Perpetual Light | Page 8

thickets, with desperate breath-- My outlawed heart might gasp at him appearing?So sudden and dazzling upon my rage and fearing,--?Such pale announcement, such quietude should endue?Tall, proud, grave Death, with noble footsteps nearing!?Immortal goddess, thus beautiful are you!
God knows that you are passionate as Life,?On rhythmic curves of bosom and limb attending,--?Sweet as clear water, and acid as a knife?Thrust through fresh fruit wherewith the bough is bending,-- Yet rule the riotous blood to Man's befriending,--?Yea, hush his ghastly tears the midnight through,?To flesh of flesh your ageless mystery lending.?Ah, holy goddess, thus terrible are you!
God knows that you are hated as men hate?Only the highest and the uttermost presence,?For in your eyes is anger to break fate?And life's too blissful sweet is all your essence.?Your glory seethed the suns to incandescence,?You are flame--flame! Our creeds your orb unto?Are but thin shadowy demilunes and crescents,--?Immortal goddess, so infinite are you!
Infinite in range of life, the worm you quicken?From crashing suns.... "Let there be light!" you said.?Light was, and life,--Man rose, and Man fell stricken?By your relentless power that through him sped;?And again Man rose, halt like the walking dead,?Dragging these heavy laws you never knew?Till you recoiled from him astonish��d,--?Ah, holy goddess, so wonderful were you!
So now Man hath smeared filth upon your altar,?And, slant-eyed and slime-lipped, wrought sins apart.?His tongue intones an abominable psalter?Hoarsely, and on his brows cold sweat-drops start,--?Nor through your oracles speaks he from his heart,?Hearing you in the porches of his ears;?His eyes are blind of you, where only smart?The sick revulsions of his ignorant tears.
No! He intones by rote a coded praise,?Unto a leering two-faced god falls prone,?And smears with lust and fear his alternate days?For monstrous imaginations to atone;?For you, most instant, most ardent,--you are flown?Like fumes to his clownish brain, and in his fear?He dreams you a eunuch carved of pallid stone?Warning, "Beware all ye who enter here!"
TO PURITY
God knows you are as clean as the sea-gust?Uproarious round those poppied headlands high?Where huge green seas beneath, in billows upthrust,?Scatter snow-amethysts to the bright sapphire sky,--?Or music on which fusillade the hoof-beats by?Of screaming valkyr-steeds, to exalted strife!?You are love's seal and love's nobility,?And the burning flame, the aching flame of Life!
Therefore, transfigurer of the flesh,--clear-shining?Redeemer of the coinage passed for base,--?Strong flawless column, round which all vipers twining?Hiss out their venom and die on their disgrace,--?Oh radiant form, oh rapt victorious face?Of our dreams of love, toward whom all brave and true?Strain upward, seeking out your holiest place,--?This praise I raise, this praise I raise to you!
ATONEMENT
Through flamelit Hades?To win a realm,?I rode with my lady's?Sleeve on my helm.?With fiends around me?And fiends before,?I rode, and found me?At an iron door.
My pulses hammered.?I clubbed my spear?And knocked. Fiends clamored.?I felt Man's fear?When mysteries awe him.?The door, with din,?Swung wide. I saw him?Who sat therein.
Oh, amaranthine?Are Love's estates,?But Rhadamanthine?The Judge awaits.?My blazon and banner?He stared them through?And said, _"What manner?Of man are you?"_
I stood stripped naked,?Stark to atone.?My body ach��d?Through every bone.?A blast blew through me.?I drank black gall.?I saw he knew me.?I told him all.
"The heart I stare in?Is black as night,"?He said, "but therein?There burns a light.?White hands encore it?To guard its grace,?And strangely o'er it?Bends a still face.
"Small light--great wonder!?Through all my hall?You flash asunder?The murky pall.?Walls grow unreal--?All Hell a wraith,--?Oh white, ideal?Flame of her faith!"
"Here I surrender,?White flame of trust!?Knave, strike some splendor?From this your dust.?Oh gross, weak, dumb thing,?Rise--dare a part!?For here--is something?That breaks my heart!"
THE ADORATION
Now, like withdrawing music?Where pillared aisles implore,?You are a vanished choir,?A soft-closed door.
Victorious voices blended?Fade, and I kneel still-hearted.?Sudden my life is ended.?We have parted.
Lost in the vault's vast splendor?My ghost goes rising, thinning.?Can heartbreak be an end, or?Some strange beginning?
TALISMAN
Each cup shall be broken,?Each tower shall fall,?All drink be bitter,?Bitter as gall,?The dark heart go lonely--?Save for one tower,?One cyathus only,?One wine of power!
My love's white beauty?Is this tower,?The wine of her beauty?My wine of power,?The cup of her spirit?Mine to drain?With awful knowledge?And trembling pain.
She only, she only?Stands on the stars.?Her small hands grapple?Heaven's black bars.?Only her deep love?Pays the price?Of a sight of the vistas?Of paradise.
Each goblet may shatter,?Each tower may fall,?Low livid sunset?Darken on all--?In her soul's high tower?My love pours wine,?And the glory and the power?Of the stars are mine!
RECOGNITION
Like the twilight blowing over sunset water?Under high holy hills purple-mirrored in a mere,?Quietly and smiling, my dear love brought her?Heart to my heart, and through the dusk drew near;
Drew to me near, drew my brows up to the tender?Caress of her hands. And I lifted up my eyes?To hers, and deep within them saw a silent splendor?More still, more strange than the planets' in the skies.
Each gazed on each. O what is mortal seeing?To the glory of that depth, to the glory of that height?Through veils