The Dark Angel

DARK Angel, with thine aching lustTo rid the world of penitence:Malicious Angel, who still dostMy soul such subtile violence!

Because of thee, no thought, no thing,Abides for me undesecrate:Dark Angel, ever on the wing,Who never reachest me too late!

When music sounds, then changest thouIts silvery to a sultry fire:Nor will thine envious heart allowDelight untortured by desire.

Through thee, the gracious Muses turn,To Furies, O mine Enemy!And all the things of beauty burnWith flames of evil ecstasy.

Because of thee, the land of dreamsBecomes a gathering place of fears:Until tormented slumber seemsOne vehemence of useless tears.

When sunlight glows upon the flowers,Or ripples down the dancing sea:Thou, with thy troop of passionate powers,Beleaguerest, bewilderest, me.

Within the breath of autumn woods,Within the winter silences:Thy venomous spirit stirs and broods,O Master of impieties!

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

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

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

I fight thee, in the Holy Name!Yet, what thou 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 aching lust!Of two defeats, of two despairs:Less dread, a change to drifting dust,Than thine eternity of cares.

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