Perpetual Light : a memorial Part 3

So, when our day is past; When we lie stilly Under the earth at last, Clod by white lily.

Give me neither tear nor sigh; Breath but this in pa.s.sing by, Where empearled with morning dew The high gra.s.s above her Waves, and above me too,-- "He was her lover!"

THE ONE

You are that beloved thing Which, through all my seeking In silence or in speaking, I would find, and finding sing!

You are that beloved air Which, o'er all the chiming Of music or of rhyming, Reconciles my long despair.

You are that beloved sight Which, beyond life's fairest Or rich beauty's rarest, Fills my heart with true delight.

You are that beloved place Where, past all the portals To the pomp of mortals, Love perceives the courts of grace,

And what splendors more,--ah, well!

Though I often fas.h.i.+on Songs of praise and pa.s.sion, Now--I look--but cannot tell!

DREAM AND DEED

All day long I am fas.h.i.+oning crowns, Crowns of great price for you!

What do I fas.h.i.+on them of?

Opals and pearls of the dew, Diamonds of old renowns, Blazing rubies of love, And gold from the heart of the golden sun, brought down by a sunset djinn,-- Brighter gold, purer gold than ever gleamed under Andvari's fin!

All day long I am tempering swords, Swords for my thought to wield!

What is the steel I true, And how is their splendor annealed?

High dreams, to slay evil hordes, And flaming thoughts of you That light my dark heart from their white-hot forge-- a glory to take one's breath-- Like the dove-gray, rose-faint veils of faith you wind round the skull of death!

But when was a sword or a crown For praise or for honor meet, When the truth transcends, and sees Knighthood kneeling at your feet?

In the darkness they go down!

There is better trust in these: Set teeth, and the furious will to strive through the dust of the world for you; The hardly builded house of deeds each day, that must prove me true!

A TAPER OF INCENSE

You are a bannered balcony Of G.o.d's heraldic house, Waving above the dinning throng of the days Pennants of purple and oriflammes of crimson And cloths of gold.

Your varying device is on every s.h.i.+ning s.h.i.+eld Of the brilliant row that flames beneath the eaves Of that house whose street is cobbled with silver clouds.

The days go down that street, the troops of days Dark and bright, tramping to tread the earth.

Ever, with trumpets and tumult, rigor or laughter, They pa.s.s saluting, to press upon the world, Regiment after regiment unnumbered.

Your beauty is a balcony hung with banners To wave them on. The foremost have sent your name Echoing rearward to hearten new battalions.

Your beauty is the sunset's streaming flag, It is the vivid standard of the dawn Flapping over dazed dream-voyagers That kneel on new sun-pooled, mysterious strands.

It wasted the moon to pallor, set the sun Pulsing with burning blood--it shattered the mind Of heaven into stars.

The beauty of your spirit has sent the winds Eternally sighing, and sharpened the cold ache Of the heart-broken, incessantly-sobbing sea.

It has scattered its sparks in the hearts of silken flowers And has raised the frozen fury of glaciers against the North And has permeated the South with its elusive fragrance.

Auroral over East and West it dances.

You are a crystal goblet of such wine Set in a niche of night That when Death quaffs you he must glow to life Flushed with eternity.

O proud Love, so humble and human, Yet beyond the G.o.ds to exalt-- O quiet Love, couching with the curled might and majesty Of tawny leopards!

O tamed tiger, Love, whose golden eyes Weep for the thrift of angels!

Thou pinnacled pain of the midnight, Rose-strewer of daylit mire, Transfiguration of our futile lives, Dazzler into the secret courts of heaven-- Thou whose pa.s.sion is written in all men's blood and tears And in silver letters upon the books of G.o.d-- Make me to stand erect, and walk with danger, And strive like a flame!

For Thou and I are struck as cymbals of G.o.d's exultation In Life, His song!

TO PURITY

G.o.d knows that you are beautiful as Death Chanced on in some hot, sunlit forest-clearing Where--burst from tangled 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 n.o.ble footsteps nearing!

Immortal G.o.ddess, thus beautiful are you!

G.o.d knows that you are pa.s.sionate 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 G.o.ddess, thus terrible are you!

G.o.d 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 G.o.ddess, so infinite are you!

Infinite in range of life, the worm you quicken From cras.h.i.+ng 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 astonished,-- Ah, holy G.o.ddess, 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 Hoa.r.s.ely, 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 G.o.d falls p.r.o.ne, And smears with l.u.s.t 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

G.o.d 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 n.o.bility, And the burning flame, the aching flame of Life!

Therefore, transfigurer of the flesh,--clear-s.h.i.+ning Redeemer of the coinage pa.s.sed 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.