Thorgerda


 * LO, what a golden day it is!
 * The glad sun rives the sapphire deeps
 * Down to the dim pearl-floor&#8217;d abyss
 * Where, cold in death, my lover sleeps;


 * Crowns with soft fire his sea-drench&#8217;d hair,
 * Kisses with gold his lips death-pale,
 * Lets down from heaven a golden stair,
 * Whose steps methinks his soul doth scale.


 * This is my treasure. White and sweet,
 * He lies beneath my ardent eyne,
 * With heart that nevermore shall beat,
 * Nor lips press softly against mine.


 * How like a dream it seems to me,
 * The time when hand in hand we went
 * By hill and valley, I and he,
 * Lost in a trance of ravishment!


 * I and my lover here that lies
 * And sleeps the everlasting sleep,
 * We walk&#8217;d whilere in Paradise;
 * (Can it be true?) Our souls drank deep


 * Together of Love&#8217;s wonder-wine:
 * We saw the golden days go by,
 * Unheeding, for we were divine;
 * Love had advanced us to the sky.


 * And of that time no traces bin,
 * Save the still shape that once did hold
 * My lover&#8217;s soul, that shone therein,
 * As wine laughs in a vase of gold.


 * Cold, cold he lies, and answers not
 * Unto my speech; his mouth is cold
 * Whose kiss to mine was sweet and hot
 * As sunshine to a marigold.


 * And yet his pallid lips I press;
 * I fold his neck in my embrace;
 * I rain down kisses none the less
 * Upon his unresponsive face:


 * I call on him with all the fair
 * Flower-names that blossom out of love;
 * I knit sea-jewels in his hair;
 * I weave fair coronals above


 * The cold, sweet silver of his brow:
 * For this is all of him I have;
 * Nor any Future more than now
 * Shall give me back what Love once gave.


 * For from Death&#8217;s gate our lives divide;
 * His was the Galilean&#8217;s faith:
 * With those that serve the Crucified,
 * He shar&#8217;d the chance of Life and Death.


 * And so my eyes shall never light
 * Upon his star-soft eyes again;
 * Nor ever in the day or night,
 * By hill or valley, wood or plain,


 * Our hands shall meet afresh. His voice
 * Shall never with its silver tone
 * The sadness of my soul rejoice,
 * Nor his breast throb against my own.


 * His sight shall never unto me
 * Return whilst heaven and earth remain:
 * Though Time blend with Eternity,
 * Our lives shall never meet again,&#8212;


 * Never by gray or purple sea,
 * Never again in heavens of blue,
 * Never in this old earth&#8212;ah me!
 * Never, ah never! in the new.


 * For me, he treads the windless ways
 * Among the thick star-diamonds,
 * Where in the middle æther blaze
 * The Golden City&#8217;s pearl gate-fronds;


 * Sitteth, palm-crown&#8217;d and silver-shod,
 * Where in strange dwellings of the skies
 * The Christians to their Woman-God
 * Cease nevermore from psalmodies.


 * And I, I wait, with haggard eyes
 * And face grown awful for desire,
 * The coming of that fierce day&#8217;s rise
 * When from the cities of the fire


 * The Wolf shall come with blazing crest,
 * And many a giant arm&#8217;d for war;
 * When from the sanguine-streaming West,
 * Hell-flaming, speedeth Naglfar.