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…t into bliss, Its holier joy is in the deadlier thirst That drank his life out into the abyss Of torture endless, endless and accurst. I know him little; liking what I know. But you—you offer me his flesh and blood. I taste it—never another vintage owe, Nor bid me sup upon another food ! 76
… Wisdom and Love, intenser glow! Beauty and Strength, increase and burn! Be brothers to the law of life! Things as they are—their nature know! Act! Nor for faith nor folly turn! The hour is nigh when man and wife, Knowing, shall worship face to face, Beget and bear the royal race. 12
…night, From futile thoughts and fatuous deeds. Your girl, your gems, your mournful tones Irk not perfection with their goad. One thing I know—a set of bones Is travelling on upon this road !” 98
Therefore, I take it, now in Hades The funny side of things—and ladies— Engages my attention. Well! You know enough of life in Hell. I was an altruist, my brothers! My life one long kind thought for others: For me six maidens wear the willow :— Poisoning is a peccadillo. Hence I’m disposed to give advice, Simple, if possibly not nice; Shun life! an awkward task and deep. But if you cannot, then—shun sleeep! (Suppose I thus had prophesied, Gone to my wife to bed, and died !) 109
…n the lap of the stream With his mouth ever roving and homing To the nest where the dove is adream. Better wake so Than be thinking, and know That at best it is only a dream. So turn up thy face to the stars! In their peace be at peace for awhile! Let us pass in their luminous cars As a sob, as a sigh, as a smile! Love me and laze Through the languorous days On the breast of the beautiful Nile! May, 1905. 54
…ll, keep naught enshrined A lurking serpent in the mind, Deem not to catch some goodlier gain Than these; the goodliest prize were pain. Know that the utmost heaven is void Of aught save star or asteroid! Or, an it please thee, idly dream A God therein, a force supreme, 47
…! Renounce the dream! Seek not some mystery in the kiss, Some virtue in the chrysopras, Some nymph or undine in the stream. Things as we know them should be enough To glut our misery and our love. VIII. Why must despair to madness drive The myriad fools that fear to die? God’s but a fervid phantom drawn Out of the hasty-ordered hive Of thoughts that battle agony In the melancholy hours of dawn. When vital force at lowest ebbs Anaemic nerves weave frailest webs.
… That youth—scarce thirty—bowed like sixty?” ** Oh, A woman jilted him.” ‘‘ Absurd!” ‘* Conceit! Some youths take life—are Puritans, you know!” I heard it, sitting in the window—glowed, Rushed to my wife and kissed her. Lithe and young The rapture of some ardent madness flowed ; And—by-and-by—its miracle found tongue. Guess, guess the secret why I burn for you These years so cold to woman as I was! Guess why your laugh, your kiss, your touch run through My body, as it were a tunéd glass! 74
…. XIV. Simple to say; to do complex! That we this higher type of man May surely generate, o’ nights Our lesser brains we vainly vex. Our knowledge lacks; we miss the plan. Fools hope our luck will set to rights Our skill that ’s baulked. Yet now we know At least the way we wish to go. XV. This task assume! Colossal mind And toil transcending, concentrate Not on the metaphysic wild; Not on the deserts vast and blind Of dark Religion; not on Fate, The barren ocean; but the Child Shows us a beacon in the night; A lens to lure and lend the light. I…
…r bonds than skill Of subtle-souled psychology May sever. Aim in chaos? None. The soul rolls senseless as the sun. III. Existence, as we know it, spins A fatal warp, a woof of woe. There is no place for God or soul. Works, hopes, prayers, sacrifices, sins Are jokes. The cosmos happened so: Innocent all of guide or goal. Else, what were man’s appointed term? To feed God’s friend, the coffn-worm! Iv. Laugh, thou immortal Lesbian! Thy verse runs down the runic ages. Where shalt thou be when sun and star, My sun, my star, the vault that span, Rush …
Of all the universe unalterable. We know too well How no one thing abides awhile at all, How all things fall, Fall from their seat, the lamentable place, Before their face, Weary and pass and are no more. So we, Since hope must be, Look to the future, to the chance minute That life may shoot Some flower at least to blossom in the night, Since vital light Is sure to fail us on the hideous way. What? Must we pray? Verily, O thou littlest babe, too weak To stir or speak, Capable hardly of a thought, yet seed Of word and.deed ! To thine assured fru…
…I. Then, in God’s name forbear! It does not matter. Life, death, strength, weakness, are but idle chatter. Nothing is lost or gained, we know too well. For heaven they balance us an equal hell. We discard both ; an infinite Universe Remains; we sum it up—an infinite curse. So—am I aman? I lack my wife’s embrace. Am I outworn? I see the harlot’s face. Is the love better and the knowledge worse? Shall I seek knowledge and count love disgrace? Where is the profit in so idle a strife? The love of knowledge is the hate of life. 45
…ove. To die into dreams of my lover, To wake with his mouth like a dove Kissing me over and over. Better sleep so Than be conscious, and know How death hath a charm to discover. 53
…ight, The moment that she slept. I laughed Thereat: the bowl I idly quaffed Was nectar: she amused me, so. You see, my friend, I did not know. I also slept at morn. Then, then, A low voice whispered in the den: ‘* Lucky young fellow! Brave and clever! This sort of thing goes on for ever,” IX, On earth I dreaded impotence, Age, death. You see, I had no sense. Best be an old man ere you die; They wish insensibility, So are their pains the duller. Hell Is managed infinitely well 106
…How rude the rime! There is no melody; the tune and time Are broken. Thirteen centuries ago They would have said, ‘‘ Alas! the youth! We know , This devil hath from him plucked the immortal soul,” 7 say: you have dulled my centres of control! v. If you were with me, I were blind to this: Ready to drain my arteries for your kiss, 42
…human skeleton, whose bones shall rattle in the breeze, and from whose eyeless sockets shall glare—?—lI dare not bid you guess what evil knowledge. Then, an you be wise, you shall know that a wise gardener wisely put them there. For every garden is the world; and in the world these are. So every cathedral is the world, and the archi- tect of Notre Dame deserved his heaven. To me life and death have most often appeared in majesty and beauty, in solemnity and horror; in I B