Through mystical wonder or fear to the Sphinx or the Minotaur dreaded.
There’s Persephone dying and rising, and Cerberus the dog many-headed.
We have thought it all through! Yet I say if a virtue Elysian
Resides in the doctrine I’ll leave off the goddess Ephesian;
Sell my tools, shut my shop, worship God in a way that is safer,
Make the Unknown the known! Have they shown you a magical wafer?
A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS
Act One
There was slight rain that afternoon,
And tempest in the apple trees;
But as the sun went down the moon
Sailed swiftly to a western breeze.
Day kindled something in your blood,
Your fancies roved with dove and hawk;
There was no promise in your mood
Nor soft assurance in your talk.
I felt you might mislead my trust
And slight a love too surely yours;
You were so wild, I felt you must
Be kindred to the woods and moors.
But when we passed the orchard through
The dusk had crept into the sky;
Your eyes betrayed a dream which grew
Until I thought I heard you sigh.
You were an ardent star that waited
For night to be yourself and show
How surely afternoon had fated
A love that nothing could forego.