Mandragora/Whiteness

by John Cowper Powys

WHITENESS

WHITE roses set in ivory urns,
   White violets wreathed in silver cups;
White marble founts whose moss and ferns,
   The shadow of the moon drink up.

Since I have known you and your ways,
   Things such as these are my delights.
A whiteness glimmers on my days,
   A whiteness hovers o'er my nights.

White dews, white crescent moons, white dawns,
   White flickering feet, white-gleaming hands,
White limbs that dream on twilight lawns,
   White limbs that dance on shimmering sands.

O child, O maiden-acolyte,
   Whose censer breathes such silvery breath,
Pour wine white as the flesh of Christ
   Upon the altar of white death!

Then all red things shall fade away —
   Red flame, red roses, and red blood,
And we shall voyage night and day
   The white sea of the tears of God.