Part 6 (1/2)

THE CHERRY-SNOWS

The cherry-snows are falling now; Down from the blossom-clouded sky Of zephyr-troubled twig and bough, In widely settling whirls they fly.

The orchard earth, unclothed and brown, Is wintry-hued with petals bright; E'en as the snow they glimmer down; Brief as the snow's their stainless white.

FAIRY LANTERNS

'Tis said these blossom-lanterns light The elves upon their midnight way; That fairy toil and elfin play Receive their beams of magic white.

I marvel not if it be true; I know this flower has lighted me Nearer to Beauty's mystery, And past the veils of secrets new.

NIRVANA

Poised as a G.o.d whose lone, detached post, An eyrie, pends between the boundary-marks Of finite years, and those unvaried darks That veil Eternity, I saw the host Of worlds and suns, swept from the furthermost Of night--confusion as of dust with sparks-- Whirl tow'rd the opposing brink; as one who harks Some warning trumpet, Time, a withered ghost, Fled with them; disunited orbs that late Were atoms of the universal frame, They pa.s.sed to some eternal fragment-heap.

And, lo, the G.o.ds, from s.p.a.ce discorporate, Who were its life and vital spirit, came, Drawn outward by the vampire-lips of Sleep!

THE NEMESIS OF SUNS

Lo, what are these, the gyres of sun and world, Fulfilled with daylight by each toiling sun-- Lo, what are these but webs of radiance spun Beneath the roof of Night, and torn or furled By Night at will? All opposite powers upwhirled Are less than chaff to this imperious one-- As wind-tossed chaff, until its sport be done, Scattered, and lifted up, and downward hurled.

All gyres are held within the path unspanned Of Night's aeonian compa.s.s--loosely pent As with the embrace of lethal-tightening weight; All suns are grasped within the hollow hand Of Night, the G.o.dhead sole, omnipotent, Whose other names are Nemesis and Fate.

WHITE DEATH

Methought the world was bound with final frost; The sun, made hueless as with fear and awe, Illumined yet the lands it could not thaw.

Then on my road, with instant evening crost, Death stood, and in its shadowy films enwound, Mine eyes forgot the light, until I came Where poured the inseparate, unshadowed flame Of phantom suns in self-irradiance drowned.

Death lay revealed in all its haggardness-- Immitigable wastes horizonless; Profundities that held nor bar nor veil; All hues wherewith the suns and worlds were dyed In light invariable nullified; All darkness rendered shelterless and pale.

RETROSPECT AND FORECAST

Turn round, O Life, and know with eyes aghast The breast that fed thee--Death, disguiseless, stern; Even now, within thy mouth, from tomb and urn, The dust is sweet. All nurture that thou hast Was once as thou, and fed with lips made fast On Death, whose sateless mouth it fed in turn.

Kingdoms debased, and thrones that starward yearn, All are but ghouls that batten on the past.

Monstrous and dread, must it fore'er abide, This unescapable alternity?