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21 matching pages
Page 1 of 21901 · PDF PAGE 46
…, wearier wing. Turn back from safety—Let God’s rivers pour Brimstone and fire, and all his fountains roar Lava and hail of hell upon my head, So be he leave us altogether dead, Burnt in that shameful whirlwind of his ire, Consumed in one tall pyramid of fire Whose bowers of flame shall tell the sky of God How we despised his feet with thunder shod, And conquered, clasping, all the host of death. Turn to me, touch me, mix thy very breath With mine to mingle floods of fiery dew With flames of purple, like the sea shot through With golden glances…
1901 · PDF PAGE 50
38 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. SONNET FOR GERALD KELLY’S JEZEBEL. IFT up thine head, disastrous Jezebel ! Fire and black stars are melted in thine hair That curls to Hell, as in Satanic prayer ; Thy mouth is heavy with its riper smell Than clustered pomegranates beside a well ; The cruel savour of thy lust lies there, That blood may tinge thy kisses unaware To fill thy children with the hope of Hell. O evil beauty ! Heart of mystery Wherein my being toils, and in the blood Mixed with thy poison finds its subtle food, Intoxicating my divinity ! Disdainf…
1901 · PDF PAGE 116
…cret thoughts within, Compel eternity to Now, Draw the Infinite within. Light is extended. I and Thou Are as they had not been. So on my head the light is one, Unity manifest ; A star more splendid than the sun Burns for my crownéd crest ; Burns, as the murmuring orison Of waters in the west. What angel from the silver gate Flames to my fierier face ? What angel, as I contemplate The unsubstantial space ? Move with my lips the laws of Fate That bind earth’s carapace ? No angel, but the very light And fire and spirit of Her, Unmitigated, eremite…
1901 · PDF PAGE 119
… breaking foam : so hangs the glacier, rent By giant sunrays, in the frost-grip pent. Yonder again rears up the craggy wall Its cleaving head to heaven : thither I Clomb the vast terrors, where the echoing fall Roars stony from the sky. Thither I pressed at midnight, and the dawn Saw my swift feet move faster than the fawn. Pale seas of blue soft azure lie beyond, Far o’er the gleaming green : the smoke is risen O
1901 · PDF PAGE 55
… to feed upon your shoulders bare, And pass the dewy twilight of our sin In the intolerable flames of hair That clothe my body from your head ; you win The devil’s bargain ; I am yours to kill, Yours, for one kiss ; my spirit for your skin ! O bitter love, consuming all my will ! O love destroying, that hast drained my life Of all those fountains of dear blood that fill My heart ! O woman, would I call you wife ? Would I content you with one touch divine To flood your spirit with the clinging strife Y
1901 · PDF PAGE 125
… So tranquil, in the surge of things ; I bring them from the well of Life, Love, from celestial water-springs ! From the shrill fountain-head of God I draw out water with the rod Made luminous with light of power. I seal each æon’s period, And wait the moment and the hour. Aloof, alone, unloved, I stand With love and worship in my hand. I commune with the Gods : I wait Their summons, and I fire the brand. I speak their Word : and there is Fate. I know no happiness, no pain, No swift emotion, no disdain, No pity : but the boundless light Of the …
1901 · PDF PAGE 18
6 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Monstrous desires of secret things Upon their worshippers, from wings One lucent web of light, from head One labyrinthine passion-fed Palace of love, from breathing rife With secrets of forbidden life. But not the sunlight, nor the stars, Nor any light but theirs alone, Nor iron masteries of Mars, Nor Saturn’s misconceiving zone, Nor any planet’s may be shone, Within the circle of the grove, Where burn the sanctities of love : Nor may the foot of man be known, Nor evil eyes of mothers thrown On maidens that desire the kiss…
1901 · PDF PAGE 90
…thunders and the snow, I look to the shimmering valley and weep : 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
1901 · PDF PAGE 38
26 THE SOUL OF 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 clos…
1901 · PDF PAGE 26
… her equal breath ; Still in the unknown star I see The very god that is of me. The day’s pale countenance is lifted, The rude sun’s forehead he uncovers ; No soft delicious clouds have drifted, No wing of midnight’s bird that hovers ; Yet still the hard blind blue is rifted, And still my star and I as lovers Yearn to each other through the sky With eyes half closed in ecstasy. Night, Night, O mother Night, descend ! O daughter of the sleeping sea ! O dusk, O sister-spirit, lend Thy wings, thy shadows, unto me ! O mother, mother, mother, bend A…
1901 · PDF PAGE 37
…then with eyes of flame, “ Who is on my side ? Who ? ” he said. Three eunuchs, passionless, grown tame, Grinned from behind her laughing head. “ Throw down that woman ! ” And my breath Caught as they flung her out to death. I think I died that moment. He, Foaming for vengeance and blood-lust, Laughed his coarse laugh of hideous glee. Her sweet bad body in the dust He trampled. Royal from the womb, A martyred murderess lacks a tomb ! A tigress woman, clad with sin, And shod with infamy, who pressed The bloody winepress of my skin, And plucked th…
1901 · PDF PAGE 39
…e host is lifted up. Behold The vintage spilt, the broken bread ! I feast upon the cruel cold Pale body that was ripe and red. Only, her head, her palms, her feet, I kissed all night, and did not eat. So, and not otherwise, the word Of God was utterly fulfilled. So, and not otherwise. I heard Her spirit cry, by death not stilled : “ My sin is perfect in thy blood, And thou and I have conquered God.” Now let me die, at last desired, At last beloved of thee my queen ; Now let me die, with blood attired, Thy servant naked and obscene ; To thy whit…
1901 · PDF PAGE 97
…ing goal ? These are my passions that my feet must tread ; This is my sword, the fervour of my soul ; This is my Will, the crown upon my head. For see ! the darkness beckons : I have gone, Before this terrible hour, towards the gloom, Braved the wild dragon, called the tiger on With whirling cries of pride, sought out the tomb Where lurking vampires battened, and my steel Has wrought its splendour through the gates of death. My courage did not falter : now I feel My heart beat wave-wise, and my throat catch breath As if I choked ; some horror c…
1901 · PDF PAGE 129
… arms that hold, Even the infinite brain : that spirit seeks A loftier dawn of more ephemeral gold— Ephemeral, and eternal : droop thine head, O God ! for thou must suffer this : I said ! Droop thy wide pinions, O thou mortal God ! Sink thy vast forehead, and let Life consume The miserable life thy feet have trod Beneath them, that thine own life in its doom Fall, in its resurrection to arise ; Stoop, that its holier hope may cleave the skies.
1901 · PDF PAGE 84
…ming 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, life’s delight, time’s eager tooth ; All,…
1901 · PDF PAGE 109
…d he to tempt and try my adamant Purpose : at last the legionary powers Behind him sank affrayed ; his visage lowers Less menacing : his head is turned aslant
1901 · PDF PAGE 73
…th the dauntless ! Gereth of the Sea ! Gereth the loyal ! Child of royalty ! Witch-mothered Gereth ! Sword above the strong, Heart pure, head many-wiled ! ” The knightly throng Clamour my name, and flattering words, to me— If they may ’scape the quest—I do them wrong ; They are my friends—Yet something terrible Rings in the manly music that they swell.
1901 · PDF PAGE 82
70 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Only the quest ! if any quest there be ! What is my purpose ? Could the Godhead guess ? So the long way seemed moving as I went, Flashing beneath me ; and the firmament Moving with quicker robes that swept the air. Still Dian drew me to her bosom bare, And madness more than will was my content. I moved, and as I moved I was aware ! The plain is covered with a many dead. Glisten white bone and salt-encrusted head, Glazed eye imagined, of a crystal built. And see ! dark patches, as of murder spilt. Ugh ! “ So thy fellows of…
1901 · PDF PAGE 108
…IS. Mine eyes peer deeper in the quivering gloom— What horrors crowd upon the aching sight ! Behold ! the phantom ! Icy as the tomb, His head of writhing scorpions in the womb Of deadlier terrors : how a charnel-light Gleams on his beetle frame ! What poison drips Of slime and blood from his disastrous lips ! What oceans of decaying water steam For his vast essence ! And a voice rolls forth With miserable fury from that stream Of horror : “ Thou hast called me by the beam Of glory, by the devastating wrath Of thine accurséd godhead : tell me th…
1901 · PDF PAGE 78
…IS. My thought had thanked him for the generous breath Wherewith he warned us : for delay were death. And now, too late ! no moon is overhead— Some other meaning in the words he saith ? Or, am I tricked in such a little snare ? I lifted up my eyes. What soul stood there, Fronting my path ? Tall, stately, delicate, A woman fairer than a pomegranate. A silver spear her hands of lotus bear, One shaft of moonlight quivering and straight. She pointed to the East with flashing eyes : “ Thou canst not see her—but my Queen shall rise.” Bowed head and b…