 | Marah |  |
116
SELENE
1
White Moon, forth-pouring floods of pallid fireFrom founts that leave thy sallow orb forever
Ravaged and sear'd, and worn with wan desire,
But fervid never!
2
Bless the pale pleasures of my love and me,Whose day of life, like thine, is the dark night!
From all the world I have chosen one like thee
For my delight.
117
3
No burning pulse her livid beauty warms.But light that maddens the moon-stricken brain
Is in her looks, and in her cold white arms
Are dreams insane.
4
Like thine her chill enchantments! And like thineMy wistful vigils! And of all we are,
Each to the other, the sidereal sign
Is thy weird star.
5
Hushful, as o'er the bosom of the deepThou bendest, all night long I bend above
The soul that in her beauty lies asleep,
Dreaming of love.
118
6
Dreaming of love, not loving! Laid in tranceThat waits the awakening touch of some caress
Not yet divined for its deliverance,
And still to guess.
7
Guide with the ghostly lamp's soul-reaching ray,Desire's meandrous labyrinths among,
My slow sweet search, enamour'd of delay,
And lingering long!
8
My slow sweet search that dreads yet craves the goalIt seeks by ways bewilderingly dense
With dim delights, whose languors lap the soul
In charm'd suspense!
119
9
She whom I love has from the dawn of timeBeen love's despair. All pleasure and all pain
Her breath begets. All virtue and all crime
Are her domain.
10
Her intricate charm is like a magic maze,Whose central secret never can be found
By any of the interminable ways
That wind it round.
11
The perilous realms of UnrealityHer witchcraft rules. And my pale paramour
Fills all their phantom forms, from her faint sigh,
With strenuous power.
120
12
Fierce are the Solar Daughters of the South,Faint, and a Lunar Witch, my leman is.
The North's lone mystery lingers on her mouth,
And chills her kiss.
13
The sun is in their veins, as in the vine:The moon in hers, as in a sorcerer's cruce,
Has mingled dews and dreams. Their blood is wine:
Hers, morphian juice.
14
And I have drunk of it. And in her eyesI have beheld, and on her lips pursued,
Passion's most mystical epiphanies;
With faith renew'd
121
15
In the voluptuous chastities of vice—Virginities of sin in joys restrain'd,
Fruits of the imperishable paradise
Of the Unattain'd!
| Marah | |