Collected Works (Vol. III)

LIBER QUARTUS VEL MORTIS 217 Long after (to men: but a moment To'me in my mansion of rest) Is a sundawn to blaze what the glow meant Seen long after death in the west ; A magical zeon ! Nor love-song nor pzean, But a flame with a silvery crest. There shall rise a sweet song of the soul Far deeper than love or distress ; Beyond mortals and gods shall it roll ; It shall find me, and crave, and caress. Ah! me it shall capture In torrents of rapture ; It shall flood me, and fill, and possess. For brighter from age unto age The weary old world shall renew Its life at the lips of the sage, Its love at the lips of the dew. With kisses and tears The return of the years Is sure as the starlight is true. Yet the drift of the stars is to beauty, To strength, and to infinite pleasure. The toil and the worship and duty Shall turn them to laughter and leisure. Were the world understood Ye would see it was good, A dance to a delicate measure. Ye fools, interweaving in passion The lyrical light of the mind ! Go on, in your drivelling fashion ! Ye shall surely seek long and not find. From without ye may see All the beauty of me, And my lips, that their kisses are kind. For Eurydice once I lamented ; For Orpheus I do not lament : Her days were a span, and demented ; His days are for aye, and content. Mere love is as nought To the love that is Thought, And idea is more than event. O lovers! O poets! O masters Of me, ye may ravish my frown ! Aloof from my shocks and disasters ! Impatient to kiss me, and crown ! I am eager to yield. In the warrior field Ye shall fight me, and fasten me down. O poets! O masters! O lovers! Sweet souls of the strength of the sun ! The couch of eternity covers Our loves, and our dreams are as done. Reality closes Our life into roses ; We are infinite space: we are one. There is one! that hath sought me and found ine In the heart of the sand and the snow: He hath caught me, and held me, and bound ine, In the lands where no flower may grow. His voice is a spell, Hath enchanted me well ! I am his, did I will it or no. But I will it, I will it, I will it! His speck of a soul in its cars Shall lift up immensity ! fill it With light of his lyrical bars. His soul shall concentre All space ;. he shall enter The beautiful land of the stars. He shall know me eternally wedded To the splendid and subtle of mind; For the pious, the arrogant-headed, He shall know they nor seek me nor fina. O afloat in me curled ! Cry aloud to the world That I and my kisses are kind ! O lover! O poet ! O maiden To me in my magical way ! Be thy songs with the wilderness laden ! Thy lyre be adrift and astray :— So to me thou shalt cling ! So to me thou shalt sing Of the beautiful law of the day ! 1 Possibly intended as a reference to the poet himself,