Cassandra

Heliodora (1924)

O Hymen king.

Hymen, O Hymen king,what bitter thing is this?what shaft, tearing my heart?what scar, what light, what firesearing my eye-balls and my eyes with flame?nameless, O spoken name,king, lord, speak blameless Hymen.

Why do you blind my eyes?why do you dart and pulsetill all the dark is home,then find my souland ruthless draw it back?scaling the scaleless,opening the dark?speak, nameless, power and might;when will you leave me quite?when will you break my wingsor leave them utterly freeto scale heaven endlessly?

A bitter, broken thing,my heart, O Hymen lord,yet neither drought nor swordbaffles men quite,why must they feign to fearmy virgin glance?feigned utterly or realwhy do they shrink?my trance frightens them,breaks the dance,empties the market-place;if I but pass they fallback, frantically;must always people mock?unless they shrink and reelas in the templeat your uttered will.

O Hymen king,lord, greatest, power, might,look for my face is dark,burnt with your light,your fire, O Hymen lord;is there none leftcan equal mein ecstasy, desire?is there none leftcan bear with methe kiss of your white fire?is there not one,Phrygian or frenzied Greek,poet, song-swept, or bard,one meet to take from methis bitter power of song,one fit to speak, Hymen,your praises, lord?

May I not wedas you have wed?may it not break, beauty,from out my hands, my head, my feet?may Love not lie beside metill his heatburn me to ash?may he not comfort me, then,spent of all that fire and heat,still, ashen-white and coolas the wet laurels,white, before your feetstep on the mountain-slope,before your fiery handlift up the mantlecovering flower and land,as a man lifts,O Hymen, from his bride,(cowering with woman eyes,) the veil?O Hymen lord, be kind.

from Heliodora (1924)