"The heart I stare in
Is black as night,"
He said, "but therein
There burns a light.
White hands encore it
To guard its grace,
And strangely o'er it
Bends a still face.
"Small light—great wonder!
Through all my hall
You flash asunder
The murky pall.
Walls grow unreal—
All Hell a wraith,—
Oh white, ideal
Flame of her faith!"
"Here I surrender,
White flame of trust!
Knave, strike some splendor
From this your dust.
Oh gross, weak, dumb thing,
Rise—dare a part!
For here—is something
That breaks my heart!"
THE ADORATION
Now, like withdrawing music
Where pillared aisles implore,
You are a vanished choir,
A soft-closed door.
Victorious voices blended
Fade, and I kneel still-hearted.
Sudden my life is ended.
We have parted.
Lost in the vault's vast splendor
My ghost goes rising, thinning.
Can heartbreak be an end, or
Some strange beginning?
TALISMAN
Each cup shall be broken,
Each tower shall fall,
All drink be bitter,
Bitter as gall,
The dark heart go lonely—
Save for one tower,
One cyathus only,
One wine of power!
My love's white beauty
Is this tower,
The wine of her beauty
My wine of power,
The cup of her spirit
Mine to drain
With awful knowledge
And trembling pain.