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Page 1 of 11903 · PDF PAGE 42
…f a mild soul unstirred by rivalry Of any life beyond its own sweet state. I looked around me, wondered whether Fate Had found at last a woman’s love for me. I had no hope : she was so grave and calm, So shining with the dew-light of her soul, So beautiful beyond a woman’s share. Yet—here ! Soft airs, and perfume through the palm, And moonlight in the groves of spice, control The life that would not love and yet be fair. 22
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 53
…? to use the thought, The utterly divine impersonal Mind of a man, the pure, the spiritual, To such a purpose rather less than nought, A woman’s love—considering that all Wise men assure us that it may be bought ! 33
1903 · PDF PAGE 87
…lust, and truth and trust beguiled ; One in the semblance of a rose-bright child :— The other in a shape more gross and clear, A fiercer woman-figure crowned severe With garlands woven of scourges, but whose wild Breast beat with splendour of sin, whose looks were mild, Hiding the cruel smile behind a tear. So she : “ I now you never would ; ” yet did Such acts that no end otherwise might be. So I : “ I will not ever pluck the flower ; ” Yet strayed enchanted on the lawns forbid, And bathed enamoured in the secret sea, Both knowing our words we…
1903 · PDF PAGE 52
…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, became my friend* : unclean Sexual abominations floated through, More foul because a golden cord did wind Unspotted through that revel epicene, The pure faith of one woman that was true. * This circumstance was later fulfilled : I having judged her actions on insufficient evidence. 32
1903 · PDF PAGE 64
…kisses, and whose bread the flower Of fast and fervent cleaving breast to breast. As lily bends to lily we were bent, Not as mere man to woman : all the dower Of martyred Virgins crowned our dangerous quest. 44
1903 · PDF PAGE 13
fulvous and fulgurous lady grew comparatively tranquil ; the pair withdrew. The old woman lay sprawled along the divan sunk in a drunken torpor. I unrolled the manuscript and read. Brutal truth-telling humour, at times perhaps too Rabelaisian ; lyrics, some of enchanting beauty, others painfully imitative ; sonnets of exceedingly unequal power, a perfectly heartless introduction (some fools would call it pathetic), and, as a synthesis of the whole, an impression of profound sadness and, perhaps, still deeper joy, were my reward. Together with a…
1903 · PDF PAGE 18
…arian ambiguity at the head ; others are still obscure unless a clear under- standing of, and sympathy with, the man’s position (and the woman’s) at the time be ever xv
1903 · PDF PAGE 22
…ting round her, perfectly conscious all the time of the shame of it all, and filled with an eternal inner laughter. We have heard what a woman he married in the end. Our poet is one of the most annoying in the world. His fiftieth day is an outrage on mankind in its sudden and hideous close. He himself feels it, and writes the two following sonnets to discuss (and so to modify) the hateful impression. But through pig-headedness, or in very despair, he leaves the detestable fact standing, the very instant after the lovers part, as ugly and mean a…
1903 · PDF PAGE 21
…of Alice we have no idea, if, indeed, she be after all a real person. In my judgment our poet was perfectly capable of deify- ing an old woman of fifty with a false front and *The results of a lengthy correspondence with some who knew our author, go far to confirm this theory. Yet I believe (for it is so like his peculiar sense of humour) that there is enough genuine detail somewhere in the poem to enable the wronged husband to discover his wife’s infidelity, as he says in the 40th day. Our opinion of such humour is, of course, damning.—ED.