Raised in vain the screen
Never lowered
Long ago
Long ago
I moved myself to face the mountain
Whither dost thy hide from your magic
In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume
Where the deep woods glimmer with the jasmine's bloom
I'll feed thee, O beloved, on love and wild red honey
I'll bear thee in a basket of rushes
To a palace bower where golden vested maidens
Thread with mellow laughter the petals of delight
Whither dost thou loiter
Whither dost thy hide from your magic
In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume
Where the deep woods glimmer with the jasmine's bloom
I'll feed thee, O beloved, on love and wild red honey
I'll bear thee in a basket of rushes
To a palace bower where golden vested maidens
Thread with mellow laughter the petals of delight
Whither dost thou loiter
By what murmuring hollows
Where oleanders scatter their ambrosial fire
Thou subtle man of mellifluous verse
Thou silver-breasted beam of desire
When, in the night, I wait
Life seems to me
Where oleanders scatter their ambrosial fire
Thou subtle man of mellifluous verse
Thou silver-breasted beam of desire
When, in the night, I wait
Life seems to me
As hanging by a thread
And he came in
And he came in
Threw out the mantle's edges
When compared with the gentle piper's tread?
Declined to me with a sincere heed
I say to him "Did you dictate the Pages Of Hell to Dante?"
He answers, "Yes, I did."
And as it's going often at love's breaking
The ghost of first days came again to us
The silver willow through my window, then stretched in
The silver beauty of his gentle branches
The bird began to sing the song of light and pleasure
To us, who fears to lift looks from the earth
Who are so lofty, bitter and intense
About days when we were saved together
Though he has no form
My eyes saw him
His glory is fire in my mind
That knows
His secret inner form
Invented by the soul
Has no boundary
In it our senses end
Words cannot hold him
Yet in him all words are
When he comes back to my arms
I'll make him feel what nobody ever felt
We were dead a little while together then, serene
And afloat on the strange broad canopy
Of the abandoned world
Everywhere
Me
Vanishing into him
Like water
Leave the smoldering cities below
(we have done all we could)
We have given until we have no more to give
Alas, it was pity, rather than love, we gave
Now having given all, let us leave all
Above all, let us leave pity
And mount higher
To love—resurrection
Declined to me with a sincere heed
I say to him "Did you dictate the Pages Of Hell to Dante?"
He answers, "Yes, I did."
And as it's going often at love's breaking
The ghost of first days came again to us
The silver willow through my window, then stretched in
The silver beauty of his gentle branches
The bird began to sing the song of light and pleasure
To us, who fears to lift looks from the earth
Who are so lofty, bitter and intense
About days when we were saved together
Though he has no form
My eyes saw him
His glory is fire in my mind
That knows
His secret inner form
Invented by the soul
Has no boundary
In it our senses end
Words cannot hold him
Yet in him all words are
When he comes back to my arms
I'll make him feel what nobody ever felt
We were dead a little while together then, serene
And afloat on the strange broad canopy
Of the abandoned world
Everywhere
Me
Vanishing into him
Like water
Leave the smoldering cities below
(we have done all we could)
We have given until we have no more to give
Alas, it was pity, rather than love, we gave
Now having given all, let us leave all
Above all, let us leave pity
And mount higher
To love—resurrection
