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CIRCE |
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|
 | The poems of Madison Cawein |  |
67
CIRCE
The pillared portals of her home once rose from out the sea;
Its casements burnt with green sea-fire of ocean mystery;
And all its halls of love were full of mermaid melody.
Its casements burnt with green sea-fire of ocean mystery;
And all its halls of love were full of mermaid melody.
Its battlements of beauty were a pharos from afar,
To lure the wandering seamen like a constellated star:—
Life may question: death is silent: will it answer where they are?
To lure the wandering seamen like a constellated star:—
Life may question: death is silent: will it answer where they are?
It is enough to know that once between the golden goals
Of dreams and deeds their vessel steered to music of citoles,
And reached the Siren island where they pledged and lost their souls.
Of dreams and deeds their vessel steered to music of citoles,
And reached the Siren island where they pledged and lost their souls.
68
It is enough to know that once love led them with a lute—
To taste the honey of her soul and of her flesh the fruit;
Between the soul and flesh she changed each man into a brute.
To taste the honey of her soul and of her flesh the fruit;
Between the soul and flesh she changed each man into a brute.
It is enough to know that love once sate them at a feast—
Her word was bread and oil to them, her kiss was wine at least;
Between the word and kiss she changed each man into a beast.
Her word was bread and oil to them, her kiss was wine at least;
Between the word and kiss she changed each man into a beast.
The marble now is vanished where the columned wonder rose;
The billow beats complaining there, a heart of many woes;
The sea-wind sings uncertain things of what the Siren knows.
The billow beats complaining there, a heart of many woes;
The sea-wind sings uncertain things of what the Siren knows.
Ah me! you know not how it is with him who once has been
A portion of such passion and the slave of such a queen;
What such possession of her love to his whole life may mean!
A portion of such passion and the slave of such a queen;
What such possession of her love to his whole life may mean!
69
The world of languid attitudes that lured him to despair;
Abandonments of beauty that his heart would not beware—
A red rose suffering death to live one hour in her hair.
Abandonments of beauty that his heart would not beware—
A red rose suffering death to live one hour in her hair.
Yea, just to be again to her as music to the lute,
As fragrance to the senses, and to lips the blood-red fruit,
Between the soul and flesh again, unto her beauty, brute.
As fragrance to the senses, and to lips the blood-red fruit,
Between the soul and flesh again, unto her beauty, brute.
Her alabaster stairways and her casements filled with light,
Her corridors of melody and colonnades of night
Shall haunt his heart forever with the magic of her might!
Her corridors of melody and colonnades of night
Shall haunt his heart forever with the magic of her might!
| The poems of Madison Cawein | |