Blue as is the house of shade, Close within whose lofty green Casements whose pellucid screen Seems of crystal moonlight made, Mighty vegetations rise, Whose nocturnal shadow deep Silent as a charmed sleep Over passion's roses lies; Where slow-rising waters gleam, Mingling moon and heaven, and throb In one eternal glaucous sob, Monotonously as in a dream. TEMPTATIONS Green as the sea, temptations creep Through the shadows of the mind, Where with flaming flowers entwined Dark ejaculations leap-- Stems obscure that coil and thrust In the moon's unhallowed glow, And the autumnal shadows throw Of their auguries of lust. And the moon may hardly shine Through their fevered fast embrace: Limb and slimy limb enlace, Emerald and serpentine. Sacrilegiously they grow, And their secret will reveal, Dismal as regrets that steal O'er men dying in the snow; And their mournful shadows hide Tangled wounds that mark the thrust Of the azure swords of lust In the crimson flesh of pride. When will the dreams of earth, alas, Find in my heart their final tomb? O let Thy glory, Lord, illume This dark and evil house of glass, And that oblivion nought may win! The dead leaves of their fevers fall, The stars between their lips, and all The visceræ of woe and sin! BELL-GLASSES O Domes of crystal! O curious plants forever sheltered, While the wind stirs my senses here without! A valley of the soul forever undisturbed! O humid warmth at noon! O shifting pictures glimpsed in the crystal walls! Never lift one of these! Some have been set upon ancient pools of moonlight. Peer through the prisoned foliage: There you may see a beggar upon a throne, Or maybe pirates, lurking upon a pond, Or antediluvian beasts about to invade the cities! Some have been set on ancient drifts of snow, And some on pools of rain long fallen. (O pity the imprisoned air!) I hear them keeping Carnival on a Sabbath in time of famine; I see an ambulance in the midst of the fields of harvest, And all the king's daughters, on a day of fast, Are wandering through the meadows! Mark more especially those on the horizon! Carefully they cover the tempests of long ago. Somewhere, I think, you will see a great armada, sailing across a swamp! And there the brooding swans have hatched a nest of crows! (It is hard to see through the veil of moisture.) And a maiden is watering the heath with steaming water, A troop of little girls is watching the hermit in his cell, And I see my sisters asleep in the depth of a poisonous cavern! Wait until the moonlight, wait until the winter Shall cover these domes of crystal set amid ice and snow! THE HUMBLE OFFERING