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…love that lowered, Make up God’s universal frown. O Lord, O Hormakhou, display The rosy earnest of the day ! The mighty pomp of desolate Dead kings, a pageant, moves along ; Dead queens unite in desperate, Unsatisfied, unholy song. O Khephra, manifest in flesh, Arise, create the world afresh ! The silence of my heart is one With memory’s insatiate night ; T
24 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. PART II. KNOW. When Ramoth-Gilead’s field Grew bloody with hot ranks of dead, I smote amain with sword and shield, My brows with mingled blood were red ; And on my cheek the kiss of hell, The hatred of my Jezebel. I waited many days. At last The rushing of a chariot grew Frightful through all the city vast, Men were afraid. But I—I knew Jehu was here, whose sword should dip Deep in my love’s adulterous lip. The spirit filled me. And behold ! I saw her dead stare to the skies ; I came to her ; she was not cold, But burning…
…e mute than at a funeral True mourners, waited, waited in the gloom ; Waited to hear what child was in the womb Of his high thoughts. As dead men were we all ; As dead men wait the trumpet in the tomb. The king was silent. Tense the high-strung air Must save itself by trembling—if it dare. Then a long shudder ran across the space ; Each man ashamed to see his fellow’s face, Each troubled and confused. He did not spare Our fear—he spake not yet a little space. After a while he took the word again : “ Go thou then moonwards on the great salt plai…
…er melodies than steel That flashes in the fight : the peal Of amorous laughters choking sense, And madness kissing violence, Rings like dead horsemen ; bodies reel Drunken with motion ; spirits feel The strange constraint of gods that dip From Heaven to mingle lip and lip. The gods descend to dance ; the noise Of hungry kissings, as a swoon, Faints for excess of its own joys, And mystic beams assail the moon, With flames of their infernal noon ; While the smooth incense, without breath, Spreads like some scented flower of death, Over the grove…
108 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Out of the cloudy north ; the incense-wand That binds dead souls in prison, That prison of the day, when sleepless dead Rest for awhile from agony and dread. Strange ! how a certain fear possesses me Alone amid their crag-bound solitude. Even beyond the keen delight—to Be— Steals that diviner mood Of wonder at the miracle—the plan Of Nature crowned by the astounding Man ! The secret of the Lord is set with him That wonders at His Majesty : his praise Wells from no trembler’s misery : his hymn Swells the exultant day’s. H…
…er ! ” I cursed him to his face—the added spur Sticks venom in my lunge—a sudden thrust ! No cry, no gasp ; but he is in the dust, Stark dead. The queen—I hate the name of her ! So grew the mustard-seed, one moment’s lust. I too was wounded : shameful runs the song. She nursed me through that melancholy long Month of despair : she won my life from death. Ah God ! she won that most reluctant breath Out of corruption : love ! ah ! love is strong ! What waters quench it ? King Shalomeh saith. I am the king : you know it, friend ! We wed. That is t…
94 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. The glory of the living day Shall shine among the dead. Thy faith shall have a holier task, thy strength a goodlier stead.” Then I withdrew the light Of mine own Godhead up, As stars that close with broken night Their adamantine cup. I sought the solar airs : my soul on its own tears might sup. For in the vast profound Still burns the rescuing sign ; Beyond all sight and sense and sound The symbol flames divine. For He shall make all life, all death, His solitary shrine.
…ll the Furies whirl and all the Harpies swarm. The first face spake and said : “ Welcome, O King, art thou ! Await thy throne a thousand dead ; A crown awaits thy brow, A seven-sting scorpion ; for thy rod thou hast a bauble now.” The next face spake and said : “ Welcome, O Priest, to me ! I
…, so keen, Swoons, while the moon-rays lean To fan their silver ship. No sleep, but precious kisses In those pale wildernesses, Mark the dead hours of night, No sleep so sweet as this is, Whose pulse of purple blisses Beats calm and cool and light. No life so fair with roses, No day so swift to close is ; No cushion so reposes Fair love so sweet and slight. Sleep greets the morn and takes us ; The wood that wonders makes us Soft noises heard above. The sunny snake forsakes us, The noon sun lastly wakes us, To watch the wooing dove ; And day dra…
… and loose the shaken tresses ; Fallen the sandal and girdling gold, Fallen the music manifold Of moving limbs and strange caresses, And deadly passion that possesses The magic ecstasy of these Mad maidens, tender as blue seas. Night spreads her yearning pinions, The baffled day sinks blind to sleep ; The evening breeze outswoons the sun’s Dead kisses to the swooning deep. Upsoars the moon ; the flashing steep Of heaven is fragrant for her feet ; The perfume of the grove is sweet As slumbering women furtive creep To bosoms where small kisses we…
…ew Falls the keen chanted music ; fierce and true Beams the bright diamond of the crowning sphere. None may withstand the summons : like dead flame Flares darkness deeper, and demands its name. F
… snows ; Cold, glittering, intense, the same Now, yesterday, for aye ! she glows No woman of my mystic bed ; A star, far off, forgotten, dead. Only to me looks out for ever From her cold eyes a fire like death ; Only to me her breasts can never Lose the red brand that quickeneth ;
…: I loved you so ! For a moment cease the winds of God upon the reverent head ; I lose the life of the mountain, and my soul is with the dead ; Yet am I not unaware of the splendour of the height, Yet am I lapped in the glory of the Sun of Life and Light :— Even so my heart looks out from the harbour of God’s breast, Out from the shining stars where it entered into rest— W
…OSIRIS. I crept like sleep toward the place That held for me her evil head ; I bent like sin above her face That dying she might kiss me dead. I whispered : “ Jezebel.” She turned, And her deep eyes with hatred burned. “ Ah ! prophet, come to mock at me And gloat on mine exceeding pain ? ” “ Nay, but to give my soul to thee, And have thee spit at me again ! ” She smiled—I know she smiled—she sighed, Bit my lips through, and drank, and died ! Her murders and her blasphemies, Her whoredoms, God has paid at last ; Upon my bosom close she lies, Her…
…ld in mystery That secrets of our bed forbidden Cover their faces, and be hidden. O steadfast, O mysterious bride, O woman, O divine and dead ! O wings immeasurably wide, O star, O sister of my bed ! O living lover, at my side Clinging, the spring, the fountain-head Of musical slow waters, white With thousand-folded rays of light !
…f thee my queen ; Now let me die, with blood attired, Thy servant naked and obscene ; To thy white skull, thy palms, thy feet, Clinging, dead, infamous, complete. Now let me die, to mix my soul With thy red soul, to join our hands, To weld us in one perfect whole, To link us with desirous bands. Now let me die, to mate in hell With thee, O harlot Jezebel.
…I see The treason-pledge, the royal prostitute. One moment, and I should have passed beyond Linked unto Spirit by the fourfold bond. Not dead to earth, but living as divine, A priest, a king, an oracle, a shrine, A saviour ! Yet my misty spirit conned The secret murmur : “ Gereth, I am thine ! ” I must have listened to the voice of hell. The earthly horror wove its serpent spell Against the Beauty of the World : I heard Desolate voices cry the doleful word “ Unready ! ” All the soul invisible Of that vast desert echoed, and concurred. The voice…
…ad they ? What suns are these gone down into the West ? “ Even I myself—my youth within me said : Go, seek this folly ; fear not for the dead, And God is with thine arm. I reached the ridge, And saw the river and the ghastly bridge I told you of. Even then, even there, I fled. Nor knight, nor king—a miserable midge ! “ Yet from my shame I dare not turn and run. My oath grows urgent as my days are done. Almost mine hour is on me : for its sake I tell you this, as if my heart should break, The infinite desire—a burning sun. The listening fear—the…
…w that master-sound Into the rent and agonized profound, Till even the Highest heard me : and He said, As one who speaks alone among men dead : “ Behold, he rules as I the abyss of flame. For lo ! he knoweth, and hath said, My Name ! ”
…intessence of alchemic dew ! The Self-informing Beauty ! In my heart The many were united : and I knew. Smitten by Beauty down I fell as dead— So strikes the sunlight on a miner’s head. Blind, stricken, crushed ! That vast effulgence stole, Flooded the caverns of my secret soul, And gushed in waves of weeping. I was wed Unto a part, and could not grasp the whole. Thus, I was broken on the wheel of Truth. Fled all the hope and purpose of my youth, The high desire, the secret joy, the sin That coiled its rainbow dragon scales within. Hope’s being…