Page:Poets of John Company.djvu/131



I am the God of the sensuous fire
 * That moulds all Nature in forms divine;

The symbols of death and of man's desire,
 * The springs of change in the world, are mine;

The organs of birth and the circlet of bones, And the light loves carved on the temple stones.

I am the lord of delights and pain,
 * Of the pest that killeth, of fruitful joys;

I rule the currents of heart and vein;
 * A touch gives passion, a look destroys;

In the heat and cold of my lightest breath Is the might incarnate of Lust and Death.

If a thousand altars stream with blood
 * Of the victims slain by the chanting priest,

Is a great God lured by the savoury food?
 * I reck not of worship, or song, or feast;

But that millions perish, each hour that flies, Is the mystic sign of my sacrifice.

Ye may plead and pray for the millions born;
 * They come like dew on the morning grass;

Your vows and vigils I hold in scorn.
 * The soul stays never, the stages pass;

All life is the play of the power that stirs In the dance of my wanton worshippers.