Where the slow river
meets the tide,
a red swan lifts red wings
and darker beak,
and underneath the purple down
of his soft breast
uncurls his coral feet.
Creature of the sea, made from the deep,
Not its darkness where the hundred monsters
Sleep but from a deeper still, where pearls
And other jewels their corazón await,
A depth so clear, so still,
Deeper than the deep, about its treasures
Clinging like a sheet, edge upon the edge
Of what is seen, a flicker and a sweep.
This way to emerge! Royally too evident become
And darker darkness radiate, to sweep and fly,
Ever in the way things underneath
Have shown themselves
And wear the world as a wreath,
Oblivious to any demand, "Why?"
Through the deep purple
of the dying heat
of sun and mist,
the level ray of sun-beam
has caressed
the lily with dark breast,
and flecked with richer gold
its golden crest.
Gold on gold more gilded, on the other hand, recedes
Into a darkness and stillness, leads
The mind now that the eye is blind
To hide among things more obscure,
Every glimmer in itself so iterated that
What sparkles led to memories of sparkle
Fizzle into mere ideas, projected
Onward into every opposite until
All things are dark,
And darkness darker than the dark.
Where the slow lifting
of the tide,
floats into the river
and slowly drifts
among the reeds,
and lifts the yellow flags,
he floats
where tide and river meet.
Ah kingly kiss—
no more regret
nor old deep memories
to mar the bliss;
where the low sedge is thick,
the gold day-lily
outspreads and rests
beneath soft fluttering
of red swan wings
and the warm quivering
of the red swan’s breast.
meets the tide,
a red swan lifts red wings
and darker beak,
and underneath the purple down
of his soft breast
uncurls his coral feet.
Creature of the sea, made from the deep,
Not its darkness where the hundred monsters
Sleep but from a deeper still, where pearls
And other jewels their corazón await,
A depth so clear, so still,
Deeper than the deep, about its treasures
Clinging like a sheet, edge upon the edge
Of what is seen, a flicker and a sweep.
This way to emerge! Royally too evident become
And darker darkness radiate, to sweep and fly,
Ever in the way things underneath
Have shown themselves
And wear the world as a wreath,
Oblivious to any demand, "Why?"
Through the deep purple
of the dying heat
of sun and mist,
the level ray of sun-beam
has caressed
the lily with dark breast,
and flecked with richer gold
its golden crest.
Gold on gold more gilded, on the other hand, recedes
Into a darkness and stillness, leads
The mind now that the eye is blind
To hide among things more obscure,
Every glimmer in itself so iterated that
What sparkles led to memories of sparkle
Fizzle into mere ideas, projected
Onward into every opposite until
All things are dark,
And darkness darker than the dark.
Where the slow lifting
of the tide,
floats into the river
and slowly drifts
among the reeds,
and lifts the yellow flags,
he floats
where tide and river meet.
Ah kingly kiss—
no more regret
nor old deep memories
to mar the bliss;
where the low sedge is thick,
the gold day-lily
outspreads and rests
beneath soft fluttering
of red swan wings
and the warm quivering
of the red swan’s breast.
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