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Malâ soluta navis exit alite.
HOR.
Rigged with curses dark. |
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I.
GOLD, and fair marbles, and again more gold,And space of halls afloat that glance and gleam Like the green heights of sunset heaven, or seem The golden steeps of sunrise red and cold On deserts where dark exile keeps the fold Fast of the flocks of torment, where no beam Falls of kind light or comfort save in dream, These we far off behold not, who behold The cordage woven of curses, and the decks With mortal hate and mortal peril paven; From stem to stern the lines of doom engraven That mark for sure inevitable wrecks Those sails predestinate, though no storm vex, To miss on earth and find in hell their haven.
II.
All curses be about her, and all illGo with her; heaven be dark above her way, The gulf beneath her glad and sure of prey, And, wheresoe’er her prow be pointed, still The winds of heaven have all one evil will Conspirant even as hearts of kings to slay With mouths of kings to lie and smile and pray, And chiefliest his whose wintrier breath makes chill With more than winter’s and more poisonous cold The horror of his kingdom toward the north, The deserts of his kingdom toward the east. And though death hide not in her direful hold Be all stars adverse toward her that come forth Nightly, by day all hours till all have ceased:
II.
Till all have ceased for ever, and the sumBe summed of all the sumless curses told Out on his head by all dark seasons rolled Over its cursed and crowned existence, dumb And blind and stark as though the snows made numb All sense within it, and all conscience cold, That hangs round hearts of less imperial mould Like a snake feeding till their doomsday come. O heart fast bound of frozen poison, be All nature’s as all true men’s hearts to thee, A two-edged sword of judgment; hope be far And fear at hand for pilot oversea With death for compass and despair for star, And the white foam a shroud for the White Czar. September 30, 1880. |