Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE FATAL FORCE 147 Destroy this priestcraft! indeed, Highest among the secret ones ; and we— See where our heritage is made; I, king, A leper, and thyself, the hideous fruit Of what strange poisons? But in mine own self I am the king and chief of all the priests ; And thou, in thine own eyes, art a young god, Strong, beautiful, and lithe, a leaping fawn Upon the mountains. We are priests SAFI. Yea, I am a god. I am fire against the fountain of my birth, The storm upon the earth that nurtured me !} Leave me: we twain have no more words to speak. THE LEEPER. Neither in heaven nor in hell. I go, The dead king, worshipping the living man. [Aves. S’AFI. I have been a god so long, my thoughts run halt From many contemplations. Like the flow Of a slow river deep and beautiful, My even life moved onward to full scope, The ocean of profounder deity, And—suddenly—the cataract ! Centred eternally upon itself, Comprehends hardly all this violence Of wayward inen intemperate. Iam calm, And contemplate, without a muscle moved Or nerve set shrieking, all these ruinous deeds And dissolution of the royal house. I see this grey unnatural mother of mine Now, as she is, disrobed of deity, And like some reeling procuress grown wolf By infamous bewitchment, haunt the stairs, My soul, 1 Fire and Water, Air and Farth, are the ‘‘antagonisms " of the ‘‘ elements.” And pluck the young men by the robe, and take The maidens for her sacrifice, and burn With great unquenchable dead lustrous eyes Toward impossible things grown possible In Egypt. I will cleanse the land of this. Let me remember I am yet a god! Re-enter THE LEPER. THE LEPER. Thou must be brought before her presently Borne in a coffin. See thou fill it not, But take the lion’s mask and play his part Before the throne. Be ready, and be strong. S’AFI. I shall do so. Come, let us go together In hateful love and sacrilegious hate, Disease and godhead. I am still the god. { Exezaee, Enter RATOUM. RATOUM. I stood upon the desert, and my eyes Beheld the splendid and supernal dawn Flame underneath the single star that burns Within the gateway of the golden East To rule my fate; but I have conquered Fate Thus far, that I am perfect in inyself, The absolute unity and triple power Engrafted. For the foolish people see An old grey woman, wicked, not divine, Who! shall this hour assume the royal self And the old godhead, and the lithe strong limbs And supple loins and splendid bosom bare Full of bright milk, the breast of all the world. This lesser mastery I have made mine-own By strange devices, by unheard-of ways Of wisdom, by strong sins, and magical Rituals made righteous of their own excess Ofhorror ; but [ have not made myself 1 This antithetical use of tke relative is UNCONINON,