Ebony and Crystal/Coldness

by Clark Ashton Smith

COLDNESS

Thy heart will not believe in love:Therefore is love become to meA dream, an empty mockery,And death and life are less than love.

O, bright and beautiful as flameThy hair, and pale thy lips, and eyesLike seas wherein the waning skiesOf autumn lie in paler flame.

Forevermore thy heart abides,A dreaming crystal, pure and cold,Amid whose visions manifoldNo shape nor any shade abides.

Thy days are void and vain as death:The moons and morrows weave for theeA sleep of light eternally,Where life is as a dream of death.

Chill as white jewels, or the moon,And virginal as ice or fire,Thou knowest life and life's desireAs a bright mirror knows the moon.

Lo, if thy heart believed in love,It were not more nor less to me:I know THY love a mockery,And all my dreams less vain than love.