Immortal beauty and immortal pain, Terror and mystery and dream fulfil This archetypal bondsman.—Strive thou till Thy swoon is rent, thy Passion is all vain, And in thy trance thou knowest it is vain. Oh! let the drug of dreams, then, work its will: The Bondsman and his bonds must marry still, The Spirit and the Flesh be one and twain. See! Interwoven in the fatal knot, Confounded as a bridegroom with the bride, The beauty of the soul would rend and flee The beauty of the body. Ah! let be! For God Himself the mortal tangle tied, And how to loose He hath Himself forgot. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENVOYS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON VIOLET'S WAFERS, SENT ME WHEN I WAS ILL by SIDNEY LANIER THINGS ARE WHAT THEY SEEM by MARIANNE MOORE TO A MAN WORKING HIS WAY THROUGH THE CROWD by MARIANNE MOORE HEART'S FIRST WORD (2) by ISAAC ROSENBERG MODERN PARAPHRASE OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNET 29 by GEORGE SANTAYANA |