The collected poems of Arthur Edward Waite in two volumes ... With a Portrait |
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| II. |
| I. | I
PROEMIUM |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
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 | The collected poems of Arthur Edward Waite |  |
299
I
PROEMIUM
GATES OF LOVE
Is that thy voice which, deep in haunted glades,
Expounds the passion of the nightingale?
Is that thy smile which on these Kentish cliffs
Pours mellow warmth o'er miles of waving wheat?
Is that thine eyes' light on the gleaming sea?
Is that the flower-sweet fragrance of thy breath
In hyacinthine dingles, deeply sunk,
Possess'd by spells and incense? Is it thou
Whose beauty's morn, in amaranthine blue
And glory draped, looks down on joyful earth
And royal majesty of open main
From such unmeasured distance? Hast thou won
Thy dimpled whiteness from the sea-gull's wings,
Thy splendour ravish'd from a raptured sky,
Thy freedom's grace from fountains, from the depths
Of brooding ocean such unsearchable
Profundity of spirit-speaking eyes?
Or dost thou lend thy nature's secret wealth
To garnish and intinct the world without?
Expounds the passion of the nightingale?
Is that thy smile which on these Kentish cliffs
Pours mellow warmth o'er miles of waving wheat?
Is that thine eyes' light on the gleaming sea?
Is that the flower-sweet fragrance of thy breath
In hyacinthine dingles, deeply sunk,
Possess'd by spells and incense? Is it thou
Whose beauty's morn, in amaranthine blue
And glory draped, looks down on joyful earth
And royal majesty of open main
From such unmeasured distance? Hast thou won
Thy dimpled whiteness from the sea-gull's wings,
Thy splendour ravish'd from a raptured sky,
Thy freedom's grace from fountains, from the depths
Of brooding ocean such unsearchable
Profundity of spirit-speaking eyes?
Or dost thou lend thy nature's secret wealth
To garnish and intinct the world without?
Sons of the Voice and Everlasting Peers,
Who look to see the Bridegroom and the Bride,
I bring you once again a little book
Of transformation on the psychic plane;
And may Lucasta's love-born litanies
Be counted as a prophecy or pledge
Of more resplendent exploits still to come—
The metamorphoses of Orphic art.
I look to see most mighty things of God
Accomplish'd in the land of living men.
The unprepared but pure hypostasis
Is one fair-shining maid's simplicity—
A sacramental type of hidden truth,
Reality and beauty which transcend
Expression. We are born with faces veil'd
As Moses' was, to hide the god within:
May one translucid veil by Horeb's light
Be here transfigured, earth and heaven be join'd
In high Hermetic Marriage, which transmutes
The world to gold.
Who look to see the Bridegroom and the Bride,
I bring you once again a little book
Of transformation on the psychic plane;
And may Lucasta's love-born litanies
Be counted as a prophecy or pledge
Of more resplendent exploits still to come—
The metamorphoses of Orphic art.
300
Accomplish'd in the land of living men.
The unprepared but pure hypostasis
Is one fair-shining maid's simplicity—
A sacramental type of hidden truth,
Reality and beauty which transcend
Expression. We are born with faces veil'd
As Moses' was, to hide the god within:
May one translucid veil by Horeb's light
Be here transfigured, earth and heaven be join'd
In high Hermetic Marriage, which transmutes
The world to gold.
Discriminate between
The letter and the spirit that indwells:
Be then all lustre yours, all magian gifts,
Peace, inspiration, pure imagining,
Laurel and sacred palm and crown of life.
The letter and the spirit that indwells:
Be then all lustre yours, all magian gifts,
Peace, inspiration, pure imagining,
Laurel and sacred palm and crown of life.
| The collected poems of Arthur Edward Waite | |