Let not my day be disputed!
The Phœnix
Finds her nest in the furnace, aflame with blistering light;
The enraptured lark soars upward towards the sky,
Yes, and the infinite fields of shining air
Overflow with the passionate cry of that throbbing cluster of plumes!
And it is thus I also rise, not like a little bird,
But like the Sphinx, shrilling momentous cries, the flying horse, woman-breasted, eagle-taloned!
—I shall not live for you, but you must live for me.
And that is why I stand alone before you like a virgin.