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Page 1 of 21903 · PDF PAGE 114
III Is love indeed eternal ? Otherwise Is evolution an eternal plan ? Must I move upward in the stream of Man, God-ward : my life as Christ to sacrifice, As Buddha to repress : to grow so wise, Space, time shall lie within my finger-span ? I know not which I wish : either I can ; Not both, unless all meditation lies. I am not sure : if love as great as ours May not be God to part of us at least, Leaving the Rest to find its heights and powers In other spheres ; that, night’s enamoured priest ; This, on the lake the dewy lotus-flowers That lift …
1903 · PDF PAGE 52
THE TENTH DAY “ O God ! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.” Hamlet. The mere result of all this was a dream. The day passed damned, void of my love’s dear light, And stole acursed to the endless night, Forgotten (as I trust) by God : no beam Of memory lighting it down Time’s dark stream. I dreamt : my shrine was broken and my might Defiled, and all my Gods abased, in sight Of all blind Heaven exenterate and extreme. The foulest traitor of all womankind I ever knew, beca…
1903 · PDF PAGE 55
… wing Weakens, unwearying, And droops with me, Seeing the sun-kindled hair Close in the face more fair, The sweet soul shining there For God to see. 35
1903 · PDF PAGE 41
ALICE : AN ADULTERY “ Commit not with man’s sworn spouse.” King Lear. Against the fiat of that God discrowned, Unseated by Man’s justice, and replaced, By Law most bountiful and maiden-faced And mother-minded : passing the low bound Of man’s poor law we leapt at last and found Passion ; and passing the dim halls disgraced Found higher love and larger and more chaste, A calm sphinx waiting in secluded ground. Hear the sad rhyme of how love turned to lust, And lust invigorated love, and love Shone brighter for the stain it rose above, Gathering r…
1903 · PDF PAGE 35
CALIFORNIA Forged by God’s fingers in His furnace, Fate, My destiny drew near the glowing shore Where California hides her golden ore, Her rubies and her beryls ; (I) Manifold fruits and flowers alike create Glories most unimaginable, more Than Heaven’s own meadows match ; yet this is sore, A stain ; not one of these is delicate. Save only the clear green within the sea— Because that rolls all landless from Japan. I did not know until I missed it here How beautiful that beauty is to me, That life that bears Death’s sigil traced too clear,…
1903 · PDF PAGE 48
…Fate ; though I had seen Chastity charm-proof arm the sea-gray eyes And sweet clean body of my spirit’s queen, Where nothing dwells that God did not devise. 28
1903 · PDF PAGE 91
…meless infamy ! That we Should pluck such bitter bloom, rooted in fear, Salt with the scurf of some diseaséd sea, Foul with the curse of God : that we are here, Hating the night’s inexorable hours. 71
1903 · PDF PAGE 96
… she—how else ? What rest May a man know until his quiet breast Beats to her tune ? I garbed me as a priest And moved towards my Host—on God I feast ! We lay in naked chastity, caressed Child-like or dreaming, till the dawn repressed Our sighs : that nuptial yet hath never ceased. That was the best : far sundered by the tide Dolorous, endless as Oceanus, A serpent-river girdling the large earth, Still in that pure embrace we bring to birth A thousand pleasant children born of us, Sacred and sinless, if unsanctified. 76
1903 · PDF PAGE 77
… The fruits are tasteless : where the jewelled lea And the many-leavéd greenery Is dwarf : French gem-work on a baby’s thumb. The Yankee God frowned also on the plan. We had enough, no more. But I insist, Still thinking I was master of my heart : Saying, “ Another month to be a man, Another month to kiss her and be kissed, And then—all time to Magic and to Art !” 57
1903 · PDF PAGE 89
THE THIRTIETH DAY “ For god’s sake, lords, convey my tristful Queen, For tears do stop the floodgates of her eyes.” King Henry IV. Bitter reproaches passed between us twain, Hers real, mine with sneering logic sewn Proving my trespass hardly half her own, Its cause ; I proved her how she made me fain And left me mad, and led through joy and pain To that unthinkable thing : I might atone No whit in this way : then that stubborn stone My heart grew tears : we were good friends again. Therefore at night I added nothing new : Only a little while I …
1903 · PDF PAGE 102
… 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 lull me with some chaste and gentle song Of angel love. Night’s plume its dewfall drips As she still sits and watches me to sleep. 82
1903 · PDF PAGE 94
…import is Made foolish when the struggle’s synthesis Leads to hot armistice, as dewy spheres Glow, and increase the fury that reveres No God, no heaven but its own hell’s bliss. So after desperate shifts of modesty We could no more ; loosened and lax we lay Breathing and holding : then in amorous play She laughed and left her body’s love to me, And kissed one kiss holding the heart of May, And kissed again, and kissed our lives away. 74
1903 · PDF PAGE 83
…e sea’s hymn below, Breathing in peace of love, mighty and holy, Fearing to fuse, and longing—be it so ! And the world’s pulse stops, as God bends him lowly To hear and know. . . . . . . . For not the heights of heaven shall exalt her Whose heart is full of love’s dumb deity, Nor harp-strings lift me, nor the sound of psalter, Whose love is merged and molten into thee, Nor incense sweeter be by shrine or altar For you and me. . . . . . . . But like dove’s eyes where glamour lies a-dwelling, Like sweet well-water rising in the well, Strong steep…
1903 · PDF PAGE 78
…ips and fingers one strong kiss Swooned slave-wise even before the gate of bliss, No more : for I rose up and cursed my life, Hating the God that made us to dissever So soon so sweet a love, and that for ever. Ut. Canc. sublatum iri dixisse. Vae Capricorno ! (Author’s Note.) 58
1903 · PDF PAGE 108
…ould be chief And drive her to abandon all things yet In mere despair, that bye and bye shall get Young comfort in a babe beyond belief. God would not curse and bless us to such measure ; We were not sad enough nor glad enough ! A little time of misery and pleasure ; Pain strangling half the ecstasy thereof— Such all our gain, who gained the utmost treasure, Gift of the wizard wand and cup of love. 88
1903 · PDF PAGE 34
Some blood-stain filtered from the soul ; The light and shadow shed between My soul and God from Messaline. And even as a dark and hidden Furnace roars out in woods forbidden, A sullen tide of molten steel Runs from deep furrows in the wheel ; So from afar one central heat Sends the loud pulse to fever beat ; So from one crown and heart of fire Spring the vast phantoms of desire, Impossible and epicene, Familiar souls of Messaline. And as, when thunder broods afar Imperial destinies of war, Men see the haze and heat, and feel The sun’s rays lik…
1903 · PDF PAGE 88
THE TWENTY-NINTH DAY “ Persevere in that clear way thou goest, And the gods strengthen thee.” Pericles. Linked in the tiny shelf upon the ship, My blind eyes burned into her mild ones : limbs Twined to each other while fine dew bedims Their quivering skins : lip fastened unto lip : Whole soul and body frenzied meet and clip ; And the breath staggers, and the life-blood swims ! Terrible gods chant black demoniac hymns As the frail cords of honour strain and slip. For in the midst of that tremendous tide The mighty vigour of a god was mine ! Drun…
1903 · PDF PAGE 79
…either for heaven : I railed against the sky, Hating the earth, the sea, the witchery Of all the universe : my breast I bared And cursed God, hoping lightning ; and I dared Not ask my love “ In very truth—you die ?” I could not bear it longer ; then she spake : “ I lied indeed, love, for mine honour’s sake,” And I reproached her for her love’s distrust, Saying “ I would not so in any wise Have lowered love unto the level of lust But now—” I hid my thought in tears and sighs. 59
1903 · PDF PAGE 112
…ear ! ” in cruel distress We sobbed, and stretched our arms out, and despaired, And—parted. Out the brute-side of truth flared ; “ Thank God I’ve finished with that foolishness ! ” 92
1903 · PDF PAGE 9
…to go.” “ There is America,” I said. I had to say something. “ Where the disappearance of man has followed that of manners : the exit of God has not wished to lag behind that of grammar. I have no use for American men, and only one use for American women.” “ Of a truth,” I said, “ the continent is accursed— a very limbo.” “ It is the counterfoil of evolution,” said the man wearily. There was silence. “ What can I do for you ? ” I asked. “ Are you indeed ill ?” vi