flattered pride,
     Mind, which nourished not by light,
     Lurks the shuffling trickster sprite: 
     Whereof are strange tales to tell;
     Some in blood writ, tombed in bell. 
     Here the ancient battle ends,
     Joining two astonished friends,
     Who the kiss can give and take
     With more warmth than in that world
     Where the tiger claws the snake,
     Snake her tiger clasps infurled,
     And the issue of their fight
     People lands in snarling plight. 
     Here her splendid beast she leads
     Silken-leashed and decked with weeds
     Wild as he, but breathing faint
     Sweetness of unfelt constraint. 
     Love, the great volcano, flings
     Fires of lower Earth to sky;
     Love, the sole permitted, sings
     Sovereignly of me and I.
     Bowers he has of sacred shade,
     Spaces of superb parade,
     Voiceful . . .  But bring you a note
     Wrangling, howsoe’er remote,
     Discords out of discord spin
     Round and round derisive din: 
     Sudden will a pallor pant
     Chill at screeches miscreant;
     Owls or spectres, thick they flee;
     Nightmare upon horror broods;
     Hooded laughter, monkish glee,
     Gaps the vital air. 
     Enter these enchanted woods
     You who dare.

     IV

     You must love the light so well
     That no darkness will seem fell. 
     Love it so you could accost
     Fellowly a livid ghost. 
     Whish! the phantom wisps away,
     Owns him smoke to cocks of day. 
     In your breast the light must burn
     Fed of you, like corn in quern
     Ever plumping while the wheel
     Speeds the mill and drains the meal. 
     Light to light sees little strange,
     Only features heavenly new;
     Then you touch the nerve of Change,
     Then of Earth you have the clue;
     Then her two-sexed meanings melt
     Through you, wed the thought and felt. 
     Sameness locks no scurfy pond
     Here for Custom, crazy-fond: 
     Change is on the wing to bud
     Rose in brain from rose in blood. 
     Wisdom throbbing shall you see
     Central in complexity;
     From her pasture ’mid the beasts
     Rise to her ethereal feasts,
     Not, though lightnings track your wit
     Starward, scorning them you quit: 
     For be sure the bravest wing
     Preens it in our common spring,
     Thence along the vault to soar,
     You with others, gathering more,
     Glad of more, till you reject
     Your proud title of elect,
     Perilous even here while few
     Roam the arched greenwood with you. 
     Heed that snare. 
     Muffled by his cavern-cowl
     Squats the scaly Dragon-fowl,
     Who was lord ere light you drank,
     And lest blood of knightly rank
     Stream, let not your