To Tithonus

The saplings grow, the saplings grow and bloom,

Mine light peeps at the womb of the earth

Where Man finds feed and rests -- and sleeps --

And another seed bursts from his heart.

Me accursed by my nature

To lust and rise: as quotidian qualms

Foresay at the quiet limit of the world,

Still rosy I beside thy brooding visage,

In the ever-shining spaces of the East,

Our silver chambers, and goady halls of morn.

Alas! for this lusty dame, once a maiden --

So glorious in her beauty and her choice,

Who plucketh thee as her chosen, as it seem'd

That this handsome of Ilion must be a God!

I beg'd the All-Father,

When didst thou durst for immortality, asking with a smile,

Like litigant lasses, who care not how they receive.

But the wronging Fates' insidious threads'd done their deed

And wrinkled and marr'd and soil'd thee,

Leaving a shell of thy self, shamed

To dwell in presence of thy foolish love,

Foolish Man beside foolish God,

And all I was, heartbroken. Render'd in love,

My haughty nature sealed thee here; even now,

Close over me, my prodigies -- the stars --

Watch me weep with wistful eyes, which fears

To hear thee. Thou art mine, shan't pacts

'Twixt Lovers be rescinded in any way;

Thou aren’t Man, thou art my reverence --

And to let thee leave would be sacrilege

Where I won't pause, as is meet for thee.

The nebulae cleave and apart; there, see,

A glimpse of thy home where thou wert born.

Once more, an old mysterious glimmer kills

The peace of my eyelids, and as my shoulders shudder

And bosom beating with a heart so crude,

My cheeks lace with tears watching ruins of Ilion

Stretch out in my shadows so sensual to thine,

Ere they remind the stars of Troy's dreams;

For I love thee, yearning for thy peace and prize,

And I'd rather loosen and shake Godhood's chains,

Than let thee slake into ashes left by fire.

Lo! ever thus my love growest dutiful

In defiance, 'fore my lips love-stricken

Departest, and my tears are on thy cheek.

Why dost thou fear my beauty and tears,

Lamenting days far-off as lost juvenescent,

That in days to come by, I'd care for you not?

I ought not, for thou art to me, still mine.

Nay, I say, nay! with my whole heart

In days far-off, I loved thine eyes,

I loved thy watch -- as I too did watch --

The limpid grace of thy round pupils; saw

Thy rosy lips cradle a heart-rending smile;

Constant they are, thy eyes, thy heart and all

Still livid as thou live thy blessed curse,

With majesty and mettle, while I lay,

Mouth, foreheads, eyelids kissing thine warm

With kisses sweeter than half-knowing bards'

Musics, and could hear thy groans that miss,

Whispering thou know not of days to-come,

Like strange mortals with Hestia's boons,

Who fear peril where there null that is.

My East and my breasts shall hold thee ever,

'Til Zeus, in mercy, rejuvenate soul thy.

Then happily we will bathe in company

With all my lights, thou wilt hold my steed

Upon these glistening stairs, and when plight

Floats up from mortals 'bout their homes,

We shall live together in our abode,

And grief and sorrow shall elude us.

Till then, Love, pray stay with me in my place

And seëth all things, till Zeus does give

In to my beauty as I charm Him morn by morn --

Dawn, laying bare without modesty,

To return thee thy peaceful smile.