AVE MORS.
O V1RGIN! O my sister! Hear me, death!
The tainted kisses of the harlot life
Sicken me; hers is foul and fevered breath,
This noisome woman I have made my wife.
She lies asweat, aslime. O hear me, thon !
Wash with thy tears this desecrated brow !
With cool chaste kisses cleanse me! Lay me out,
Wrapped in a spotless winding-sheet, and soothe
These nerves ill nuzzled by the black swine’s snout
With thine eternal anodyne of truth!
The foul beast grunts and snorts; but hear me,
death!
Thy wings are wind-white as her hoofs are
dunged.
Thy songs are faint and pale with honey breath,
Honey and poppy! as her mouth hot-tongued
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