I shall strike you without anger And without hate, as a butcher strikes, As Moses struck the rock! And from your opened eye, To water my Sahara, Shall flow the waters of our suffering. My desire, swelled with hopefulness, Upon your salt tears shall swim Like a vessel which moves to sea, And in my heart drugged by them Your dear sobs will sound Like a drum beating the advance! Am I not a dissonance In the divine symphony Thanks to the hungry Irony Which shakes me and which tears me? It is in my voice, screeching! It is my very blood, black poison! I am the hateful mirror Where the Fury scans herself! I am the wound and the knife! I am the blow and the cheek! I am the limbs and the wheel, And condemned and executioner! I am the vampire of my heart: One of the lost forever, Condemned to eternal laughter And who can never smile again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ADDRESS TO THE UNCO GUID, OR THE RIGIDLY RIGHTEOUS by ROBERT BURNS SHELTERED GARDEN by HILDA DOOLITTLE THE COW IN APPLE TIME by ROBERT FROST GEORGE CRABBE by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THE CLOUDED SOUL by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA CLIO, NINE ECLOGUES IN HONOUR OF NINE VIRTUES: 4. WORTHY MEMORY by WILLIAM BASSE THE LAST MAN: KISSES by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |