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Page 1 of 31910 · PDF PAGE 70
…dia, Swooning my soul out into her red throat, So that the glimmer of our skins, the tune Of our ripe rhythm, seeded the hideous play Of death-worms crawling on a corpse, afloat With life that takes its thirst Only from things accurst. Closer than Clodias clasp, Death had me down To his black heart, and fed upon my breath, So that we seemed a stillnesswhiter than The stars, more silent than the stars, a crown Of stars ! For in the icy kiss of death I found that God that is denied to man So long as love and thought And life avail him aught.
1910 · PDF PAGE 139
…ll the wings and waves of time and thought, So in the quivering flame that hurled Its founts of life to the remotest world Supreme stood Death, and sware Destruction to all things that were ! IV Child, father, warrior, I worshipped Thee before ; Friend, bridegroom, now I yield me to the rod. My God, and very God of very God As breath, as death, as all, as naught, unknown, Known, is there not an end, when one alone Stand I, and thou, and He Arisen above all things that be ?
1910 · PDF PAGE 152
…know, sweet, how it seems (To a love like ours) to die ! So, dear ! Virginal you were When I touched your life with song ; Virgin now to death lie there ! You shall not await him long. (Fold your body in your hair !) Satan, hail ! our consecration ! Lilies, lilies : let them swathe you, Robes baptismal of damnation ! Tuberose and iris bathe you In the sea, annihilation ! All white flowers I build, a fane Fit to shroud the sacrifice. I will kiss you once again Ere I pull the trigger twice. Or our death were died in vain.
1910 · PDF PAGE 156
146 THE SPHINX BENEATH the cruel splendid Sphinx My soul lies supine still, and drinks Damnation from the emerald eyes, Death from the painted mouth that dies As, drunk on life, she sucks it in ! O crimson masterpiece of sin, The mouth that maddens me and slays My youth in many molten ways ! All her adulterous ardours wake The god, the tiger, and the snake. I yield ; her soft, her strenuous breath Fills me and feeds my soul on death. O Sphinx, more sacred than the stars ! O beast ! O God ! thy passion chars This life. Beneath thy claws I writhe…
1910 · PDF PAGE 71
…to the blackness of the abode By TheeO Thou Who made me first ! Thou Who hast made me, tortured me, Mocked me with life, mocked me with death, Mocked me with loveO misery Of each gods death, of each slaves breath ! Yea, for that Thou didst give me her Indeed my Dorothy ! the sun That fires my life, the spell to stir My souls enchantments every one : For this I curse Thee ! she was fair As day and brighter than the moon And all the gold stung in her hair ; And all the dawn of Mayof June ! Kindled her cheeks ; her eyes were blue As all Th…
1910 · PDF PAGE 36
…pent sigil In his ghastly virgin vigil. Sursum cor ! the elfin hill, Where the wind blows deadly chill From the world that wails beneath Deaths black throat and lipless teeth There he had stoodhis bosom bare Tracing life upon the Air With the crook and with the flail Lashing forward on the gale, Till its blade that wavereth Like the flickering of Death Sank before his subtle fence To the starless sea of sense. Now at last the man is come Haply to his halidom. Surely as he waves his rod In a circle on the sod Springs the emerald chaste and cl…
1910 · PDF PAGE 53
…ut naked to the knife, My whole soul twitching with the stress Of the expected yet surprising strife, A martyrdom of blessedness. Though Death came, I could kiss him into life ; Though Life came, I Could kiss him into death, and yet nor live nor die ! XXX Yet I that am the babe, the sire, the dam, Am also none of these at all ;
1910 · PDF PAGE 100
…nse of the swoon ! O my lily in pagan splendour That throbs in the heart of the moon ! Ever the soul of me saith Let me sink back into death ! . . . Hush me the heart of our breath !
1910 · PDF PAGE 143
…isgust Changes her drunken lust Into a shriek of hatehalf conscious still (Beneath the obsession of the will) Of all she wasbefore her death, her death ! So hell boils over in her, and she rages It seems through countless ages With all the vile abuse That had degraded Glasgows grimiest stews, With all the knowledge of despair Striking me cunningly, striking everywhere, Mutilating the corpse of my dead love With such a savagery, Intensity above
1910 · PDF PAGE 144
…ody with a breath. I see Him sicken and swoon ; I see Him rot Through, though His tabernacle be Eternity. This makes a man catch hold of death Greedily like a harlot in the street That plucks by the arm some sot. Death shakes me off with a hoarse curse. Tied to this woman, his beneficence
1910 · PDF PAGE 165
THE CAMP FIRE 155 I sate and shivered : so this pregnant breath Must be delivered at the door of Death ! Poor petty torch to which our spirits flutter Our wings to scorch ! Ah, shall no angel utter Some word to allay the universal doom ? All swept away into a dusty tomb ! My friend ! who dreamt that dream of Permanence ? Are we exempt from any common sense Was not my fire warm while it burned ? Am I No living lyre because my songs must die ? Is not Becoming Beings twin ? Be mute ! Is Deaths low drumming louder than Lifes lute ? Was I the ass…
1910 · PDF PAGE 181
…al Of her dark and deadly dream ; And the white life leaps from his control Wild, in a choking scream. She curves white lips to a cup of death ; Her eyes gleam, and her wise brows nod ; Her hand makes music with her breath Dancing upon the ivory rod The dying priestess offereth The sacrifice to God
1910 · PDF PAGE 154
…st awake ! All your love and joy surround us Smooth and deadly as a snake ! Thus I build your monument, Happy martyrs, passion-crowned ! Death your holiest sacrament, Life mere garlands that you wound Laughing on your brows, and rent ! Fare ye well, O world-renowned ! Enter into great content !
1910 · PDF PAGE 96
… with its ban From you ? How is it, mistress, that I can Remember nothing of you but your eyes ? Your eyes ! Live arrows with a thousand deaths Armed ! Suns of poison, menacing the wreaths Of bay and myrtle that you twined ! Dread spies Of Satan that unveil the God in me, And strip it naked with their mockery ! Death ! will you never take away your eyes ?
1910 · PDF PAGE 172
…hat sees, the soul that slays ! Inhabit the untrodden ways, Set ! Thou my god and I thy priest, Thy temple hidden in the haze Of deserts death to god or beast ! Thou who art both shalt foin and feast With me who am both, thy hates co-heir, Lord of the West and of the East The scorpions hole, the lions lair ! I kissed his mouthsublime despair ! Our souls were one ; our bodies met Yea ! darkness cover everywhere The secret of the House of Set !
1910 · PDF PAGE 65
…eaven amazed ? With my beak I strike but once ; Out there leap a million suns. Through the universe that blazed Screams their light, and death is dazed. In my womb the babe may leap ; Seek him not within mine eye ! Nor demand thou of me why I should plunge from crystal steep Like a plummet to the deep !
1910 · PDF PAGE 75
… more they are twain ; they are one flesh ? For here I sit and laugh and smoke And play with youth and pleasure ; Life is a dream, and death a joke, And love a thing of leisure The dance is done, the spell is broke, And marred the merry measure ! Yea ; my small kiss is somehow worth The love of all the boys on earth ! The shy sweet smiles, the tender eyes And bodies slim that woo me ;
1910 · PDF PAGE 63
…edeless rune, Ineffably, utterly tender ! Hark ! the appealing cry Of deadly hurt in the hollow : Hyacinth ! Hyacinth ! Ay ! Smitten to death by Apollo. Swift, O maiden moon, Send they ray-dews after ; Turn the dolorous tune To soft ambiguous laughter ! Mourn, O Maenads, mourn ! Surely your comfort is over. All we laugh at you lorn. Ours are the poppies and clover ! O that mouth and eyes, Mischievous, male, alluring ! O that twitch of the thighs Dorian past enduring ! Where is wisdom now ? Where the sage and his doubt ? Surely the sweat of the…
1910 · PDF PAGE 178
… youths despair Stares from the fleshless face that lies Mid the faint flax of her hair Fallen on her foolish broideries : She is too deathly fair. She staresshe staresshe reads this thought, What black joy her harsh cough affirms. Life leersa jesting Juggernaut ! Death beckons, beckons to the worms. And the smile upon his face is fraught With all its ghastly terms. Out of the glimmer and incense-reek Two clamorous colour-cries emerge. The frightful flush that stains her cheek Is the rouge of the White Scourge ; Her pallor is like a spect…
1910 · PDF PAGE 79
…s one delicious whole Without us and within ! How have we lost the iron control That curbed and spurred our sin ? Yea ; like one snakes death-spasm we were. How taken in the serpent-snare? Indeed, indeed, blind fools we passed From light and lights dominion