The Winged Beetle

96 LILITH So in my dreams, escaping from a monster, I turn one corner ; “ there is refuge—there ! ” Nay, there he lurked who never had pursued me . . . ’twas I who chased him to his proper holt. Then, O thou vile adorable, my lover, my master, catch me backward by the hair ! Fasten thy fangs upon my mouth’s gasped anguish, and split my dream-clouds with thy thunderbolt ! Though thou be God or Satan, do thou master my death- pang with thy life-pang, and possess All that I am with all thou art, my Vampire, my Siren that I thought a nightingale ! Abase me ! Spit on me ! Scourge me ! Murder me ! Take thy wolf’s meal of my loveliness ! Give me the reek of thy foul breath, and show me the leper’s face behind the shining veil ! Yea ! Though I sink through measureless abysses, I trace the incommensurable curve. Thy foursquare wedge that rages in my circle shall match it at the infinite period. Polluted body, violated spirit, corrupted soul, stunned brain and tortured nerve :— These merge into thy bloody maw, Echidna, that shall emerge the lone white flame of God.