In patience and sweet sufferance she lies, substance, nurse and genetrix of Life.
Her Song is heard, a mutter of music, low yet coalescent in slow estrangement from her lips.
I WAKE again!--O dauntless peaks that stand,
Watch-towers to all the Heavens--O vales that lie,--
See where I rise or stretch, the lusty land
Checks Seas and winnows Winds and frets the sky.
Deep in my vaulted heart and womb of fire,
And in the domes and chambers of my breasts,
The seeds of Life glow teeming--O Sun-king, sire!
Arch-quickener of Existence, gild these crests;--
Scatter thy warmth till harvest clothe these plains,
And I shall broider me in bridal dreams,
Yea, light my feast with blazonry, my veins
Leap like my crystal and tellurian streams.
In me bright blooms and golden fruitage blown
Shall mark where errant, immortal summers creep,
And man that is flesh of me, in every zone
Build jewelled towns where quick and dead shall sleep.
O fixed and faithful through the seasons round,
The throne of Earth, her sceptre and her loom,
Are mine, with mute, maternal glory crowned,
In me all Life shall flower, all Death re-bloom!
Child of the Sun, unmastered and insurgent pulse of Life; breath of the empyrean, seraph winged with ardours and with loveliness!
Comes Fire, pontiff celestial, King of Elements, errant angel, that basks and rejoices in his spaces.
He comes and takes from darkness and cold their undivided victories. Out of the famished sands he leaps, out of the crater's maw.
The genius of flame winds on, touching the peaks with consecration. His red and golden nakedness is crested with his sable clouds of hair.
Upward and onward he aspires. His crimson vans are spread against the heavens, his torches flutter, making glorious the funerals of the day. His feet are a scourge across the soil; his arms are lifted to the stars.
Co-eval with them he burns and sings with a thousand tongues.