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Page 1 of 11901 · PDF PAGE 76
…lly is it for two souls to burn With hell’s own fire ! What is this quest of woe ? What is the end ? Consider and discern ! ” Banish the thought ! My working reason still Is the rebellious vassal to my will. Because I will it. That is God’s own mind. I cast all thought and prudence to the wind : On, to the quest ! The cursed parrot hill Mocks on, on, on ! The thought is left behind. Night came upon me thus—a wizard hand Grasping with silence the reluctant land. Through night I clomb—behind me grew the light Reflected in the portal of the night.…
1901 · PDF PAGE 32
… the tyrant’s end. The gates are closed because of night, Whose heavy breath infects the air ; The dog-star gleams, a devilish light : I thought I saw behind me glare The eyes of fiends ; I thought I heard An evil laugh, a mocking word. The gates swing open at The Name, Without a warder roused from sleep ; I pass, with face of burning flame, That is not quenched, although I weep. (For even my tears are tears of fire, For loathing, madness, and desire.) Ah God ! the traps for fervent feet ! The morrow beaconed, and I came By where the golden gro…
1901 · PDF PAGE 88
…rtain of our origin. We are born Adam’s bastards into sin, Servants to Death and Time’s devouring tooth. God, damning most, had this one thought of ruth To save some dozens—Us : and by the skin Of teeth to save us from the devil’s gin— Repentance ! Blood ! Prayer ! Sackcloth ! This is truth.” Our parents answer jesting Pilate so. I am the meanest servant of the Christ : But, were I heathen, cannibal, profane, My cruel spirit had not sacrificed My children to this Moloch. I am plain ? “ Blasphemer ! ” “ Damned ! ” ? Undoubtedly—I know ! W
1901 · PDF PAGE 123
…OLY OF HOLIES. 111 TO ALLAN MACGREGOR. MAN of Sorrows : brother unto Grief ! O pale with suffering, and dumb hours of pain ! O worn with Thought ! thy Godhead springs again The Soul of Resurrection : thou art chief And lord of all thy Soul : O patient thief Of God’s own fire ! What mysteries find fane In the white shrine of thy white spirit’s reign, Thou man of Sorrows : O, beyond belief ! Let God's own Peace be with thee : let thy days Prosper in spite of thine unselfish soul ; And as thou lovest, so let Love increase Upon thee and about thee …
1901 · PDF PAGE 58
…my lady’s gong. A man must eat in intervals of song ! Swift feet run back to hide my hate of her. And then—that hate flies truant, as my thought Rests (surely it beseems the overwrought) And I am left her slave and minister.
1901 · PDF PAGE 28
…xes the eight-fold ecstasy ; exceeds The minor sestet, where some passion bleeds Or truth discourses : or eclipse may end, Proof against thought ; but if man comprehend The stars in all their stations sing together. II. What power or fascination can there lie In this fair garden of the straight-kept rows, The sonnet ? Surely some archangel knows Why, having written in mere ecstasy T
1901 · PDF PAGE 105
…h he passed within And plunged within the deep, The seven palaces of sin, And slept the lonely sleep, Yet came He out alone : but then I thought I heard Them weep. “ He passed alone, above, Out of the Gates of Night ; Angels of Purity and Love Drew to my sound and sight. I heard Them cry that even there He fixed the eternal Light. “ I think beneath these groans, And laughters madness-born, Tears fell that might dissolve the stones That grind the accurséd corn. Beneath the deep, beneath the deep, may dwell the star of morn ! “ Therefore, O God, …
1901 · PDF PAGE 60
48 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. There is a shallop—how the breakers gallop, Grinding to dust the unresisting shore, A moon-mad thought to wander in the shallop ! Act—think no more ! Pale as a ghost I leave the sounding coast, The waters white with moonrise. I embark, Float on to the horizon as a ghost, Confront the dark. The cadent curve of Dian seems to swerve, Eluding helmcraft : let me drift away Where sea and sky unite their clamorous curve In praise of Day. Is it an edge ? Some spray-bechiselled ledge ? Some sentry platform to an under sky ? Let me…
1901 · PDF PAGE 17
THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 5 For, maddening to fiercer thought, The fiery limbs requicken, wheel In formless furies, subtly wrought Of swifter 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 moo…
1901 · PDF PAGE 139
…-crowned Ta-hu-ti, lend Thy magic : let my light extend ! I cannot comprehend one truth. My sight is biased, and my mind— One snake-skin thought is of its youth ; Grows old, and casts the slough behind. O Themis, Lady of the plume, Shed thy twin godhead in the gloom ! How ugly is this life of mine ! How slimes it in the terrene mud ! Clouds hide the beauty all-divine, The moonlight has a mist of blood. O Hathoor, Lady of the West, Take thy sad lover to thy breast ! Even the perfumes of the dawn Intoxicate, deceive the soul. Let every shadow be …
1901 · PDF PAGE 29
THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 17 One sonnet-thought, the metre cannot die But urges, but compels me to compose More and still more, and still my spirit goes Striving up glittering steeps of symphony. There is an angel who is guardian. Surely her wings are rosy, and her feet Black as the wind of frost ; but oh ! her face ! Whoso may know it is no more a man, But walks with God, and sees the Lady sweet Whose body was the vehicle of grace. III. Eternal beauty in eternal truth, Isis ! And Thoth, the scribe of destiny, And Mary’s excellent virginity ! Y…
1901 · PDF PAGE 130
…rown-stained fingers wring the petals white, And weary lips seek lotus-life in them Vainly : the lotus burns above the tomb— Yea, but in thought’s unfathomable womb ! For spiritual life and love and light Climb the swayed ladder of our various fate
1901 · PDF PAGE 83
… and thy name is One. The Godhead in me ! As a flash there came The jealous secret and the guarded name. The quest was mine ! And yet my thoughts confute My intuition ; and my will was mute. My voice—ah ! flashes out the word of flame : “ Eternal Beauty, One and absolute ! ” The overwhelming sweetness of a voice Filled me with Godhead. “ Still remains the choice ! Thou knowest me for Beauty ! Canst thou bear The fuller vision, the abundant air ? ” I only wept. The elements rejoice ; No tear before had ever fallen there. I thought within myself …
1901 · PDF PAGE 73
… His soul against the quest ; the tumult ran Indecorous in that presence, man to man. Stilled suddenly, beholding how I bowed My soul in thought : another cry began. “ Gereth 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 77
THE GATE OF THE SANCTUARY. 65 Yet the thought chilled me as I touched the reins. Ah ! the poor horse, he will not. So remains, Divided in his love. With mastered tears I stride toward the parapet. My ears Catch his low call ; and now a song complains. The bridge is bleeding and the river hears. Ah ! God ! I cannot live for pity deep Of that heart-quelling chant—I could not sleep Ever again to think of it. I close My hearing with my fingers. Gently goes A quivering foot above them as they weep— I weep, I also, as the river flows. Slowly the brid…
1901 · PDF PAGE 78
66 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. 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…
1901 · PDF PAGE 91
…ce, not regret, And it loves you still, my sisters ! as God shall not forget. It is ill to blaspheme the silence with a wicked whispered thought— How still they were, those nights ! when this web of things was wrought ! How still, how terrible ! O my dolorous tender brides, As I lay and dreamt in the dark by your shameful beautiful sides ! And now you are mine no more, I know ; but I cannot bear The curse—that another is drunk on the life that stirs your hair : Every hair was alive with a spark of midnight’s delicate flame, Or a glow of the net…
1901 · PDF PAGE 98
…ing darkness, in the gloom That I can touch with trembling sense. There shone Once, in my misty memory, in the womb Of some unformulated thought, the flame And smoke of mighty pillars ; yet my mind Is clouded with the horror of this same Path of the wise men : for my soul is blind Yet : and the foemen I have never feared I could not see (if such should cross the way), And therefore I am strange : my soul is seared With desolation of the blinding day I have come out from : yes, that fearful light Was not the Sun : my life has been the death, Thi…