Hell and Heaven
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In the silence of the night-time, In the grey and formless eve When the thought is plagued with loveless Memories that it cannot leave,
When the dawn makes sudden beauty Of a peevish clouded sky, And the rain is sobbing slowly And the wind makes weird reply,
Always comes her face before me And her voice is in my ear, Beautiful and sad and cruel With the azure eyes austere.
Cloudy figure once so luminous With the light and life within When the soul came rippling outwards And the red lips laughed at sin,
Com’st thou with that marble visage From what world instinct with pain Where we pay the price of passion By a law our hearts disdain?
Cast it from thee, O thou goddess! Earning with a smile release From these sad imaginations, Rise into celestial peace.
Travel from the loveless places That our mortal fears create, Where thy natural heavens claim thee And the gods, thy brothers, wait.
Then descend to me grown radiant, Lighting up terrestrial ground With the feet that brighten heaven When the mighty dance goes round Page-93 And the high Gods beating measure Tread the maze that keeps the stars Circling in their luminous orbits Through the eternal thoroughfares.
All below is but confusion Of desires that strive and cry, Some forbidden, some achieving Anguish after ecstasy.
But above our radiant station Is from which by doubt we fell, Reaching only after Heaven And achieving only Hell.
Let the heart be king and master, Let the brain exult and toil, Disbelieve in good and evil, God with Nature reconcile.
Therefore, O rebellious sweetness, Thou tookst arms for joy and love. There achieve them! Take possession Of our radiant seats above. Page-94 |