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No blade of grass awaiting takes The dew fresh-fallen above, Because my lover swoons, and slakes Her body’s thirst of love. This night no dewfall from the blue !— Unless my Alice be the dew. This night—O never dawn shall crest The world of wakening, Because my lover has my breast On hers for dawn and spring. This night shall never be withdrawn— Unless my Alice be the dawn. 47
…No song this happy night be heard !— Unless my Alice be the bird. The sea that roared around the house Is fallen from alarms, Because my lover calls me spouse, And takes me to her arms. This night no sound of breakers be !— Unless my Alice be the sea. Of man and maid in all the world Is stilled the swift caress, Because my lover has me curled In her own loveliness. No kiss be such a night as this !— Unless by Alice be the kiss. 46
ALICE The roses of the world are sad, The water-lilies pale, Because my lover takes her lad Beneath the moonlight veil. No flower may bloom this happy hour— Unless my Alice be the flower. The stars are hidden in dark and mist, The moon and sun are dead, Because my love has caught and kissed My body in her bed. No light may shine this happy night— Unless my Alice be the light. 45
…ast 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 skill. Chaste love strode forth, a warrior’s stern and splendid Determined footsteps on the Arcadian Hill…
…? ‘ 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 flakes Of Aphrodite shed upon our life, We clung still closer,…
…om the wittol’s eyes (What hate may tell him if he read my song, If he be subtle : not if he be wise) In our despair came laughter to my lover : “ All’s well as yet. I calculated wrong.” 81
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…
…d she, whose robe was far too slight to hide The babe-smooth breasts, was far to frail to cover Her heart’s true fire and music from her lover. 54
THE ELEVENTH DAY “What win I if I gain the thing I seek?” Rape of Lucrece. There is much sorcery in the word eleven. I took my lover’s image pale and clear, Fixed in my mind ; I saw her standing near, Wooed her, conjured her by the power of heaven, Of my own mind, the Genii of the Seven, To come and live with me and be my dear, To love me in the spirit without fear ;— Leaving the body’s love to follow at even. Seemeth it not absurd ? to use the thought, The utterly divine impersonal Mind of a man, the pure, the spiritual, To such a purpose rath…
…tted, done aright ! The high Gods came above my head to hover, Because I worked with a diviner might, The perfect sage being the perfect lover. 30
…ly dead, Seeing my life is by a serpent wrecked Of sore disease : but spare me, and reflect That in few months I die : but were I wed— O lover ! O desire discomfited ! I die at once : consider, and elect.” How could I otherwise than spare my wife ? With tender lips 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
…limbs, My drouthy passion worn and keen, And lusty life of Messaline. The heart’s blood in her boiling over She sucked from many a dying lover : The purple of her racing veins Leapt from some soul’s despairing pains ; She drinks up life as from a cup ; 10
I see through the moonlight that covers (As a mist on the mountain) your head The flame of your heart as a lover’s Shine out in your face and be shed, A ruby that flashes and hovers and droops and is dead. As a saint in a vision half hidden I see the sweet face in a mist, A nimbus of glory unbidden That shades you or shows as you list. But I, as a bridegroom, unchidden, may kiss—and am kissed. In the light and the manifest splendour That shows you in darkness a bride, Pale blossom of moonlight and slender, A lily that sways in the tide, A star …