Page:Poems by Isaac Rosenberg (1922).djvu/99



Space beats the ruddy freedom of their limbs, Their naked dances with man's spirit naked By the root side of the tree of life (The under side of things And shut from earth's profoundest eyes).

I saw in prophetic gleams These mighty daughters in their dances Beckon each soul aghast from its crimson corpse To mix in their glittering dances: I heard the mighty daughters’ giant sighs In sleepless passion for the sons of valour And envy of the days foof [sic] flesh, Barring their love with mortal boughs across— The mortal boughs, the mortal tree of life. The old bark burnt with iron wars They blow to a live flame To char the young green days And reach the occult soul; they have no softer lure, No softer lure than the savage ways of death.