Clouds Without Water

X We tread on earth in our divine disdain And crush its blood out into purple wine, Staining our feet with hot and amorous stain, The foam involving all the sensual shrine Of love whose godhead dwells upon your mouth Wherein the kisses clustering overflow With brimming ardour of the new sin’s growth Till round us all the poisonous blossoms blow, And all the cruel things and hideous forms Of night awake and revel in our revel, While in us rage the devastating storms Whose dam is Luxury and their sire the devil... It is well seen, however things intend, The Gods have given for this — no happy end. XI Crown me with poppy and hibiscus! crown These brows with nightshade, monkshood and vervain! Let us anoint us with the unguents brown That waft our wizard bodies to the plain Where in the circle of unholy stones The unconsecrated Sabbath is at height ; Where the grim goat rattling his skullsand bones Makes music that dissolves the dusk of night Into a ruddy fervour from the abyss Such as I see (when cunning can surprise Our Argus foe and give us leave to kiss: Within your deep, your damned, your darling eyes. Ay! to the Sabbath where the crowned worm Exults, with twisted yard and slime-cold sperm.