Poems 1905-1908

Second Best

Day that I Have Loved

Sleeping Out: Full Moon

In Examination

Pine-Trees and the Sky: Evening

Wagner

The Vision of the Archangels

Seaside

On the Death of Smet-Smet, the Hippopotamus-Goddess

The Song of the Pilgrims

The Song of the Beasts

Failure

Ante Aram

Dawn

The Call

The Wayfarers

The Beginning

 

The Call

Out of the nothingness of sleep,
   The slow dreams of Eternity,
There was a thunder on the deep:
   I came, because you called to me.

I broke the Night's primeval bars,
   I dared the old abysmal curse,
And flashed through ranks of frightened stars
   Suddenly on the universe!

The eternal silences were broken;
   Hell became Heaven as I passed. --
What shall I give you as a token,
   A sign that we have met, at last?

I'll break and forge the stars anew,
   Shatter the heavens with a song;
Immortal in my love for you,
   Because I love you, very strong.

Your mouth shall mock the old and wise,
   Your laugh shall fill the world with flame,
I'll write upon the shrinking skies
   The scarlet splendour of your name,

Till Heaven cracks, and Hell thereunder
   Dies in her ultimate mad fire,
And darkness falls, with scornful thunder,
   On dreams of men and men's desire.

Then only in the empty spaces,
   Death, walking very silently,
Shall fear the glory of our faces
   Through all the dark infinity.

So, clothed about with perfect love,
   The eternal end shall find us one,
Alone above the Night, above
   The dust of the dead gods, alone.