springs up the sweet-scented Pale flower of the sun. So change not the heights and the hollows ; The hollows are one with the hei…
1905 · PDF PAGE 162
…e’s pelf to pay the score For ale and cakes and venison and a soft “ Bed we have missed this three months—now no more Of folly ! Avaunt, old Merlin’s nonsense lore ! Ho there ! Travellers ! Mine host ! Open the door ! ” [In the second part—a joyous inn fireside—the Earl refuses power, knowledge, and love (offered him by a guest) by the symbolic drink of ale and the cherry cheeks of the maid. In part three she, coming secretly to him, warns him he must destroy the three vices, faith, hope, and charity. This he does easily, save the love of the f…
1905 · PDF PAGE 126
ANIMA LUNAE I2I With gold hair curling like the spring sun’s gold, And blue eyes where stars lurked for happiness, And lithe with all a young fawn’s loveliness. Such are the dwellers of the fire that fold Fine wings in wanton ecstasy, and sleep Where the thin tongues of glory leap Up from the brazen hold And far majestic keep Of Djinn, the Lord of elemental light. But he beheld some sight Beyond that city’s joy : his gentle word The old king gently heard. (This king was Zôhra’s father) “ Lord and king Of love’s own city, give me leave to wing A…