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Page 1 of 31901 · PDF PAGE 57
THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 45 “ MANY WATERS CANNOT QUENCH LOVE.” N my distress I made complaint to Death : Thy shadow strides 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…
1901 · PDF PAGE 7
…................ 18 PART II. ........................................ 24 WEDLOCK .................................................... 28 LOVE AT PEACE ............................................ 29 LOT .............................................................33 SONNET FOR GERALD KELLEY’S JEZEBEL ............. 38 THE MAY QUEEN .......................................... 39 A SAINT’S DAMNATION ................................... 43 “ MANY WATERS CANNOT QUENCH LOVE ” ..........45 LOVE. MELANCHOLY, DESPAIR ........................ 47 THE GATE O…
1901 · PDF PAGE 41
THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 29 LOVE AT PEACE. HE valleys, that are splendid With sun ere day is ended And love-lutes take to tune, See joyless and unfriended The perfect bowstring bended, Whose bow is called the moon. They see the waters slacken And all the sky’s blue blacken, While in the yellow bracken Love lies in death or swoon. The stars arise and brighten ; The summer lightnings lighten, Faint and as midnight mute ; And far white snowfields tighten The iron bands that frighten No fairy’s tender foot. Across the stiller river Stray flowers o…
1901 · PDF PAGE 125
…n the breathless strife ; So silent, under scourge and knife ; So tranquil, in the surge of things ; I bring them from the well of Life, Love, from celestial water-springs ! From the shrill fountain-head of God I draw out water with the rod Made luminous with light of power. I seal each æon’s period, And wait the moment and the hour. Aloof, alone, unloved, I stand With love and worship in my hand. I commune with the Gods : I wait Their summons, and I fire the brand. I speak their Word : and there is Fate. I know no happiness, no pain, No swift …
1901 · PDF PAGE 53
…ream, and I drew My queen from the clasp of the water ; I crowned her with roses and blue, With yellow and lilies anew ; I called her my love and God’s daughter ! I gave her a sceptre of may, I gave her a girdle of green, I drew her to music and day, I led her the beautiful way To the land where the Winds lie between. So still lingers sun upon sea, Still twilight draws down to the world ; The light of my spirit is she, The soul of her love is in me ; Lithe kisses with music are curled. Like light on the meadows we dwell ; Like twilight clings h…
1901 · PDF PAGE 45
…. 33 LOT. “ And while he lingered . . . they brought him forth, and set him without the city.”—Gen. xix. 16. URN back from safety, in my love abide, Whose lips are warm as when, a virgin bride I clung to thee ashamed and very glad, Whose breasts are lordlier for the pain they had, Whose arms cleave closer than thy spouse’s own ! Thy spouse—O lover, kiss me, and atone ! All my veins burst for love, my ripe breasts beat And lay their bleeding blossoms at thy feet ! Spurn me no more ! O bid these strangers go ; Turn to my lips till their cup overf…
1901 · PDF PAGE 87
…ough that melancholy long Month of despair : she won my life from death. Ah God ! she won that most reluctant breath Out of corruption : love ! ah ! love is strong ! What waters quench it ? King Shalomeh saith. I am the king : you know it, friend ! We wed. That is the tale of how my wooing sped. And oh ! the quest : half won—incredible ? I am so brave, and pure—folk love me well. But oh ! my life, my being ! That is dead, And my whole soul—a whirlwind out of hell !
1901 · PDF PAGE 75
…end, Gives thee his sword to keep thee—Gereth, kneel ! “ I dub thee Earl ; arise ! ” And then there rings The queen’s voice : “ Shall my love not match the king’s ? Here, from my finger drawn, this gem of power Shall guard thee in some unimagined hour. It hath strange virtue over mortal things. I freely give it for thy stirrup’s dower. ” I left the presence. Now the buffeting wind Gladdens my face—I leave the court behind. Am I Stark mad ? My face grows grim and grave ; I see—O Mary Mother, speak and save ! I stare and stare until mine eyes are…
1901 · PDF PAGE 66
54 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. “ THE TWO WISDOMS.” OPHIE ! I loved her, tenderly at worst. Yet in my passion’s highest ecstasy, When life lost pleasure in desire to die And never taste again the deadly thirst For those caresses ; even then a curst Sick pang shot through me : looking afar on high, Beyond, I see £¿Æ¹± in the sky. The pretty bubble of Love’s pipe is burst ! Yea ! through the portals of the dusky dawn I see the nameless Rose of Heaven unfold ! Yea ! through rent passion and desire withdrawn Burns in the East the far ephemeral gold. O Wisdo…
1901 · PDF PAGE 79
…lwart. “ 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 caves : Mortality ! I shrink, and wonder why. Strange I am nothing tainted with this fear …
1901 · PDF PAGE 22
…OUL OF OSIRIS. “ THE TWO EMOTIONS.” OW barren is the Valley of Delight ! Swift the gaunt hounds that nose the warm close trail Of all my love’s content ; in vain I veil My secret of remorse ; from their keen sight And scent my poor deception takes to flight. I borrow perfume from young loves waxed pale ; I borrow music from the nightingale. In vain : she knows me, that I hate her quite. Not altogether : in my patchwork brain Some rag of passion tears its woof asunder. Strange, that its own insatiable pain Should find an opiate in her eyes of wo…
1901 · PDF PAGE 21
THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 9 TO RICHARD WAGNER. (BEFORE HEARING “ SIEGFRIED.”) MASTER of the ring of love, O lord Of all desires, and king of all the stars, O strong magician, who with locks and bars Dost seal that kingdom silent and abhorred That stretches out and binds with iron cord The hopes and lives of men, and makes and mars ! O 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 f…
1901 · PDF PAGE 92
… am walking in the night. Then I turned mine eyes away to the Light that is above you : The answering splendid Dawn arose, and I did not love you. I saw the breaking light, and the clouds fled far away : It was the resurrection of the Golden Star of Day. And now I live in Him ; my heart may trace the years In drops of virginal blood and springs of virginal tears. I love you now again with an undivided song. Because I can never love you, I cannot do you wrong. I saw in your dying embraces the birth of a new embrace ; In the tears of your pitiful…
1901 · PDF PAGE 91
THE GATE OF THE SANCTUARY. 79 Once more it seeks in memory for reverence, not regret, And it loves you still, my sisters ! as God shall not forget. It is ill to blaspheme the silence with a wicked whispered thought— How still they were, those nights ! when this web of things was wrought ! How still, how terrible ! O my dolorous tender brides, As I lay and dreamt in the dark by your shameful beautiful sides ! And now you are mine no more, I know ; but I cannot bear The curse—that another is drunk on the life that stirs your hair : Every hair was…
1901 · PDF PAGE 67
THE GATE OF THE SANCTUARY. 55 “ THE TWO LOVES.” HAT is my soul ? The shadow of my will. What is my will ? The sleeper’s sigh at waking. Osiris ! Orient godhead ! let me still Rest in the dawn of knowledge, ever slaking My lips and throat where yon rose-glimmering hill, The Mountain of the East, its lips is taking To Thy life-lips : I hear Thy keen voice thrill ; Arise and shine ! the clouds of earth are breaking ! The clouds are parted : yes ! And there above I bathe in ether and self-shining light ; My soul is filled with the eternal love ; I …
1901 · PDF PAGE 44
…se of purple blisses Beats calm and cool and light. No life so fair with roses, No day so swift to close is ; No cushion so reposes Fair love so sweet and slight. Sleep greets the morn and takes us ; The wood that wonders makes us Soft noises heard above. The sunny snake forsakes us, The noon sun lastly wakes us, To watch the wooing dove ; And day draws on delighted To leave us there benighted, Once more divinely plighted In perfect moon of love.
1901 · PDF PAGE 58
…ventre ! ”—Old proverb. The worst of meals is that we have to meet. They trick my purpose and evade my will, Remind my conscience that I love her still, And pull my spirit from its lofty seat. For I withdraw myself : my stealthy feet Seek half-ashamed the alembic which I fill To the epic-mark—one sonnet to distil, In this poor miracle—my love to cheat. Dinner clangs cheerily from my lady’s gong. A man must eat in intervals of song ! Swift feet run back to hide my hate of her. And then—that hate flies truant, as my thought Rests (surely it besee…
1901 · PDF PAGE 56
… My poisonous passion for your blood ! Behold ! How utterly I yield, how gladly dower Our sin with my own spirit’s quenchéd gold, Clothe love with my own soul’s immortal power, Give thee my body as a fire to hold— O love, no words, no songs—your breast my bower !
1901 · PDF PAGE 47
THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 35 Ah turn, my bosom for thy love is cold ; My arms are empty, and my lips can hold No converse with thee far away like this. O for that communing pregnant with a kiss That is reborn when lips are set together To link our souls in one desirous tether, And weld our very bodies into one. Ah fiend Jehovah, what then have we done To earn thy curse ? Is love like ours too strong To dwell before thee, and do thy throne no wrong ? Art thou grown jealous of the fiery band ? Lo ! thou hast spoken, and thy strong command Bade ea…
1901 · PDF PAGE 59
THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 47 LOVE, MELANCHOLY, DESPAIR.1 EEP melancholy—O, the child of folly !— Looms on my brow, a perched ancestral bird ; Black are its plumes, its eyes are melancholy, It speaks no word. Like to a star, deep beauty’s avatar Pales in the dusky skies so far above : Seven rays of gladness crown its passionate star, One heart of love. The fringing trees, marge of deep-throated seas, Move as I walk : like spectres whispering The spaces of them : let me leave the trees— It is not spring ! Spring—no ! but dying autumn fast and fly…