The Purple Valleys

Far in the purple valleys of illusion
I see her waiting, like the soul of music,
With deep eyes, lovelier than cerulean pansies,
Shadow and fire, yet merciless as poison;
With red lips, sweeter than Arabian storax,
Yet bitterer than myrrh.—­O tears and kisses! 
O eyes and lips, that haunt my soul forever!

Again Spring walks transcendent on the mountains: 
The woods are hushed:  the vales are blue with shadows: 
Above the heights, steeped in a thousand splendors,
Like some vast canvas of the gods, hangs burning
The sunset’s wild sciography:  and slowly
The moon treads heaven’s proscenium,—­night’s stately
White queen of love and tragedy and madness.

Again I know forgotten dreams and longings;
Ideals lost; desires dead and buried
Beside the altar sacrifice erected
Within the heart’s high sanctuary.  Strangely
Again I know the horror and the rapture,
The utterless awe, the joy akin to anguish,
The terror and the worship of the spirit.

Again I feel her eyes pierce through and through me;
Her deep eyes, lovelier than imperial pansies,
Velvet and flame, through which her fierce will holds me,
Powerless and tame, and draws me on and onward
To sad, unsatisfied and animal yearnings,
Wild, unrestrained—­the brute within the human—­
To fling me panting on her mouth and bosom.

Again I feel her lips like ice and fire,
Her red lips, odorous as Arabian storax,
Fragrance and fire, within whose kiss destruction
Lies serpent-like.  Intoxicating languors
Resistlessly embrace me, soul and body;
And we go drifting, drifting—­she is laughing—­
Outcasts of God, into the deep’s abysm.

The Land of Illusion

I

So we had come at last, my soul and I,
  Into that land of shadowy plain and peak,
  On which the dawn seemed ever about to break
On which the day seemed ever about to die.

II

Long had we sought fulfillment of our dreams,
  The everlasting wells of Joy and Youth;
  Long had we sought the snow-white flow’r of Truth,
That blooms eternal by eternal streams.

III

And, fonder still, we hoped to find the sweet
  Immortal presence, Love; the bird Delight
  Beside her; and, eyed with sidereal night,
Faith, like a lion, fawning at her feet.

IV

But, scorched and barren, in its arid well,
  We found our dreams’ forgotten fountain-head;
  And by black, bitter waters, crushed and dead,
Among wild weeds, Truth’s trampled asphodel.

V

And side by side with pallid Doubt and Pain,
  Not Love, but Grief did meet us there:  afar
  We saw her, like a melancholy star,
Or pensive moon, move towards us o’er the plain.