ASSUMPTA CANIDIA 
97 
 
“ I wield Thy Power.”  With my magic rod 
Again I strode before the Throne of God. 
 
“ Forgone my Virgin Splendour !  I aspire 
No longer as a maiden to thy Love. 
We twain are set in majesty above : 
My cloud is mighty as thy mystic Fire.” 
Vanished the mist, the light, the sense, the throne ! 
Vanished the written horror of the curse ; 
Vanished the stars, the sun, the Universe. 
I was in Heaven, lost, alone.  Alone ! 
A new curse gathered as a sombre breath : 
“ Power without Wisdom is the Name of Death ! ” 
 
And therefore from my devastating hand 
(for I was then unwilling to be dead) 
I loosed the lightning, and in hate and dread 
Despairing, did I break the royal wand. 
Mortal, a plaything for a thousand fears, 
I found the earth ; I found a lonely place 
To gaze for ever on the ocean’s face, 
Lamenting through the lamentable years ; 
Without a god, deprived of life and death, 
Sensible only to that sombre breath. 
 
Thus wait I on the spring-forgotten shore ; 
Looking with vain unweeping eyes, for aye 
Into the wedding of the sea and sky, 
(That do not wed, ay me !) for evermore