Long have I tarried, yet to me cries
The flame that follows the flame that dies;
I pass — but worship me, hold me still,
Body and soul inseparable....’ ”
The flame that follows the flame that dies;
I pass — but worship me, hold me still,
Body and soul inseparable....’ ”
I asked: “Didst thou then find thy bliss
In Phrixæ or at Sybaris?”
In Phrixæ or at Sybaris?”
He moaned, “Not there....not there! I found
A god arisen, blithe and crowned,
Beautiful, on a fadeless plinth
Of poppy-flowers and hyacinth;
And as I passed the city wall
One on a tower began to call:
‘Lo, an impostor comes to us,
The Lydian Dionysius,
Bound as with vines, his eyelids gold,
God-like and marvellous to behold.
Beware! The sculptured cities dim
That sang and bowed and burned for him,
They, that in shadowy, silver spring
Uprose with moth-like murmuring
To obscure lust, to inverse night,
They knew him....this Hermaphrodite!’ ”
A god arisen, blithe and crowned,
Beautiful, on a fadeless plinth
Of poppy-flowers and hyacinth;
And as I passed the city wall
One on a tower began to call:
‘Lo, an impostor comes to us,
The Lydian Dionysius,
Bound as with vines, his eyelids gold,
God-like and marvellous to behold.
Beware! The sculptured cities dim
That sang and bowed and burned for him,
They, that in shadowy, silver spring
Uprose with moth-like murmuring
To obscure lust, to inverse night,
They knew him....this Hermaphrodite!’ ”
I said: “He lied unto them then.
For thou hast ever been to men
That which with unsustained despair
For thou hast ever been to men
That which with unsustained despair
10
