Page:Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse by Paul Selver.djvu/317

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In a fluttering cloak I strained unto the gloom And upraised a melody from my breast, As the storm did the forest in enraptured shouting. In wild fire my arms outstretched themselves, Vehemently clutched the dancing turmoil And snatched it close to my throbbing breast So that my heart and the forest Beat wild and dark in a single stormy pulsing.— With my time-old abode in my arms I slowly glided into all my dark life, Deep, ever deeper, from abyss to abyss And through all reeling abysses, So that I saw myself swimming, creeping, and growling again, As at the dark beginning of time. As I sank down, my head was bowed Heavily upon the rim of Being, My mouth foamed, And twitched with a crazed smile of weeping,— For wormwood of life and power of the storm it had drunk. And like a dying lover Whose last thoughts gorge bleeding on his love, So my thoughts clutched storm and forest And were engulfed