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80 AMBERGRIS Amid thy mountains shall I rise, O moon, and float about thy skies ? Beneath thy waters shall I roam, O sea, and call thy valleys home ? Or on Dædalian oarage fare Forth in the interlunar air ? Imageless mirror-life ! to be Sole between moon and sea.
…es not beneath their tides, And who so bathes in light of theirs, And water, changes unawares To be no separate soul, but be Himself the moon and sea. Not all the wealth that flowers shed, And sacred streams on that calm head ; Not all the earths spell-weaving dream And scent of new-turned earth shall seem Again indeed his mothers breast To breathe like sleep and give him rest ; He lives or dies in subtler swoon Between the sea and moon. So standing, gliding, undeterred By any her alluring word That calls from older forest glades, My soul for…
…its hooded brow. The black grows grey toward the East : A hint of silver glows. Gods gather to the mystic feast On interlunar snows. The moon is up full-orbed : she glides Striking a snaky ray Across the black resounding tides, The sepulchre of day. The moon is up : upon the prow We stand and watch the moon. A star is lustred on your brow ; Your lips begin a tune, A long, low tune of love that swells Little by little, and lights
… poetry, Incapable of thee. 6. Ah ! when the minutes grew to hours, And yet the beast, the fool, saw flowers And loved them, watched the moon rise, took delight In perfumes of the summer night, Caught in the glamour of the sun, Thought all the woe well won. How hours were days, and all the misery Abode, all mine : O thou ! didst thou regret ? Was thou asleep as I ? Didst thou not love me yet ? For, know ! the moon is not the moon until She hath the knowledge to fulfil Her music, till she know herself the moon.
68 AMBERGRIS FROM ALICE : AN ADULTERY Margaret The moon spans Heavens architrave ; Stars in the deep are set ; Written in gold on the days grave, To love, and to forget ; And sea-winds whisper oer the wave The name of Margaret. A heart of gold, a flower of white, A blushing flame of snow, She moves like latticed moons of light And O ! her voice is low, Shell murmurs borne to Amphitrite, Exulting as they go. Her stature waves, as if a flower Forgot the evening breeze, But heard the charioted hour Sweep from the father seas, And kept swee…
…rs gloomy mouth Welcomes the stranger to the south, The water shakes, and all the sea Grows silver suddenly. As one who standing on the moon Sees the vast horns in silver hewn, Himself in darkness, and beholds How silently all space unfolds Into her shapeless breast the spark And sacred phantom of the dark ; So in the harbour-horns I stand Till I forget the land. Who sails through all that solemn space Out to the twilights secret place, The sleepy waters move below His ships imaginary flow. No song, no lute, so lowly chaunts In woods where s…
…uld gleam to see me there, As fixed upon a star. And yet thy lips should make a tune, And match me unaware So steals the sun beside the moon And hides her lustre rare. The bloom upon the peach is fine ; The blossom on thy cheek is mine ! O kiss meif you dare ! I called thee by the name of love That mothers fear and gods approve, And maidens blush to say O Gretchen, meet me in the dell We know and love, who love so well, While morn is cold and gray ! So match thy blushes to the dawn ; Thy bosom to the rising moon, Until our loves to earth hav…
AMBERGRIS 129 FROM ORPHEUS Invocation of Hecate O triple form of darkness ! Sombre splendour ! Thou moon unseen of men ! Thou huntress dread ! Thou crownd demon of the crownless dead ! O breasts of blood, too bitter and too tender ! Unseen of gentle spring, Let me the offering Bring to thy shrines sepulchral glittering ! I slay the swart beast ! I bestow the gloom Under the waning moon, At midnight hardly lightening the East ; And the black lamb from the black ewes dead womb I bring, and stir the slow infernal tune Fit for thy chosen priest.…
…d loose With the feet that softly trod In the vat the fairy god. Never more our eyes shall swim Looking for the love of him In the magic moon that bent Over maidens moon-content, When the summer woods were wet With our dewy songs, that set Quivering all seas and snows,
AMBERGRIS 127 FROM ORPHEUS Autumn Full amber-breasted light of harvest-moon, And sheaves of corn remembering the un Laughing again for love of that caress When night is fallen, and the sleepy swoon Of warm waves lap the shoreland, one by one ; Forgetful kisses like a dreams possess All the low-lying land, And statelier than the swaying form Of some loud God, lifting the storm In his disastrous hand, Steps the sweet-voiced, the mellow motherhood Glad of the suns kiss, full of life, well wooed And won and brought to his bed, Proud of her rhythm…
…and dryads call The Satyr-company to the satyr-king. And all the light is over ; but the sky Shudders with blanched light of the unrisen moon. The night-birds mingle their sad minstrelsy For daylights requiem : and the seas reply Now stirs across the lands departed tune. The moon is up : the choral crowd of stars, Shapen like strange or unknown animals, Move in their measure : beyond fiolian bars The clustering winds, moving as nenuphars, Gather and muse before the midnight calls. The darkness is most deep in hollow dells. There, blacker tha…
… bough ; Listen to the breeze that blows Over cape and valley now At the silence of the noon, Or the slumber hour Of the white delicious moon Like a lotus-flower ! Let us sadly, slowly, to To the silence of the snow !
… me fall from death to dream, Eternal monotone ; Faint eventide of sleep supreme With thee and love alone ! A jewelled night of star and moon Shall watch our bridal chamber, Bending the blue rays to the tune Of softly-sliding amber. Dim winds shall whisper echoes of Our slow ecstatic breath, Telling all worlds how sweet is love, How beautiful is death.
…n fruit of all the blossoming sky. And now the watcher to the bright breasts blind Loses the seemly shape, the loud swift song ; Now the moon falls, and all the gold is gone, And round the storm-caught shape hard gusts of wind Blow, and her leaves are torn, a flying throng Of orange and purple and red ; the sombre sun Shines darkly in her breast But wakes no joy therein, And all his kisses sharp and keen Bring only now desire of rest, Not their old rapture : the warm violet eyes Melt into sweet hot tears ; subtler the sighs Are interfused of de…
…urns through Tall groves of yew. Thither, ah thither ! Hollow vales Trembling with early nightingales ! Languish, O sea of sleep ! Young moon Dream on above in maiden swoon ! None daring to invoke the gales To shake our sea, and swell our sails. Not song, but silence, were a boon Save for this tune. Round capes grown darker as night falls, We see at last the splendid walls That ridge the bay ; the town lies there Lighted (the temples hour for prayer) At grave harmonious intervals. The grand voice of some seaman calls, Just as the picture fade…
72 AMBERGRIS One kiss a starbeam faint With love of a sweet saint, Stolen like a sacrament In the nights shrine ! One kiss, like moonlight cold Lighting with floral gold The lakes low tune : One kiss, one flower to fold, On its own calyx rolled, At night, in June ! One kiss, like dewfall, drawn A veil oer leaf and lawn Mix night, and noon, and dawn, Dew, flower, and moon ! One kiss, intense, supreme ! The sense of Natures dream And scent of Heaven Shown lin the glint and gleam Of the pure dawns first beam, With earth for leaven ; Moulded …
…rath Ness and Aapura and Bai ; Kashmir and Japan : Could lilies attain to the life of the Gods : could a comet Attain to the calm of the moon : I would mingle them all in a kiss, and draw from it The soul of a sensitive tune. All lovers should hear it and know it : not needing the words of a poet In ebony hewn. O beam of discovery under the eyelids awakening The sense of delight ! O assent Slow dawning through cream into roses ! O white bosom shaking The myrtles of magical scent In the groves of the heart ! O the pleasure that runs over all ove…
…GRIS 73 FROM ALICE : AN ADULTERY Alice The roses of the world are sad, The water-lilies pale, Because my lover takes her lad Beneath the moonlight veil. No flower may bloom this happy hour Unless my Alice be the flower. The stars are hidden in dark and mist, The moon and sun are dead, Because my love has caught and kissed My body in her bed. No light may shine this happy night Unless my Alice be the light. So silent are the thrush, the lark ! The nightingales at rest, Because my lover loves the dark, And has me in her breast. No song this ha…
…he watery meadow, As a giant, a lord of the Jinn Set sentinel over Some queen and her lover Beloved of the Gods and the Jinn. We saw the moon shudder and sink In the furnace of tremulous blue ; We stood on the mystical brink Of the day as it sprang to us through The veil of the night, And the babe of the light Was begotten in the caves of the dew.
…rb that gladness wears To a rent uncouth attire Changed with cares ; Happy songs our love had made Ere the sun had sunk his fire, In the moonrise fall and fade, And the dregs of our desire Fall away to death. Tears divide our labouring breath That of our sisterO our sister ! Moon and sun and stars have kissed her ! She must touch the lips of death, Touch the lips whose coldness saith : Thou art clay. Let us fare away, away To the ice whose ocean gray Tumbles on the beach of rock, Where the wheeling vultures mock Our distress with horrid cries …