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Page 1 of 21903 · PDF PAGE 40
XVII IaMaman. Consider first What we may learn, if but we will, From that small lecture I rehearsed With very Huxley’s strength and skill And clarity. What do I mean, Admitting manhood? This: to-day I fed on oysters, ris-de-veau, Beefsteak and grapes. Will you repay My meal with anger, rosy grow With shame because instead of you I went to feed chez Lavenue? The habit anthropophagous, Nice as it is, is not for us. I love you: will you share my life, Become my mistress or my wife? Agreed: but can your kisses feed me? Is it for dinner that you nee…
1903 · PDF PAGE 57
Back from my lips, back from my breast! I hold you as I always will, You unprofaned and uncaressed, Silent, majestical, and still. Back! for I love you. Even yet Do you not see my deepest fire Burn through the veils and coverings set By fatuous phantoms of desire? Back! O I love you evermore. But, be our bed the bridal sky ! I love you, love you. Hither, shore Of far unstained eternity ! There we will rest. Beware! Beware! For I am young, and you are fair. Nay! Iam old in this, you know! Ah! heart of God! I love you so! 55
1903 · PDF PAGE 61
XXVI I WILL not, and you will not. Stay! Do you recall that night of June When from the insufferable day Edged out the dead volcanic moon Solemn into the midnight? You Shone your inviolate violet eyes Into my eyes less sad, and drew Back from the slender witcheries Of word and song: and silence knew What splendour in the silence lies, The soul drawn back into itself. It was the deep environing Wood that then shielded us: the elf And fairy in an emerald ring, And hamadryad of the trees, And naiad of the sleepy lake, That watched us on the mossy …
1903 · PDF PAGE 34
…more Vacant your speech and sophic skill (My feminine and fair Escobar!) To prove mere circumstance is no bar Against the freedom of the will. However this may be, we are Here and not otherwhere, star to star ! Hence then act thou! Restrain the ‘‘ Damn!” Evoked by “I am that I am.” Perpend! (Hark back to Hamlet!) If You stand thus poised upon the cliff Freewill—I await that will; (One) laughter; (Two) the old kiss ; (Three) silence after. No? Then vacate the laboratory! Psychology must crown the event, And sociology content, Ethics suffice, the…
1903 · PDF PAGE 71
Wreathed in the mesh of woe and ill? Ah! Zeus! we will not: be the law Of uttermost compassion ours! Our snows it shall not come to thaw, Nor burn the roses from our bowers.
1903 · PDF PAGE 38
The will to live : and these frail friends, The women I shall draw you, fail Of more importance to earth’s ends Than to my life a finger-nail. ’Twere pain, no doubt, were torn away One, a minute distemperature. I spend a fraction of the day Plying the art of manicure. But always beats the heart: the more I polish, tint, or carve, I ask Strength from the heart’s too generous store To bend my fingers to the task. Cease : I am broken: nought remains. The brain’s electric waves are still ; No blood beats eager in the veins; The mind sinks deathward…
1903 · PDF PAGE 46
You shall hear all; we will not land On this or that mediate strand, Until the voyage be done, and we Pass from the river to the sea, And find some isle’s secluded nook More sacred than we first forsook.
1903 · PDF PAGE 25
…ws, All Paris, smug and good, that use To point the index scorn, deride The courage of that suicide— I ask you not to quit us quite, But—will you take a bath to-night? Money might make you. Well: but he, What was his wage, what was his fee? Fear fiercer than a mortal fear. Be silent, cowards, leave him here Dead in the Morgue, so waxen pale! He failed : shall ye not also fail ? Ah! love! the strings are little; The cords are over strong ; The chain of life ts brittle ; And keen the sword of song. Will you not seize in one firm grip Now, as I ho…
1903 · PDF PAGE 20
…uty be Broken, and mine a broken brain. Yet we shall know ; delighting still In the sole laughter death derides In vain; the indomitable will, Still burning in the spirit, guides Our hearts to truth ; we see, we know How foolish were the things he said, And answer in the afterglow How good it is that we are dead. Will you not come? Or, where the surf Beats on the coral, and the palm 18
1903 · PDF PAGE 29
There is the night: unseen I stand And look to seaward still : We would not look upon the land Again, had I my will. The ship is trim: to sea! to sea! Take life in either hand, Crush out its wine for you and me, And drink, and understand! 27
1903 · PDF PAGE 65
XXVIII Anp who is then the moon? Bend close, And clothe me in a silken kiss, And I will whisper to my rose The secret name of Artemis. Words were not needed then : to-day Must I begin what never I thought To do: mould flowers in common clay? Mud casket of mere words is nought, When by love’s miracle we guess What either always thinketh. Yes? 63
1903 · PDF PAGE 26
…The girls of Askalon rejoice, Writing for us this epitaph : “They chose, and were not worth the choice” ? You are so pure: I am a man. I will assume the courage tried Of yonder luckless suicide, And you—awaken, if you can, The courage of the courtezan ! 24
1903 · PDF PAGE 22
VIII Make me a roseleaf with your mouth, And I will waft it through the air To some far garden of the South, The herald of our happening there! Fragrant, caressing, steals the breeze; Curls into kisses on your lips :— I know interminable seas, Winged ardour of the stately ships, Space of incalculable blue And years enwreathed in one close crown, And glimmering laughters echoing you From reverend shades of bard’s renown :— Nature alive and glad to hymn Your beauty, my delight : her God Weary, his old eyes sad and dim In his intolerable abode. 20
1903 · PDF PAGE 37
XV WILL you not learn to separate The essential from the accidental, Love from desire, caprice from fate, The inmost from the merely mental? Our star, the sun, gives life and light: Let that decay, the aeons drown Sense in stagnation ; death and night Smite the fallen fragments of the crown Of spring: but serves the garter so? What wandering meteor is this Across the archipelago Luminous of our starry bliss ? Let that be lost : the smile disputes The forehead’s temple with the frown, When gravitation’s arrow shoots, And stockings happen to slip…
1903 · PDF PAGE 33
XIII Is there a soul behind the mask? What master drives these slaves to task Thus willing? Physiology Wipes the red scalpel, scorns reply. My argument to please you swerves, Becomes a mere defence of nerves. Why they are thus, why so they act, We know not, but accept the fact. How this for my peccation serves? Marry, how? Tropically! Pact I bind with blood to show you use For this impertinence—and add A proverb fit to make you mad About the gander and the goose, Till you riposte with all your force A miserable pun on sauce. The battle when you…
1903 · PDF PAGE 85
…Are model, and no more, to me So well you sit, though, you shall earn Beyond your hourly increment A knowledge. Are you fit to learn, Or will you rather be content With muddled mighty talk of Teutons Evolving from the tangled Skein, ues 16 h compared to Newton's
1903 · PDF PAGE 42
…on I have given Blissful beyond the bliss of heaven— Aha! there is a bird that chirps Another song. Here’s paint and brush And canvas. I will paint anon The limb yon garter once was on ; Sketch you a nude—my soul—and nude The very human attitude We all assume—or else are posers. Such winners are the surest losers. I paint her picture, recognise— Dare you ?—one glimmer of her eyes Like yours, one shimmer of her skin Like that your flesh is hidden in, One laugh upon her lips enough Like yours for me to recollect, Remind, recall, hint? Never! Stuf…
1903 · PDF PAGE 54
…rs and mine. That love and this are as diverse As Shelley’s poems and my verse. And now the bright laugh comes in spite Of all the cruel will can do. “I take,” you say, “a keen delight In Shelley, but as much in you.” There, you are foolish. And you know The thing I meant to say. O love! What little lightnings serve to show Glimpses of all your heart! Above All, and beneath all, lies there deep, Canopied over with young sleep, 52
1903 · PDF PAGE 66
… you, and the kiss Too soft to call the breath of sleep. And, if you are woman, even there I do decline : we stand above. I ask not, and will take no share With you in what mankind call love. We know each other: you and I Have nought to do with lesser things. With them—'tis chance or destiny : With us, we should but burn our wings. 64
1903 · PDF PAGE 56
…osom heaves with fearful breath ; Your scent is keen as floral wine, Inviting me, and love, to death. You, whom I kept, a sacred shrine, Will fling the portals to the day ; Where shone the moon the sun shall shine, Silver in scarlet melt away. There is yet a pang: they give me this Who can; and you who could have failed? Is it too late to extend the kiss? Too late the goddess be unveiled? O but the generous flower that gives Her kisses to the violent sun, Yet none the less in ardour lives An hour, and then her day is done. 54