FROM what moon-meadow shall we cull The honey of Theocritus? Earth holds but little cheer for us, All tender blossoms dear to us Life tramples like a maddened bull. Therefore thy mouth is amorous But of some strange red dream that was, O infinitely beautiful, And infinitely piteous! What vague progenitors affirm Through thee some perished Circe's art, And plant the deadly cankerworm In the white rose that is thy heart? Bid to the banquets of my brain By what ancestral prompter's cue Hie hooded shapes of sin and pain, With all their ghastly retinue? What girl whose lips were sweet to hire, Bruised with what kisses that destroy, What frail, pale lad who played with fire And made of love a barren toy, What hoary grim voluptuary Who hunted pleasure as his quarry, Foredrained the cup of my desire, And spilt unpoured thy wine of joy? Was there a dim pre-natal hour Ere spear-armed fancies sallied hence, Like priests of Baal, to deflower Thine unpolluted innocence? What goddess mad with what strange ire Fills stainless heart of maid or boy With the love-weariness of Tyre And all the secret lusts of Troy That smoulder in life's dismal pyre? Madonna nailed unto the tree 0f some perverse fatality For sins of others long ago, Thou art my tragic Columbine, I am thy tearful Pierrot! But being human, not divine, There are two masters strong enough To make us glad, and one is Love. The other has a fetid breath... Ah let him tarry! Choose not -- Death! From my own Calvary I scanned Thy sorrow. I am love. My hand Holds the great chalice red with wine, And my young soul is seared as thine! The self-same sword has pierced my side, With the same lusts my blood abounds, And I must love thee for thy wounds Because I too am crucified. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MOUNTAIN by HAYDEN CARRUTH IN EQUAL SACRIFICE by ROBERT FROST WHAT I'VE BELIEVED IN by JAMES GALVIN FLUTE-PRIEST SONG FOR RAIN; CEREMONIAL AT THE SUN SPRING by AMY LOWELL SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: IMANUEL EHRENHARDT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS GENEVIEVE AND ALEXANDRA (2) by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON OCTAVES: 15 by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON IN THE TRENCHES by ISAAC ROSENBERG CLASS SONG (WHICH WILL BE SUNG ON THE 22ND OF FEBRUARY) by GEORGE SANTAYANA |