II

The gentle harmonies of love declined,
And swooned into a dull, funereal moan,
And faintly floated onward with the wind.
The symphony was gone; I stayed alone
In all-enshrouding, opiate sadness bound.
I did not scream; I did not weep nor groan.
My soul was locked in stupor whence it found
Only barred gates across dim vaults; and jangling,
Discordant chaos stung me like a wound.
I could not think; I could not hope; the wrangling
Of jarring sounds oppressed me till my brain
Was lost within a labyrinth, all-entangling—
But this I learned although my powers did wane;
That Love through Death transmutes itself to pain.

III

I sank my soul upon a sea of dreams;
I floated through aërial heights divine
Where saffron clouds a-glint with amber beams
Shimmering strangely, stretched in shining line.
I winged my way to Heaven's very dome,
And on Hell's portal read the horrid sign;
I danced upon the wavelet's crested foam,
And swept tempestuous on the stormy wind.
On earth like some vague terror, did I roam
While moaning misery pursued behind.
Whene'er I sang, my song had one refrain
With anxious care and artifice refined,
Until my soul's accompaniment would wane
And wax to one motiv: unending pain.

IV

I broke my dungeon-sepulchre of dreams;
I climbed the winding stair to palace halls
Where all the air was soothed by incense-streams;
And every sight within those magic walls
Was bright with radiant, opalescent sheen
While lulling on the ear, light music falls
Of such a melody as ne'er has been
Unless by fays on fairy lyres played.
There Pleasure gowned in iridescent green,
Reclines upon her couch with gems inlaid,
And gently beckons with a sinuous arm—
But all the sumptuous excesses fade;
The walls seem dim; the music has no charm,
For Pleasure's Palace is a place of harm.