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Page 1 of 31903 · PDF PAGE 19
present in the reader’s mind. I need only instance the 46th, 40th, 38th, 31st, 29th, 28th, and the in- famous 21st day as examples of what I mean. The secret of the 10th day is peculiarly obscure, and apparently refers to some long-past event in the author’s life. To turn for a moment to an examin- tion of the facts as found in the poem. 1st day.—They are on a tropical island in the Pacific. 6th day and 11th.—The man is a meddler with magic and a believer in the Theosophical Doctrines of Evolution (4th day), and yet also in existence of Gods.* …
1903 · PDF PAGE 20
27th—38th days.—The voyage takes ten days, after four of which a day is “ lost,” evidently on the 180th degree. The time exactly corresponds to that occupied by the fast steamers from Hawaii to Japan, and I think we may assume that that island is the one where the affair began. This is confirmed by a punning allusion to Diamond Head in the 27th day. This becomes perfectly clear if we accept the Editor’s conjecture “hula” for the indecipherable word in the 9th day. It is presumed that they landed in Yokohama, as the following day they visit Kama…
1903 · PDF PAGE 90
THE DAY WITHOUT A NUMBER “ O never shall the sun that morrow see.” Macbeth. We lost a day ! Nor kisses, nor regret, Nor fear, nor pain, nor anything at all ! The day was lost, evanished past recall, That saw no sunrise, never saw sun set— For East and West invisibly were met In gateways neither glad nor musical Nor melancholy nor funereal. Nought is there to remember nor forget. Yet in my westward journey many hours I stole, and now must pay them back again. I plucked not one flower, but an hundred flowers ; I bore an hundred passions in my bra…
1903 · PDF PAGE 73
THE EIGHTEENTH DAY “ Touches so soft still conquer chastity.” Passionate Pilgrim. She grew most fearful, starting at slight noise ; As knowing that the sting of shame was hers Worse than a guilty love administers, Since our pure shame unworthily destroys The love of all she had, her girls and boys, Her home, their lives : and yet my whisper stirs Into live flame her passion, and deters Her fear from spurning all the day’s due joys. She had not dared to speak one word, to tell How deep and pure a fountain sunward leapt In her life’s garden : but…
1903 · PDF PAGE 92
THE THIRTY-SECOND DAY “ Me of my lawful pleasure she restrained And prayed me oft forbearance.” Cymbeline. How sweet the soft looks shot, endearing shame With their warm fragrance of love’s modest eyes ! The secret knowledge of our secrecies Shone from their distance with a subtle flame, And gave to pudency a rosier name When the long lashes drooped, and saintlier sighs Took softer meanings, till my arteries Throbbed with the glad desire that went and came. “ I charge you in the very name of love.” Quoth she : “ We have all day to steal below A…
1903 · PDF PAGE 103
THE FORTY-SECOND DAY “ Pol. : No longer stay. Leon. : One seven-night longer. Pol. : Very sooth, to-morrow.” Winter’s Tale. I could not let her leave me the day after. Also we must wait till the month decide Whether the mother stood behind the bride. In any other case what love and laughter Such tidings of an angel’s birth would waft her ; Now, what a fear ! And so she would abide Another vessel and another tide, Until we held the key of the hereafter. But this sad spectre could not change our calm. The day went by more peaceful than a dream Dr…
1903 · PDF PAGE 76
THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY “ Mal. Dispute it like a man. Macd. I shall do so. But I must also feel it as a man.” Macbeth. I had a fearful dream (on going away) Of scorpion women curled in my caress, And twenty days they closed on my distress Not giving me relief, but gold and gray, Cold and intense ; the one-and-twentieth day They drew my life out, one exceeding stress, Volcanic anguish !—Here’s the strange excess : I called, ere waking, on the name Eheieh ! Solve me the riddle of the dream who can ! That night I sought a new toy for a lure, And she …
1903 · PDF PAGE 47
THE FIFTH DAY “ Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.” Richard III. All thought of work is almost cast aside. I followed like a dog the way she went, Speaking but seldom, very well content To day-dream, oft imagining a bride, A wife, a lover, even a sister, tied By some soft bond of twinning : thus I blent A real joy with a brighter element Of fancy free to wander far and wide. For as I followed by the shore and bended Over her footsteps in the wood, my will Rose to high strength assertive and transcended The petty forms of the seducer’s …
1903 · PDF PAGE 63
THE FIFTEENTH DAY “ Were kisses all the joys in bed, One woman would another wed.” Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music. Another day rose of unceasing fire : Kisses made monstrous for their sterile storm Maddening with sea-sounds, as of lute or shawm Fluting and clashing in extreme desire ; The silly “ Thus far and no farther,” nigher Each hour to break (poor arbitrary form !) As each kiss bade our bodies wed and warm Give love one chance before its wave retire. Not so : this trial was the tiniest Man ever knew, confronted afterward With giant fear…
1903 · PDF PAGE 80
THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY “ I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill.” Richard II. Alice was desperately ill at morn. Hour by sweet hour I watched her sorrowing, While the strong fever fought unconquering With native coolness of her life, o’er-worn Or poisoned ; thus I fought the long forlorn Battle all day, until the evening Brought back sweet health on sleep and noiseless wing : Strong love of the long battle was reborn. The child slept elsewhere that she might sleep well. Therefore, not fearing anything, I came ; Lit my love’s candle at her bo…
1903 · PDF PAGE 75
THE TWENTIETH DAY “ ‘ Val.’ How long hath she been deformed ? ‘ Speed.’ Ever since you loved her.” Two Gentlemen of Vernona. Again the unveiled goddess of delight Watched us at midnight : there my lover lay Child-breasted, maiden as the rose of day Dawning on snowy mountains : through deep night Her body gleamed self-luminously white With the sweet soul that sundered the quick clay, And all her being was a sense of May ;— Scent conquering colour, soul out-running sight. Not with the Lysian, nor Iacchian dew Of frenzy covered, but with warmer fl…
1903 · PDF PAGE 100
THE THIRTY-NINTH DAY “ Had I not eyes but ears, my ears would love That inward beauty and invisible.” Venus and Adonis. Note from this day no possible event. All secrets told, and all desires fulfilled, Primitive passion of our soul have killed. We dwell within a calmer element Perfectly pure and perfectly content. The subtler splendour of our love has stilled Those sombre glories that it never meant, Those giant meanings that it never meant. Fire only is our substance ; there we dwell, The Salamandrine with the Salamander. No fuel to crack, no…
1903 · PDF PAGE 111
THE FORTY-NINTH DAY “ Let me twine Mine arms about that body.” Coriolanus. I stole her money, even then to prove She had no wings to fly with : but I knew What to her hateful duty there was due, And how the hateful system stank thereof : I let her go, both weeping, both enough Heart-broken : no farewell went ever through— Words came not : only ever : “ I love you ! ” With broken kisses and stained cheeks of love. So all day long and half the night we wandered Down deep lanes and in gardens, like lost souls. Strong kisses that had surfeited a sc…
1903 · PDF PAGE 99
THE THIRTY-EIGHTH DAY “ The carcass of a beauty spent and done.” Lover’s Complaint. One day from landing. Kamakura sees Pass to the might shrine and shape of bronze Me, pilgrim, murmuring pious orisons, Taking my refuge in that House of Peace, And after, sees my love, and doth not please. She was too young to know that shrine the Son’s, Or see the Virgin’s House in Kwan-se-on’s ; And when I told her, flushed, and bade me cease. I ceased indeed ! All hope of mental flower She shattered in five minutes : following lust, All intellectual communing…
1903 · PDF PAGE 43
THE SECOND DAY “ Keep you in the rear of your affection Out of the shot and danger of desire.” Hamlet. I was so hopeless that I turned away And gave my love to foul oblivion, Shuttered my bosom’s window from the sun, Kindled a corpse-light and proclaimed “ The day ! ”; Lurked in Aeaean fens to elude the ray Whose beauty might disturb me : I did shun The onyx eyes that saw me not as one Possible even for a moment’s play. Thus I was tangled in some house of hell, Giving mine own soul’s beauty up to lust, Hoping to build some fort impregnable Agai…
1903 · PDF PAGE 86
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY “ The ship is in her trim ; the merry wind Blows fair from land.” Comedy of Errors. Quite careless whether golden gales of wind Fling our boat forward, or the storm and spark Of lightning lamp or shroud us in the dark, Careless if ever land again we find, Careless of all things (this love being blind), We put to sea. O gladly stand and mark The diamond headland fall behind our barque, Wrapped in shrine-shadow of love’s central mind ! We are alone to-day on the strange sea, Divider of the dawn’s divinity From sunset’s sple…
1903 · PDF PAGE 68
THE SEVENTEENTH DAY “ Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant.” Tempest. Last night—but the boy shrieked in’s sleep—then, there I had ended all ! Having ingressed the track That leads from green or white-crowned hours to black, The pleasant portals of the scorpion snare, First gleaming toils of an enchantress’ hair That afterward shall change their fervours slack To strong gripe of a devil-fish : go back ? The hand is put forth to the plough—beware ! I took my shrine down : at the night we lay Four hours debating between fear and sin : Wh…
1903 · PDF PAGE 95
THE THIRTY-FIFTH DAY “ I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it, but adieu.” King Henry V. The third time bitterly came reason back. Is it a fault in love when mornings find The soul grown sober and rethroned the mind ? Or is it mere necessity to track The candid chequer cross-wise to the black, And love, not mutable, yet well inclined To take his pleasure in becoming blind After such sight mere day is wont to lack. So we were angry with ourselves and said We would not kiss—two days, and we would part. And she prayed heaven that she might be dea…
1903 · PDF PAGE 62
THE FOURTEENTH DAY “ Some there be that shadows kiss ; Such have but a shadow’s bliss ; There be fools alive, I wis.” Merchant of Venice. All day we chose each moment possible When to the other’s face each face might cling, Each kiss burn forth, a double fiery sting Exalting us in joy foreseen to swell A mighty exultation ; it befell, However, that I saw the shadowy thing Lurk behind love, and flap a scornful wing, Seeing our honour stood a citadel. I saw the foolishness of love and saith : “ I am exalted over shame and death, But will not take…
1903 · PDF PAGE 102
THE FORTY-FIRST DAY “ I am sick.” Antony and Cleopatra. How things are changed since Alice was so ill ! I, being in high fever, lay in bed, While my love smoothed the pillows for my head : Her calm looks christened me with dew to still All chance of fever to the soul, and fill My heart with pure love like a snowfall shed Meekly, a blossom where frail white and red Were never frenzied at some mad god’s will. She sat and gazed upon me all day long. Sometimes she held my hands ; then she would weep, And then stoop tenderly and kiss my lips, Or lul…