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Page 1 of 21901 · PDF PAGE 55
THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 43 A SAINT’S DAMNATION. OU buy my spirit with those shameless eyes That burn my soul, you loose the torrent stream Of my desire, you make my lips your prize, And on them burns the whole life’s hope : you deem You buy a heart ; but I am well aware How my damnation dwells in that supreme Passion to feed upon your shoulders bare, And pass the dewy twilight of our sin In the intolerable flames of hair That clothe my body from your head ; you win The devil’s bargain ; I am yours to kill, Yours, for one kiss ; my spirit for …
1901 · PDF PAGE 30
…emence of the wind, And knotted with the tears that slay ; And all my face parched up and dried, And all my body crucified. Ofttimes the Spirit of the Lord Descends and floods me with his breath ; My words are fashioned as a sword, My voice is like the voice of death. The thunder of the Spirit’s wings Brings terror to the hearts of kings. A
1901 · PDF PAGE 141
THE HOLY OF HOLIES. 129 Let not my spirit be ashamed, But win to its eternal rest ! Thou Self from Nothing ! bring Thou me Unto that Self which is in Thee ! AMEN.
1901 · PDF PAGE 85
…. 73 I draw toward. Oh, suddenly I see The treason-pledge, the royal prostitute. One moment, and I should have passed beyond Linked unto Spirit by the fourfold bond. Not dead to earth, but living as divine, A priest, a king, an oracle, a shrine, A saviour ! Yet my misty spirit conned The secret murmur : “ Gereth, I am thine ! ” I must have listened to the voice of hell. The earthly horror wove its serpent spell Against the Beauty of the World : I heard Desolate voices cry the doleful word “ Unready ! ” All the soul invisible Of that vast desert…
1901 · PDF PAGE 129
…are ended ; Thy soul shall be required of thee ” ? I heard This voice, and knew it for my proper word ! Yes, mine own voice : the higher spirit speaks, Stemming the hands that guide, the arms that 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 Fal…
1901 · PDF PAGE 75
…heart ! Adulterous love began So subtly to identify the man With its own perfumed thoughts. So steals the grape Into the furtive brain—a spirit shape Kisses my spirit as no woman can. I love her—yes ; and I have no escape. I never spoke, I never looked ! But she Saw through the curtains of the soul of me, And loved me also ! It is very well. I am well started on the road to Hell.
1901 · PDF PAGE 133
…ive Sign upon my mouth That even the body may become the soul : Cry, as the chained Eagle of the South, “ A house of death,” and make my spirit whole ! Touch with pure balm the five mysterious wounds ! Come ! come away ! but not your mighty sounds ! O wind of all the world ! O silent river ! O sea of seas ! O flower of all the flowers ! O fire ! O spirit ! Beam thou on for ever Through æons of illimitable hours ! Kiss thou my forehead, let thy tender breath Woo me to life, and my desire to death ! I shall be ready for it by-and-by, That sharp i…
1901 · PDF PAGE 80
…ke to choke His palsied throat. How, if Hell’s gate were slammed This very hour upon thy womanfolk ? Conceive, I charge thee ! Brace thy spirit up To drink at that imagination’s cup ! Then, shriek, and pass ! For thou shalt understand A little of the pressure of the hand That crushed me now. Yes, yes ! let fancy sup That grislier banquet than old Atreus planned ! Mind cannot fathom, nor the brain conceive, Nor soul assimilate, nor heart believe The horror of that Thing without a Name. Full on me, boasting, like Death’s hand it came, And struck …
1901 · PDF PAGE 74
… desire Deeper than heaven, tameless as the fire. All catch the fear—the fear of Her—as well, And dare not—even afraid, I must aspire. A spirit walking in a dream, I went To the high throne—they shook the firmament With foolish cheers. I knelt before the queen And wept in silence. Then, as it had been An angel’s voice and touch, her face she bent, Lifted and kissed me—oh ! her lips were keen ! Her voice was softer than a virgin’s eyes : “ Go ! my true knight : for thither, thither lies The only road for thee ; thou hast a prayer Wafted each hou…
1901 · PDF PAGE 20
…cross. White limbs in amorous slumber toss, Like sleeping foam, whose silver gleams On motionless dark seas ; it seems As if some gentle spirit stirred Their lazy brows with some swift word. So, in the secret of the shrine, Night keeps them nestled, so the gloom Laps them in waves as smooth as wine, As glowing as the fiery womb Of some young tigress, dark as doom, And swift as sunrise. Love’s content Builds its own mystic monument, And carves above its vaulted tomb The Phœnix on her fiery plume, To their own souls to testify Their kisses’ immor…
1901 · PDF PAGE 88
… 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 ! ” ? Undoubtedly—I know ! W
1901 · PDF PAGE 123
… 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 ways Gleam with the splendour of that secret goal Whose long war grows the great abiding peace. O
1901 · PDF PAGE 67
…ove I bathe in ether and self-shining light ; My soul is filled with the eternal love ; I am the brother of the Day and Night. I AM ! my spirit, and perhaps my mind ! But O my heart ! I left thy love behind ! W
1901 · PDF PAGE 23
…Among blue tresses that escape The golden torque that binds her hair, Whose swarthy splendours drench the air. She comes, she comes, the spirit glances In quick delight to hold her kiss ; The fuming air shimmers and dances ; The moonlight’s trembling ecstasies C
1901 · PDF PAGE 58
…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 beseems the overwrought) And I am…
1901 · PDF PAGE 56
…infernal potion of that flower, 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 116
…late The unsubstantial space ? Move with my lips the laws of Fate That bind earth’s carapace ? No angel, but the very light And fire and spirit of Her, Unmitigated, eremite, The unmanifested myrrh,
1901 · PDF PAGE 68
…ic power, The secrets of forgotten sleep, The birth of knowledge as a flower. Slow and divine thy gentle breath Woos my warm throat : my spirit flies Beyond the iron walls of death, And seeks strange portals, pale and wise. My lips are fervent, as in prayer, Thy lips are parted, as to kiss : My hand is clenched upon the air, Thy hand’s soft touch, how sweet it is ! M
1901 · PDF PAGE 117
THE HOLY OF HOLIES. 105 Ocean, and night that is not night, The mother-mediator. O sacred spirit of the Gods ! O triple tongue ! Descend, Lapping the answering flame than nods, Kissing the brows that bend, Uniting all earth’s periods To one exalted end. Still on the mystic Tree of Life My soul is crucified ; Still strikes the sacrificial knife Where lurks some serpent-eyed Fear, passion, or man’s deadly wife Desire, the suicide ! Before me dwells the Holy One Anointed Beauty’s King ; Behind me, mightier than the Sun, To whom the cherubs sing, A…
1901 · PDF PAGE 135
…lows of ether ! the Sistron is shaken and sounds ! Wild and sonorous the clamour, vast in the region of death, Live with the Fire of the Spirit, the essence and flame of the breath ! Sound, O sound ! Gleam in the world of the dark, where the chained ones shall tremble and flee ! Gleam in the skies of the dusk, for the Light of the Dawn is in me ! Light on the forehead, and life in the nostrils, and love in the breast, Shine, O thou Star of the Dawning, thou Sun of the Radiant Crest ! Shine, O shine ! Flame through the sky in the strength of the…