 | Fantasy and Passion |  |
130
DECAY.
With beauty and health and hardiness it shares
Enduring sovereignty malign and strange;
Innumerable are all its haunts and lairs;
Immeasurable its vast and stealthy range.
Enduring sovereignty malign and strange;
Innumerable are all its haunts and lairs;
Immeasurable its vast and stealthy range.
Forever varying in its forms of ill,
Forever does it borrow, of stores immense,
Those opulent colors that await its will,
Sombrely rich or radiantly intense.
Forever does it borrow, of stores immense,
Those opulent colors that await its will,
Sombrely rich or radiantly intense.
On pools of foul miasmatic stagnance brood
Its gentler tints of violet or of rose;
Through many a wood's majestic solitude,
In ruin of rotting logs its crimson glows.
Its gentler tints of violet or of rose;
Through many a wood's majestic solitude,
In ruin of rotting logs its crimson glows.
Its mellower browns in faded blooms are seen;
Its rancorous yellows in slow rust exist;
In noisome mildew lurks its pestilent green;
Its ghostly grays are in malarial mist.
Its rancorous yellows in slow rust exist;
In noisome mildew lurks its pestilent green;
Its ghostly grays are in malarial mist.
In noxious mold are hidden its ashy blues;
Its ambers are in old marble's crumbling slabs;
On desolate tombstones are its grimmer hues,
Blots of dense black, or sullen-glimmering drabs.
Its ambers are in old marble's crumbling slabs;
On desolate tombstones are its grimmer hues,
Blots of dense black, or sullen-glimmering drabs.
But all its gaudier splendors full to air
In Autumn's blighted foliage are outrolled,
And often amid sweet sunsets it will wear
Deep melancholy purple or vivid gold!
In Autumn's blighted foliage are outrolled,
And often amid sweet sunsets it will wear
Deep melancholy purple or vivid gold!
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Yet ah! the agony that no words may speak,
When, positive though intangible, it lies
In the red hectic flower on some dear cheek,
Or shines with ominous fire from worshiped eyes!
When, positive though intangible, it lies
In the red hectic flower on some dear cheek,
Or shines with ominous fire from worshiped eyes!
Oh, then what wonder if our difficult lives
Guess vaguely, from the shadow of their dim lot,
How some white incorruptibility thrives
In luminous bournes of peace, where time is not?
Guess vaguely, from the shadow of their dim lot,
How some white incorruptibility thrives
In luminous bournes of peace, where time is not?
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