 | Lyrical Poems |  |
18
LIFE AND DEATH
Life—
I am
the daughter of Time,
And twin to my brother Death:
Where I am, there is he.
And twin to my brother Death:
Where I am, there is he.
Space to the star, to the earth her clime,
I make by my breath:
To the heart its beat.
The world's circumference
I take for my seat:
Nor less man's pageantry,
His ring of sense.
I make by my breath:
To the heart its beat.
The world's circumference
I take for my seat:
Nor less man's pageantry,
His ring of sense.
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Round the one on guard
The stars keep burning ward:
The other is made sure
By phantoms I conjure.
The stars keep burning ward:
The other is made sure
By phantoms I conjure.
Vermillion, saffron, white,
Weave ever my delight,
Lest Death should disenchant
Those whom I fain would haunt.
Weave ever my delight,
Lest Death should disenchant
Those whom I fain would haunt.
Death—
I am the brother of Life:
Of old she named me Strife.
In sorrow and in tears
I ruin what she rears.
She is a sorceress
Of might, of skill not less:
Who by her magic power
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Grains from the infinite:
And in them skills to write
The knowledge that they are.
Then pain and pleasure war
Within them, till I come
And redissolve her sum.
Forth from her painted hall
Her slaves I disenthrall:
But when I come to break
The subtle bond, they shriek.
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