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Page 1 of 21898 · PDF PAGE 93
Accurst, detestable, In which I laugh with hell, And furies chant the knell Of all things clean. Ah God ! the shapes that throng ! Ah God ! what eyes ! The souls grown sharp and strong That my lips made their prize, The ruined souls, the wrecks Of bodies fair of flecks Long since, ere God did vex My soul with sacrifice. Pale youth and bloodless maiden Whose breasts have bled, With wrath or mercy laden, By love or terror led, Reproachful or reviling, Some pure and some defiling, Some fearful and some smiling, Some living and some dead. 83
1898 · PDF PAGE 33
But so God would not have me die ; Her deadly lips relax and fade, Her body slackens with a sigh Reluctant, like a maid. I said : O vampire Lover, weep, Who cannot follow me above, Though Death may masquerade as Sleep, And Lust laugh out like Love. But God’s strong arms set under me Lifted my spirit through the air Beyond the wide supernal sea, Beyond the veil of vair. God said : My ways are sweet and deep ; The sceptres and the swords thereof Change : for Death’s face is fair as Sleep ; And Lust is clean as Love. I slept upon His breast ; and …
1898 · PDF PAGE 89
When foemen bade good cheer To foemen, grew one clear Concept, ideal, divine, Of a god of light and laughter, of a god of wheat and wine. Work on, strong mind, devise The outer life aright ; Dream, subtle soul, and arise To noblest litanies That pierce the mask of night— In a man work lifts his eyelids, but his dreams lend eyes their light. So dreams and days are wed, And soul and body lie Ambrosial in Love’s bed. See, heaven with stars is spread— So glad of life am I If an angel came to call me I am sure I would not die. 79
1898 · PDF PAGE 82
…AIAH. A SONNET. THE world is dusk, expectant of its doom ; Foulness is rampant, purity is dumb ; Despair stalks terrible. But I am come, God-nurtured, in the void abyss of gloom ; The Spirit of my God is set on me ; He hath anointed me to preach glad news Unto the meek ; the broken heart to loose, To utter to the captive liberty, The prison’s opening to all the bound, And unto all men to proclaim aloud The year acceptable before the Lord. Therefore He fills my voice with silvery sound, And by His spirit, a pillar of fire and cloud, My eyes are …
1898 · PDF PAGE 104
My rapt eyes grow more eager now, God smites within the host, White fires illuminate my brow Lit of the Holy Ghost ; I see the angel figures bow On heaven’s silent coast. Eternity, a wheel of light, And Time, a fleece of snow, I saw, and deep beyond the night, The steady mystic glow Of that lamp’s flame unearthly bright That watches Earth below. Long avenues of sleepy trees And bowers arched with love, And kisses woven for a breeze, And lips that scarcely move, Save as long ripples on the seas, That murmur like a dove. I saw the burning lips of…
1898 · PDF PAGE 111
… deep, Anchored in some most certain anchorage From ocean’s rage ; Your patience stand when mountains shake and quail Before the gale Of God’s great tribulation. Make thee sure Thou canst endure. And work, work ever, sleep not, gird thy head With garlands red Of blood from swollen veins forced in bitter toil To win some spoil Of knowledge from the caverns of the deep. So shall the steep Pathways of heaven gleam with loftier fires Than earth’s desires. So shalt thou conquer Space, and lastly climb The walls of Time, And by the golden path the gr…
1898 · PDF PAGE 34
…s head With feet made white with whitest fire, Above His forehead, that is red As blood with His Desire. I knew that Voice was more than God, And echo trembled for its trust : Sleep’s feet, like Death’s, with fire are shod, And Love is likest Lust. So I returned and sought her breast, Our Lady of ten thousand Pains ; I drank her kisses, and possessed Her pale maternal veins. I said : Drain hard my sudden breath, Be cruel for the vampire thrust ! Let Sleep’s desire be sweet as Death, And Love be clean as Lust ! I died amid her kisses : so This l…
1898 · PDF PAGE 116
…the blossoming bowers That slays with his merciless sabre the passion of flowers. This pastime had hope for its metre, And trust in high God for the tune, And passion of sorrow made sweeter Than loves of the leafiest June, When Artemis’ arrows are fleeter than rays of the moon. My hope in the ocean was founded, Nor changed for the wind and the tide ; My love by the heaven was bounded, And knew not a barrier beside ; My faith beyond heaven was grounded, as God to abide. Though death be the stain on our roses, The roses of heaven are white ; Thou…
1898 · PDF PAGE 38
To reach toward God, and, from His shrine returning, To sing in magic melodies the vast Desires of God towards man—O dreams ! O years Drowned in these bitter tears ! I felt the springs of youth within me leaping, Let loose my pleasure, never guessed that pain Was worth the holding—now, my life is weeping Itself away, those agonies to gain Which are my one last hope, that by some cross Eld may avenge youth’s loss ! Yet still youth burns ! The hours its pleasure wasted Compel their bitter memories to grow sweet ; Like some warm-perfumed poison if…
1898 · PDF PAGE 58
Should be a resting-place until the night Broke, and I met my God, and stood within His sight. Only my brain grows feebler with the toil, And clearer runs the river I forsook ; Now in clear pools its myriad fountains boil, Now there runs singing to its breast a brook ; Now it flows gently to a little nook Where I once rested—Ah ! I clench my hand And turn away with yet undaunted look, Setting my face toward the distant land That must lie somewhere far beyond this world of sand. About me are the bones of many men Who turned to God their rapt ado…
1898 · PDF PAGE 27
Ph. [Turns to window.] O Maker and O Ruler of all Worlds, Illimitable power, immortal God, Vague, vast, unknown, dim-looking, scarcely spied Through doubtful crannies of the Universe, Unseen, intangible, eluding sense And poor conception, halting for a phrase Of weak mind-language, O Eternity, Hear thou the feeble world, the lame desire, The dubious crying of the pinioned dove, The wordless eloquent emotion That speaks within a man, despite his mind ! Hear, who can pray for naught, unknowing aught Whereof, for what to pray. But hear me, thou ! …
1898 · PDF PAGE 23
…self in that dim sphere Whose hollow centre I am standing at With burning eyes intent to penetrate The black circumference, and find out God— And only see myself. The walls of Space Mock me with silence. What is Life ? The stars Are silent. O ye matchless ministers That daily pass in your appointed ways To reach—we know not what ! How meaningless Your bright assemblage and your steady task Of doubtful motion. And the soul of man Grapples in death-pangs with your mystery, And fails to wrestle down the hard embrace That grips the thighs of though…
1898 · PDF PAGE 63
…d true. Also before my eyes there gleams from Heaven The likeness of a Man in glory set ; The sun is blotted, and the skies are riven— A God flames forth my spirit to beget ; And where my body and his love are met A new desire possesses altogether My whole new self as in a golden net Of transcendental love one fiery tether, Dissolving all my woe into one sea of weather. So I am ready to assume the Cross, Start on my journey with the last word said ; Turn my back resolute on dung and dross, And face the future with no twitch of dread, But dare t…
1898 · PDF PAGE 24
Sufficient to beat back the waves of doubt, To pierce the void, and grasp the glorious, To find out Truth ? Would God it might be so, Since here is nothing for the soul to love Or cling to beyond self. My chamberlain Once showed me a pet slave, dwarf, savage, black, A vile, lewd creature, who would cast a staff Far wheeling through the air, and suddenly Break its swift course, and curving rapidly Come hard upon himself who threw. Even so These vile deformities—our souls—cast forth Missiles of thought, and seek to reach some end With swift imagi…
1898 · PDF PAGE 73
…blest, Burns. Will there come to me Rest ? By these suppressed Desires my soul must flee, By heaven’s crest, I pray that secretly Toward God’s breast I draw, to find, maybe, Rest ! 63
1898 · PDF PAGE 100
…emen, light and truth to bring Through their untrodden fields of black, A victor king. I know all must be well, all must be free, I know God as I know a friend ; I conquer, and most silently Await the end. 90
1898 · PDF PAGE 76
…old upon the perfect prize. My hands no longer write : Communion with the night Is built, a bride of fiery truth across the subtle mind. God’s angels, and His fire, Consume the soul’s desire, And strike a lighter lyre. I seek ; the angels lead me on, all light and truth to find. 66
1898 · PDF PAGE 94
These press upon my lips What lips of flame To burn me, unless slips Some cooler kiss, from shame Washed clean by God’s desire, To save me from their fire— Those kiss me and respire The perfume of the Name. Remorse and terror banished By pitying lovers, Who from my eyes have vanished, (The Lidless Eye discovers), Repenting souls that turn, Whose hearts with pity burn For me, who now discern Their love around me hovers. Their love wards from my head The furious hate Of those loves doubly dead That may not pass the gate : 84
1898 · PDF PAGE 108
…eadly steam Of murder’s black intolerable might. The stagnant pools rejoice ; the human feast Revels at height ; the sacrament is come ; God wakes no lightning in the broken East ; His awful thunders listen and are dumb ; Earth gapes not for that sin ; the skies renew At break of day their vestiture of blue. 98
1898 · PDF PAGE 46
…fety and Peace and Passover abide. Blood on the lintel ! But within our gates Spilt our own blood lies curdling on the ground, Crying to God from each envenomed wound While the fierce combat yet no whit abates, And though protected, confident, unspent, Sighs for relief with battle-cries are blent. 36