Clouds Without Water

VIIl Even that taunt has left you smiling still, And silent still — and that is ten times worse. Where is my will, my adamantine will? Curse God and die? I can nor die nor curse. Ah, but I can. The agony extends — Iam wrapt up all in an equal hell. There is a point at which emotion ends. Tam come through to peace, though pain yet swell Its paean in my every vein and nerve. Try me, o God, convulse me to the marrow ! I am its element ; I shall not swerve. Lam Apollo too; I loose one arrow Swift enough, straight enough to conquer you. O Sphinx! Gaze on! I can be silent too. IX Now then the pressure and the pain increase, And ever nearer grows the exulting rose Your face; and like a Malay with his kriss ° That runs amok your passion gleams and grows. It shakes me to the soul: by that you arestilled : You hold yourself together, like a man Stabbed to the heart, who, knowing he is killed, Lets his whole life out in his yataghan, ° And strikes one masterstroke. So now you breathe Close on my face; you strip me of defence; You sing in obscure words whose crownsenwreathe My forehead with their viewless violence, So that I lie, as at the appointed term, Awaiting the foul kisses of the worm.