Clad in pale green and rose,
Her thin face flickers, glows,
Tempestuous flame.
Horrid and harsh she goes,
Speaks, trembles, wakes and knows
How pale is the shame!
Grows vast and cloudy and is
The whole mouth's sobbing kiss,
And crushes me with bliss
Beyond a name.
Then fall i from exess
Of bitter ecstasies,
Pale ghosts of blood,
To worlds where palaces
Shine through dim memories
Of flower and flood,
Shine in pale opal and pearl,
Void of bright boy or girl,
Desolate halls that furl
Their shapes subdued.
The dreadful bridal won,
The demon banquet done,
My flesh let loose:
Rises a strange red sun,
A sight to slay or stun:
Sepulchral dews
Fall from the rayless finger probe
My golden folded robe,
My souls misuse.
And in that thankless shape
Vines grow without a grape,
Thorns roseless spring.
Nay! there is no escape:
The yawing portals gape,
The orbed ring
As by a whirlpool drawn
Into that devil dawn:
I shrink and shriek and fawn
Upon the thing.
Ha! in the desperate pang
And subtle stroke and fang
Of hateful kisses
Whence devilish laughter sprang,
Close to me with a clang
The brazen abysses.
The leopard coloured jaw
Hides me in the glutless maw
Crown of ten blisses!
For all the vision world
Is closed on me and curled
Into the deep
Of my slow soul, and hurled
Through lampless lands, and furled,
Sharp folds and steep:
Till all unite in one,
Seven planets in the sun,
And i am deeplier done
Into full sleep.
