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.