Part 16 (1/2)

VII.

Yea, this is so. My clerks have set it down, And birds have blabbed it to the winds of heaven.

The flowers have guessed it, and, in bower and town, Lovers have sung the songs that I have made.

Give me your lives, O mortals, and, for leaven, Ye shall receive the fires that cannot fade.

VIII.

O men! O maidens! O ye listless ones!

Ye who desert my temples in the East, Ye who reject the rays of summer suns, And cling to shadows in the wilderness; Why are ye sad? Why frown ye at the feast, Ye who have eyes to see and lips to press?

IX.

Why, for a wisdom that ye will not prove, A joy that crushes and a love that stings, A freak, a frenzy in a fated groove, A thing of nothing born of less than nought-- Why in your hearts do ye desire these things, Ye who abhor the joys that ye have sought?

X.

See, see! I weep, but I can jest at times; Yea, I can dance and toss my tears away.

The sighs I breathe are fragrant as the rhymes Of men and maids whose hearts are overthrown.

I am the G.o.d for whom all maidens pray, But none shall have me for herself alone.

XI.

No; I have love enough, here where I stand, To marry fifty maids in their degree; Aye, fifty times five thousand in a band, And every bride the proxy of a score.

Want ye a mate for millions? I am he.

Glory is mine, and glee-time evermore.

XII.

O men! O masters! O ye kings of grief!

Ye who control the world but not the grave, What have ye done to make delight so brief, Ye who have spurn'd the minstrel and the lyre?

I will not say: ”Be patient.” Ye are brave; And ye shall guess the pangs of my desire.

XIII.

There shall be traitors in the court of love, And tears and torture and the bliss of pain.

The maids of men shall seek the G.o.ds above, And drink the nectar of the golden lake.

Blessed are they for whom the G.o.ds are fain; They shall be glad for love's and pity's sake.

XIV.