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Page 1 of 11901 · PDF PAGE 29
…as Madeline. I am a man—you mate me with a girl ? CORA. Stop! not a word! My blasphemy to hear, Yours to speak out—when you are told the truth! ULRIC. What truth? This word hath first an ugly sound. The truth! God curse it to His blackest hell If but it stand between us and our love! CORA. O Ulric, Ulric! bear with me awhile! Speak no more words—each syllable strikes here, [Hand to heart. A cloud of wingéd scorpions, that rage In mine own deepest self; for there I know Tame harpies that had ceased to torture me; And this more ghastly brood rene…
1901 · PDF PAGE 33
…lips of mine, These harlot lips, and kiss you unashamed ? ULRIC. Strange are these words, and this emotion strange! CORA. Strange is the truth, and deadly as an asp. ULRIC. Wear me no more with this anxiety. CORA. How can I speak? For this will ruin us. ULRIC. Unspoken, I demand thy heart of thee. CORA. My heart is broken. This will murder thine. ULRIC. Kill, but not torture! Let me know the truth.
1901 · PDF PAGE 31
…mstance : I love you—you, and not your attributes! CORA. Great noble soul! I hate myself the more That I must wound you further with the truth. A double prong this poisoned poniard Snaps in our hearts. I kept the secret long. Your breath, that burns upon me, wraps me round With whirling passion, pierces through my veins With its unhallowed fire, constrains, compels, Drags out the corpse of twenty years ago From the untrusty coffin of my mind, To poison, to corrupt, to strike you there Blind with its horror. ULRIC. Leave these bitter words! They…
1901 · PDF PAGE 45
… godhead must Get worship. Anger not the god, but stoop, My faithful priest, and worship at my feet. AMENHATEP. I am most miserable. But truth must leap In this tremendous moment from my lips, Its long-shut barrier. For I pity thee With my old heart’s whole pity. Thou art young, And beautiful, and proud, and dear to me, Whom I have served thy life through. Now that love Demands a deadlier service—to speak truth. Thou art not Horus, but a man as I. CHORUS. Thou art not Horus, buta man. Thy life Is not of the immortals, but, as ours, Stands at th…
1901 · PDF PAGE 32
…ilosophy, Schooled from my childhood in the brotherhood Of poets, to descend to this absurd Quibble of tedious morality ? Shame not your truth with that ignoble thought! And also—tell me, once for all, the truth! [Aztterly. Say that you love him—it is on your tongue! CORA. Learn the momentous horror of thy birth! [A pause. ULRIC. I would not urge my suit against that plea, But—I have known you, and your own pure soul Should cast no doubt against me—you have said ‘‘Rather we love such as the child of love; And pity—he is not unpitiful In this vi…
1901 · PDF PAGE 47
…er heart! For she is great and evil, and her voice Howls blasphemy against yet living gods. Thou knowest not the story of thy birth, The truth. PACHAD Then speak the truth, if so a priest May tune his tongue to anything but lies. AMENHATEP. Sixteen strange seasons mingle gold and grey Since in this very temple she, the Queen, Spake, and threw open to our reverent gaze A ‘royal womb made pregnant with that seed Of which thou art the harvest. She spake thus: ‘Princes, and people of the Egyptian land, And broken priests of broken deities Discrowne…
1901 · PDF PAGE 36
…he harlot cleanse herself— Tardy repentance !—In the name of God! Worse, you have lied, and built me up a house Of trust in you as being truth and love, - Who are in truth all lies, all treachery! You made me love you as an honest man ! You watched this passion, this intolerable Desire, this flame of hell; you fed it full, Sunned it and watered—O my brain will snap !— Only to blast it. Take your story back ; Be what you will except that infamous! For as my mother—I should spit on you! [CORA zs at his feet grovelling. She half rises to listen. '…
1901 · PDF PAGE 88
…his ulcers! Mock me, ye clinging lovers, at your peril! God turns to dust the blossom of your youth. The fruit of lust is poisonous with—truth! Its immortality is—to be sterile! This lie of Love hath no abiding: ‘‘Two loves are ended; one, the infant band, Rises more splendid.” Spin the rope of sand! Two loves are one; but O to their dividing! Fertility—distaste’s adoption ! Her body’s growth—desire’s mortality! I look and loathe. Behold how lovers die, And immortality puts on corruption!
1901 · PDF PAGE 14
…g of Kings! To me a sinner, me, Lowest of all that be, Be merciful, O Master Soul of things! Show me thy face of ruth, And in thy way of truth, Guide my weak youth, That stumbles while it walks, makes discord when it sings! So, Mighty Mother! Pure, Eternal Spouse, Isis, thou Star, thou Moon, thou Mightiest, Lead my weak steps to thine Eternal House! Rest my vain head on thine Eternal Breast! Spread wide the wings divine Over this shadowy shrine, Where in my heart their hovering lendeth Light! Bend down the amazing Face Of sorrow and of grace, S…
1901 · PDF PAGE 46
32 THE FATAL FORCE Are silent at your blasphemy; my ears Are strong to hear if there be truth at all In your mixed murmurs: I command you, speak! AMENHATEP. The burden of the madness of the Queen Lies on the land: the Syrian is near ; And she, believing that her godhead guards Her people, sleeps. The altars are thrown down ; The people murmur. She hath done thee wrong, But be thou mighty to avenge! PACHAD. To-day I, Horus, am to grow Osiris. Yea, Strange secret dreams of some mysterious fate Godlike have come upon me, and the throne Totters for…
1901 · PDF PAGE 34
…aks my heart. [He sinks exhausted. (Rallying.) By God, I swear to you no lie shall keep Its Dead Sea bar against our marrying. CORA. The truth! Thetruth! Thetruth! I am indeed That whore I told you. That makes nothing here. I am the mother of thy bastard birth!
1901 · PDF PAGE 108
…undant ease, That bound the stately head. What joy of youth Lifted her nostril to respire the wind ? What pride of being? What triumphal truth Acclaimed her queen to her imperial mind ? I watched, a leopard, stealthy in the corn, As if a tigress held herself above; My body quivered, eager to be torn, Stung by the snake of some convulsive love! The leopard changed his spots; for in me leapt The mate, the tiger. Murderous I sprang Across the mellow earth: my senses swept, One torrent flame, one soul-dissolving pang. How queenly bent her body to t…
1901 · PDF PAGE 20
… Eve’s heel is by the serpent bitten, His head she bruises.” No indeed! Not woman, but the woman’s seed! Hark! in the cloak of “ Love of Truth” They whisper “ Memory of Youth”; And, mindful of the deadliest sin, Hint: ‘“ Sinful woman, look within!” CORA. Ah me! if she could look within a glass With spells and pantacles well fortified!
1901 · PDF PAGE 19
…ned me. CORA. And now you know how dear he is to you! Come, child, I love you both. Your happiness Is my life’s purpose. I have seen the truth Of this in you; it comes to every one. I know that he is half in love with you. Look once again as you did look just now, And he would die for you. O foolish girl! [MADELINE weeps guzetly for a little, CORA caressing her. MADELINE. Please let me go: you are too kind to me! CORA. Rest, sunny head! A little while to sleep, And then—perhaps the Mother in a dream May comfort you. A woman's love is this To ha…
1901 · PDF PAGE 72
58 THE FATAL FORCE Against all men, dominions, shapes, and powers, Seen and unseen, to justice and to truth, Sought out by desolate ways of hateful deeds, And so set free myself from my own fate, Whom I will smite to end the coil of things Here, to begin—what life? For Life I know Stands like a living sentinel behind The rugged barrier of death, the gates Where the rude valley narrows, and man hears The steep and terrible cataract of time Break, and lose shape and substance in the foam , And spray of an eternity of air! My death, and not my lif…
1901 · PDF PAGE 22
THE MOTHER'S TRAGEDY The trifles that shall make it master yet Of the strong soul that bade itself forget. CORA. Let me not shrink! Truth always purifies. I will go through those twe impossible Actual years. The city was itself; Hard thinking if hard drinking—sober-sides! One night I stepped up tremulous on the stage, Sang something, found my senses afterward Only to that intolerable sound Of terrible applause. They shook the sky With calling me to answer. And J lay— A storm of weeping swept across my frame— Till the polite, the hateful manager…
1901 · PDF PAGE 113
…vain it is Invoking memory for sweet sound of youth ; The song, the day, the cup, the shot, the kiss! This night begets illusion—ay! the truth. I know the deep emotion of that birth, When chaos rolled in terror and in thunder; The abortion of the infancy of earth; The monsters moving in a world of wonder ; The Shapeless, racked with agony, that grew Into these phantom forms that change and shatter ; The falling of the first toad-spotted dew; The first lewd heaving ecstasy of matter. ‘I see all Nature claw and tear and bite, All hateful love and…
1901 · PDF PAGE 102
…t. Now, in that moment, quite a miracle! Through all the shell of miserable sin, Through all the blackness of the gulf of Hell, She sees Truth’s angel. She is locked within No irrefragable bars; her spirit woke From its dull slavery; her passion broke Her history’s prison, from that hour to endure Mighty as tempest and as spring wind pure. After a year her changed life met its fate. There came a man and loved her, and her soul The first time knew true sympathy. Elate, That pure joy filled her body’s broken bow! With infinite fresh fire and pure…