XXXI
COMRADES
Yet for the honourable felicity
Of comradeship I can be chivalrous,
And through love's transmutations fierily
Constant as the gemmed paladin Sirius
To that fair pact. We go, gay challengers,
Beneath dark rampires of forbidden thought,
Thread life's dim gardens masked like revellers
Where dreams of roses red are dearly bought.
We shall ride haughtily as bright Crusaders,
As hooded palmers fare with humbled hearts,
And we shall find, adoring blithe invaders,
The City of Seven Towers, of Seven Arts.—
Then the Last Quest, (lead you the dreadful way!)
Among the unimagined Nebulae!
XXXII
THE SUM OF THINGS
TO ANOTHER WOMAN
Well, I am tired, who fared to divers ends,
And you are not, who kept the beaten path;
But mystic Vintagers have been my friends,
Even Love and Death and Sin and Pride and Wrath.
Wounded am I, you are immaculate;
But great Adventurers were my starry guides:
From God's Pavilion to the Flaming Gate
Have I not ridden as an immortal rides?
And your dry soul crumbles by dim degrees
To final dust quite happily, it appears,
While all the sweetness of her nectaries
Can only stand within my heart like tears.
O throbbing wounds, rich tears, and splendour spent,—
Ye are all my spoil, and I am well content.