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Page 1 of 31901 · PDF PAGE 31
…ROFANE. 19 Anon, and I am driven out In desert places by desire ; My mouth is salt and dry ; I doubt If hell hath such another fire ; If God’s damnation can devise A lust to match these agonies. The desert wind my body burns, The voice of flesh consumes my soul ; My body towards the city turns, My spirit seeks its fierier goal ; In wells of heaven to quench my thirst, And take God’s hand among the first. I conquered self, I grew at last A prophet chosen of the Lord ; I blew the trumpet’s iron blast That called on Zimri Omri’s sword ; My voice i…
1901 · PDF PAGE 89
…OF CHANGE.” OME lives complain of their own happiness. In perfect love no sure abiding stands, In perfect faith are no immortal bands Of God and man. This passion we possess Necessitous ; insistent none the less Because we know not how its purpose brands Our lives. Even on God’s knees and in His hands : The Law of Change. “ Out, out, adulteress ! ” ? These be the furies, and the harpies these ? That discontent should sum the happiest sky ? That of all boons man lacks the greatest—rest ? Nay ! But the promise of the centuries, The certain pledge…
1901 · PDF PAGE 123
… 111 TO ALLAN MACGREGOR. MAN of Sorrows : brother unto Grief ! O pale with suffering, and dumb hours of pain ! O worn with Thought ! thy Godhead springs again The Soul of Resurrection : thou art chief And lord of all thy Soul : O patient thief Of God’s own fire ! What mysteries find fane In the white shrine of thy white spirit’s reign, Thou man of Sorrows : O, beyond belief ! Let God's own Peace be with thee : let thy days Prosper in spite of thine unselfish soul ; And as thou lovest, so let Love increase Upon thee and about thee : till thy way…
1901 · PDF PAGE 90
…ountain summit in the thunders and the snow, I look to the shimmering valley and weep : I loved you so ! For a moment cease the winds of God upon the reverent head ; I lose the life of the mountain, and my soul is with the dead ; Yet am I not unaware of the splendour of the height, Yet am I lapped in the glory of the Sun of Life and Light :— Even so my heart looks out from the harbour of God’s breast, Out from the shining stars where it entered into rest— W
1901 · PDF PAGE 33
…s. For lo ! she saw me, and beheld My trembling lips curled back to curse ; Laughed with strong scorn, whose music knelled The empire of God’s universe. And on my haggard face upturned She spat ! Ah God ! how my cheek burned !
1901 · PDF PAGE 38
… ! ” She smiled—I know she smiled—she sighed, Bit my lips through, and drank, and died ! Her murders and her blasphemies, Her whoredoms, God has paid at last ; Upon my bosom close she lies, Her carnal spirit holds me fast. My blood, my infamy, my pain, Seal my subjection and her reign. My veins poured out her marriage cup, For holy water her cruel tongue ; For blessing of white hands raised up, These perfumed infamies unsung ; For God’s breath, her sharp tainted breath ; For marriage bed, the bed of death. The hounds that scavenge, fierce and l…
1901 · PDF PAGE 32
…ce of burning flame, That is not quenched, although I weep. (For even my tears are tears of fire, For loathing, madness, and desire.) Ah God ! the traps for fervent feet ! The morrow beaconed, and I came By where the golden groves of wheat In summer glories fiercely flame ; To those white courts, by princes trod, Where Ahab sat, and mocked at God. Where Ahab sat, but lo ! I saw No king, no tyrant to be curst ; But she, who filled me with blind awe, She, for whose blood my thin veins thirst ;
1901 · PDF PAGE 39
…body that was ripe and red. Only, her head, her palms, her feet, I kissed all night, and did not eat. So, and not otherwise, the word Of God was utterly fulfilled. So, and not otherwise. I heard Her spirit cry, by death not stilled : “ My sin is perfect in thy blood, And thou and I have conquered God.” Now let me die, at last desired, At last beloved of thee my queen ; Now let me die, with blood attired, Thy servant naked and obscene ; To thy white skull, thy palms, thy feet, Clinging, dead, infamous, complete. Now let me die, to mix my soul Wi…
1901 · PDF PAGE 72
…mph—silence. There they sleep. “ There, brave and pure, there, true and strong, they stay Bleached in the desert, till the solemn day Of God’s revenge—none knoweth them : they rest Unburied, unremembered, unconfessed. What names of strength, of majesty, had they ? What suns are these gone down into the West ? “ Even I myself—my youth within me said : Go, seek this folly ; fear not for the dead, And God is with thine arm. I reached the ridge, And saw the river and the ghastly bridge I told you of. Even then, even there, I fled. Nor knight, nor k…
1901 · PDF PAGE 129
…at hold, Even the infinite brain : that spirit seeks A loftier dawn of more ephemeral gold— Ephemeral, and eternal : droop thine head, O God ! for thou must suffer this : I said ! Droop thy wide pinions, O thou mortal God ! Sink thy vast forehead, and let Life consume The miserable life thy feet have trod Beneath them, that thine own life in its doom Fall, in its resurrection to arise ; Stoop, that its holier hope may cleave the skies.
1901 · PDF PAGE 81
…ore poisonous would set—mayhap ! I turned—the path ? My horror was complete— A flaming sword across the earthquake gap. I cried aloud to God in my despair. “ The quest of quests ! I seek it, for I dare ! Moonward ! on, moonward ! ” And the full moon shone, A glory for God’s eyes to dwell upon, A path of silver furrowed in the air, A gateway where an angel might have gone. And forward gleamed a narrow way of earth Crusted with salt : I watch the fairy birth Of countless flashes on the crystal flakes, Forgetting it is only death that makes Its ho…
1901 · PDF PAGE 79
…n actions and a single mind. “ What is thy purpose, sweet my lord ? ” I pressed One stalwart. “ Ah ! the quest,” he cried, “ the quest.” God’s heart ! the antics, as they toil and shove ! One grabs a coin, one life, another love. All shriek, “ The prize is mine ! ” as men possessed. I was not fooled at anything thereof. Rather I hated them, and scorned for slaves ; “ Fools ! all your treasure is at last the grave’s ! ” Mine eyes had fixed them on the sphinx, the sky. “ Is then this quest of immortality ? ” And echo answered from some unseen cav…
1901 · PDF PAGE 74
…d held me to his heart, And could not speak a moment. Then he set A curb of sorrow and subdued its dart. “ Go ! and the blessing of high God attend Thy path, and lead thee to the doubtful end. No tongue that secret ever may reveal. Thy soul is God-like and thy frame is steel ;
1901 · PDF PAGE 46
…lmer rivers flow, And birds less passionate invoke the spring, And seek their loves with weaker, wearier wing. Turn back from safety—Let God’s rivers pour Brimstone and fire, and all his fountains roar Lava and hail of hell upon my head, So be he leave us altogether dead, Burnt in that shameful whirlwind of his ire, Consumed in one tall pyramid of fire Whose bowers of flame shall tell the sky of God How we despised his feet with thunder shod, And conquered, clasping, all the host of death. Turn to me, touch me, mix thy very breath With mine to …
1901 · PDF PAGE 88
…ed our youth : “ One thing is certain of our origin. We are born Adam’s bastards into sin, Servants to Death and Time’s devouring tooth. God, damning most, had this one thought of ruth To save some dozens—Us : and by the skin Of teeth to save us from the devil’s gin— Repentance ! Blood ! Prayer ! Sackcloth ! This is truth.” Our parents answer jesting Pilate so. I am the meanest servant of the Christ : But, were I heathen, cannibal, profane, My cruel spirit had not sacrificed My children to this Moloch. I am plain ? “ Blasphemer ! ” “ Damned ! ”…
1901 · PDF PAGE 111
…d petals of divided light ; Its leaves of the most radiant emerald ; Its heart of fire like rubies. At the sight I lifted up my heart to God and called : How shall I pluck this dream of my desire ? And lo ! there shaped itself the Cross of Fire ! O
1901 · PDF PAGE 57
…s across the starry air ; Thou comest as a serpent unaware, Striking love’s heart and crushing out man’s breath : Thy destiny is even as God saith To mark the impotence of human prayer, Choke hope, sting all but Love ; and never care If man or flower or sparrow perisheth. Thee, I invoke thee, though no mercy move Thy heart ! No power is to thy hate assigned On love (sing, poets ! shrill, Pandean reeds !). But me, look on me, how my bosom bleeds— Invoke new power of cruelty ; be kind, And ask authority to quench my love ! I
1901 · PDF PAGE 137
…Life and Light ! The shadows of my hopes devoured, The crown of my intent cast down, The hate that shone, the love that lowered, Make up God’s universal frown. O Lord, O Hormakhou, display The rosy earnest of the day ! The mighty pomp of desolate Dead kings, a pageant, moves along ; Dead queens unite in desperate, Unsatisfied, unholy song. O Khephra, manifest in flesh, Arise, create the world afresh ! The silence of my heart is one With memory’s insatiate night ; T
1901 · PDF PAGE 21
… thou thrice noble for the deadly scars That answered vainly thy victorious sword ! Wagner ! creator of a world of light As beautiful as God’s, bend down to me, And whisper me the secrets of thy heart, That I may follow and dispel the night, And fight life through, a comrade unto thee, Under Love’s banner with the sword of Art ! O
1901 · PDF PAGE 126
…m's cadent as a rhyme Move me as waves that rise and fall. They are the parts, that crash or climb, I only comprehend the All. I sit, as God must sit ; I reign. Redemption from the threads of pain I weave, until the veil be drawn. I burn the chaff, I glean the grain ; In silence I await the dawn.