Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/110

100 Finds an incarnate nature, and fulfills

Its heavenly vigor, shines, and triumphs most;

So, form by form, it mounts eternal life.

Let passion fail, and that keen sight be lost,

Soon with defect comes dissolution on,

Progressive ugliness and foul decay;

Depraved, deformed, disorganized, and dull,

One with its form disintegrate, it sinks

And vanishes, withdrawn into the deep

That inexhaustibly pours forth fair forms.

Hence, ere they come!" He pointed with his wand

Where streamed a troop of Mænads through the wood,

Tumultuous breasts, with torches and with cries,

And with his gesture made the Roamer dark,

While yet remote the leopard-skins went by,

Mottled like shadows of deep forest dells,

And the hoar wood with dying frenzies rang:

"Woe to Adonis! Dionysus, woe!"

He raised the pine-cone, as a wine-cup up,

At the dread name; unseen, they echoed on,—

"Woe to the singer, Orpheus!" mystic calls.

"Thy way is lost; there is no harbor here.

To each his fate! I read thy brow." The eyes

Of the dark spirit, wells of wonder, burned.

"Keep thou the heights! Follow the water-course,—