With masks of gold, with leaves of bronze,
The pallidest of myrmidons,
Where low and lordly slept the same;
But not my spirit, drenched in flame,
Was vanquished. Overhead
Something moaned long rememberèd,
The sound of water that abides,
Refluent with the curving tides,
Clasped and caressed me as a gem
Effaced upon a diadem....
It was the sea! Where dusk had been,
The water filtered blue and green;
Then I began to cry and stir,
Unveiled in fronds of gossamer,
And called my mother’s name aloud,
Lightless in her liquescent shroud.
But where the dolphins of the deep
Passed me on azure chasms of sleep,
I felt the imminent years that bring
The tyrannous leash, the broken wing,
Till white upon my whitening grave
Swung me the low, sequestered wave;
Sibilant, sheer and huge to cover,
Exultant, the disdaining lover.
But in the flower-heavy bounds,
Memory and memory of sounds,
Music that fell from lyres long-passed
Came with the sleep that comes at last,
The pallidest of myrmidons,
Where low and lordly slept the same;
But not my spirit, drenched in flame,
Was vanquished. Overhead
Something moaned long rememberèd,
The sound of water that abides,
Refluent with the curving tides,
Clasped and caressed me as a gem
Effaced upon a diadem....
It was the sea! Where dusk had been,
The water filtered blue and green;
Then I began to cry and stir,
Unveiled in fronds of gossamer,
And called my mother’s name aloud,
Lightless in her liquescent shroud.
But where the dolphins of the deep
Passed me on azure chasms of sleep,
I felt the imminent years that bring
The tyrannous leash, the broken wing,
Till white upon my whitening grave
Swung me the low, sequestered wave;
Sibilant, sheer and huge to cover,
Exultant, the disdaining lover.
But in the flower-heavy bounds,
Memory and memory of sounds,
Music that fell from lyres long-passed
Came with the sleep that comes at last,
24
