Volume I Part 2 (1/2)
_All along the purple creek, lit with silver foam, Silent, silent voices, cry no more of home!
Soft beyond the cherry-trees, o'er the dim lagoon, Dawns the crimson lantern of the large low moon._
We that loved in April, we that turned away Laughing ere the wood-dove crooned across the May, Watch the withered rose-leaves drift along the sh.o.r.e.
Wind among the roses, blow no more!
We the Sons of Reason, we that chose to bride Knowledge, and rejected the Dream that we denied, We that chose the Wisdom that triumphs for an hour, We that let the young love perish like a flower....
We that hurt the kind heart, we that went astray, We that in the darkness idly dreamed of day....
... Ah! The dreary rose-leaves drift along the sh.o.r.e.
Wind among the roses, blow no more!
Lonely starry faces, wonderful and white, Yearning with a cry across the dim sweet night, All our dreams are blown a-drift as flowers before a fan, All our hearts are haunted in the heart of old j.a.pan.
Haunted, haunted, haunted--we that mocked and sinned Hear the vanished voices wailing down the wind, Watch the ruined rose-leaves drift along the sh.o.r.e.
Wind among the roses, blow no more!
_All along the purple creek, lit with silver foam, Sobbing, sobbing voices, cry no more of home!
Soft beyond the cherry-trees, o'er the dim lagoon, Dawns the crimson lantern of the large low moon._
NECROMANCY
(AFTER THE PROSE OF BAUDELAIRE)
This necromantic palace, dim and rich, Dim as a dream, rich as a reverie, I knew it all of old, surely I knew This floating twilight tinged with rose and blue, This moon-soft carven niche Whence the calm marble, wan as memory, Slopes to the wine-brimmed bath of cold dark fire Perfumed with old regret and dead desire.
There the soul, slumbering in the purple waves Of indolence, dreams of the phantom years, Dreams of the wild sweet flower of red young lips Meeting and murmuring in the dark eclipse Of joy, where pain still craves One tear of love to mingle with their tears, One pa.s.sionate welcome ere the wild farewell, One flash of heaven across the fires of h.e.l.l.
Queen of my dreams, queen of my pitiless dreams, Dim idol, moulded of the wild white rose, Coiled like a panther in that silken gloom Of scented cus.h.i.+ons, where the rich hushed room Breaks into soft warm gleams, As from her slumbrous clouds Queen Venus glows, Slowly thine arms up-lift to me, thine eyes Meet mine, without communion or surmise.
Here, at thy feet, I watched, I watched all day Night floating in thine eyes, then with my hands Covered my face from that dumb cry of pain: And when at last I dared to look again My heart was far away, Wrapt in the fragrant gloom of Eastern lands, Under the flower-white stars of tropic skies Where soft black floating flowers turned to ... thine eyes.
I breathe, I breathe the perfume of thine hair: Bury in thy deep hair my fevered face, Till as to men athirst in desert dreams The savour and colour and sound of cool dark streams Float round me everywhere, And memories float from some forgotten place, Fulfilling hopeless eyes with hopeless tears And fleeting light of unforgotten years.
Dim clouds of music in the dim rich hours Float to me thro' the twilight of thine hair, And sails like blossoms float o'er purple seas, And under dark green skies the soft warm breeze Washes dark fruit, dark flowers, Dark tropic maidens in some island lair Couched on the warm sand nigh the creaming foam To dream and sing their tawny lovers home.
Lost in the magic ocean of thine hair I find the haven of the heart of song: There tired s.h.i.+ps rest against the pale red sky!
And yet again there comes a thin sad cry And all the s.h.i.+ning air Fades, where the tall dark singing seamen throng From many generations, many climes, Fades, fades, as it has faded many times.
I hear the sweet cool whisper of the waves!
Drowned in the slumbrous billows of thine hair, I dream as one that sinks thro' pa.s.sionate hours In a strange s.h.i.+p's wild fraughtage of dark flowers Culled for pale poets' graves; And opiate odours load the empurpled air That flows and droops, a dark resplendent pall Under the floating wreaths funereal.