Arthur Symons (1865-1945)
- The Temptation of Saint Anthony
- The Prodigal Son
- The Nun
- The Absinthe-Drinker
- Nerves
- The Caged Bird
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
(After a Design by Félicien Rops)
- The Cross, the Cross is tainted! O most Just,
- Be merciful, and save me from this snare.
- The Tempter lures me as I bend in prayer
- Before the sacred symbol of our Trust.
- Yea, the most Holy of Holies feeds my lust,
- The body of thy Christ; for, unaware,
- Even as I kneel and pray, lo, She is there,
- The Temptress, she the wanton; and she hath thrust
- The Christ's bruised body off, and all her own,
- Shameless, she stretches on the cross, arms wide,
- Limbs pendent, in libidinous mockery.
- She draws mine eyes to hers—ah, sin unknown!
- She smiles, she triumphs; but the Crucified
- Falls off into the darkness with a cry.
The Prodigal Son
- I will arise, and leave these haggard realms,
- The nether fire's breath spots the rusty grass,
- The insatiate hunger of the blight o'erwhelms
- The lean year's barren promise. Let me pass,
- O woman, from the hold of hell and thee!
- What have I done that thou should'st hold me so?
- In Love's name, loosen me and set me free;
- If not for love, in pity let me go.
- Why should I linger? for the land is bare,
- And wings of famine labour up the wind.
- Already I have wasted all my share
- Of living bread: the husks remain behind,
- Husks that the swine do eat. And must I wait,
- Weary and famished, fallen and desolate?
The Nun
- She lies upon the cold stone of her cell,
- And the night deepens; and the night is chill,
- Fasting and faint, she nerves her flagging will,
- Remembering the inevitable hell,
- Yet still her lover's voice she hears too well,
- And "Love, Love, Love," she hears and answers still.
- The Christ looms high against an angry hill,
- Her heart and Love would roam a lowly dell.
- Fasting and faint she lies. The shepherd Night
- Leads the calm stars across his plains like sheep.
- Earth slumbers. When shall slumber seal her eyes,
- Who, crying with lamentations infinite,
- "Heaven, heaven!" yet, ineradicably deep,
- Hides in her heart an alien Paradise?
The Absinthe-Drinker
- Gently I wave the visible world away.
- Far off, I hear a roar, afar yet near,
- Far off and strange, a voice is in my ear,
- And is the voice my own? the words I say
- Fall strangely, like a dream, across the day;
- And the dim sunshine is a dream. How clear,
- New as the world to lovers' eyes, appear
- The men and women passing on their way!
- The world is very fair. The hours are all
- Linked in a dance of mere forgetfulness.
- I am at peace with God and man. O glide,
- Sands of the hour-glass that I count not, fall
- Serenely: scarce I feel your soft caress.
- Rocked on this dreamy and indifferent tide.
Nerves
- The modern malady of love is nerves.
- Love, once a simple madness, now observes
- The stages of his passionate disease,
- And is twice sorrowful because he sees,
- Inch by inch entering, the fatal knife.
- O health of simple minds, give me your life,
- And let me, for one midnight, cease to hear
- The clock for ever ticking in my ear,
- The clock that tells the minutes in my brain.
- It is not love, nor love's despair, this pain
- That shoots a witless, keener pang across
- The simple agony of love and loss.
- Nerves, nerves! O folly of a child who dreams
- Of heaven, and, waking in the darkness, screams.
The Caged Bird
- A year ago I asked you for your soul;
- I took it in my hands, it weighed as light
- As any bird's wing, it was poised for flight,
- It was a wandering thing without a goal.
- I caged it, and I tended it; it throve;
- Wise ways I taught it; it forgot to fly;
- It learnt to know its cage, its keeper; I,
- Its keeper, taught it that the cage was love.
- And now I take my bird out of the cage,
- It flutters not a feather, looks at me
- Sadly, without desire, without surprise;
- See, I have tamed it, it is still and sage,
- It has not strength enough for liberty,
- It does not even hate me with its eyes.