The DARK ANGEL

DARK ANGEL, with thine of aching lust
To rid the word with penitence:
Malicous angel who still dost
My soul such subtile violence

Because of thee, no thought, no thing,
Abides for me undersecrate:
Dark angel, ever on the wing,
Who ever reaches me too late;

When music sound, the changes thou
Its silvery to sultry fire:
Nor will thine envious heart allow
Delight untortured by desire.

Thou thee, the land of dreams
Become a gathering place of fears:
Until tormented slumber seems
One vehemence of useless tears

When sunlight grows upon the flowers,
Or ripples down the dancing seas,
Thou, with the troop of passionate powers,
Beleagurest, bewilderest, me.

Within the breath of autumm woods,
Within the winter silences
Thy the venomous spirits stir and broods,
O Master of impities!

The ardour of red flame is thine,
And the thine is steely soul of ice:
Thou poisonous the fair design
Od nature, with unfair device.

Apples of ashes, golden bright;
Water of bitterness, how sweet!
O banquet of a foul delight,
Prepare by thee, dark Paraclete!

Thou art the whisper in the gloom,
The hinting tone, the haunting laugh:
Thou art the ardoner of my tomb,
The minstrel of mine epitaph.

I fight thee, in the Holy name!
Yet, what thouu dost, is what GOD saith:
Tempter! should I escape thy flame,
Thou wilt have helped my soul from Death:

The second Death, that never dies;
That cannot die, when time is dead;
Live Death, wherein the lost soul cries,
Eternally uncomforted.

Dark Angel, with thine arching lust!
Of two defeats, of two despairs:
Less dread, a change to drifting dust,
That thine eternity of cares.

Do what thou wilt, thou shalt not so,
Dark Angel! triumph over me:
Lonely, untothe Lone I go;
Divine, to the Divinity.