"All my youth was in the sere,
Dim the eye and deaf the ear
Unto beauty until now;
Rahab, harken to my vow:
"Give me vision, give me sense
Of lost beauty's immanence—
Give me these and I will pay,
Careless of what gossips say,
"All you ask in turn for this:
Soul of you within one Kiss!"
Rahab's eyes were suddenly
Misted over, and to me
Came her whisper: "O my Heart!
Take the minstrel's gift—his art—
With my lips on yours; the price
Be your spirit's sacrifice—
"Pain of vision! You shall know
Summits of eternal snow,
Depths of fire! You shall be torn,
Twixt the twilight and the morn,
"By strange dreams of angel-faces
Bending from their starry places,
Blent with devils out of hell!"
Rahab kissed me—! Lo, there fell
Veils of violet and gold
From the sunset—fold on fold—
Till the tangled vines were caught
And with mist the fields were fraught;
Notes that I had never heard
In the tall bulrushes stirred,
Trembled from the swaying trees,
Fluting strange, wild melodies.
Rahab's kiss and tender glance
Taught me earth's significance;
Opened wide eternal doors,
Where the flood of beauty pours
Out of heaven! out of God!
Quickening the stone and clod,
Leaf and shrub and bird and beast
For the artist—nature's priest,