The imperishable phantoms, Love and Fame,

Nor Beauty, burning on the mist and mire

A fugitive uncapturable fire,

Nor God, that is a darkness and a name—

Not these, not these my choric dreams acclaim,

But Death, the last and ultimate desire,

Great Death I praise with litany and lyre,

And sombre pray’r implacably the same.

O, incommunicable hope that lies

Deep in despair, as tapers that illume