Two Songs from a Play

    I saw a staring virgin¹ stand

    Where holy Dionysus died，

    And tear the heart out of his side，

    And lay the heart upon her hand

    And bear that beating heart away；

    And then did all the Muses² sing

    Of Magnus Annus at the spring，

    As though God‘s death were but a play.

    Another Troy must rise and set，

    Another lineage feed the crow，

    Another Argo‘s painted prow³

    Drive to a flashier bauble⁴ yet.

    The Roman Empire stood appalled⁵：

    It dropped the reins⁶ of peace and war

    When that fierce virgin and her Star

    Out of the fabulous⁷ darkness called.

    II

    In pity for man‘s darkening thought

    He walked that room and issued thence

    In Galilean turbulence⁸；

    The Babylonian starlight brought

    A fabulous， formless darkness in；

    Odour of blood when Christ was slain⁹

    Made all Platonic¹⁰ tolerance¹¹ vain

    And vain all Doric discipline.

    Everything that man esteems¹²

    Endures a moment or a day.

    Love‘s pleasure drives his love away，

    The painter‘s brush consumes his dreams；

    The herald‘s cry， the soldier’s tread

    Exhaust his glory and his might：

    Whatever flames upon the night

    Man‘s own resinous¹³ heart has fed.