HE had said, “Thank God for my body obscene,
For the lust that oppresses life, choking me;
Hereby shall I prove my faith serene,
Hereby shall my flesh’s mortality,
Dire flame of passion, foul, unclean.
To my holy faith yield subsidy.”
And he cried, “And thus shall my hope avoid
The broad ways thronged by gay retinues
Forth by pleasure to death decoyed –
To death all hasten and hope pursues 1 . . . .
Yet I by my dauntless belief up-buoyed
Can shun no boon that desire may choose.”
So wine he drank and he fed his lust:
Should he falsify his faith by doubt?
To flee the vile would belie his trust!
So he took his part in the giddy rout;
For the sake of his faith he drank disgust;
And his life was the life of the ruck without.
And he wails, “Hell help me, slake my thirst!
Bring me food for my feverish love to-night.
For I ache desirous – fate reversed
From my one-time virtue, chill with fright!”
He cries, “Hell help me or be accurst –
Give me joy once more in my sin’s delight.”
“Scourge me and burn me until the day
Pours over the rainbow brink of the land:
I must love or perish, and love can allay
The willing rage of your bitter hand:
Scourge me and burn me, beat and flay.
And so shall my truant desire be fanned.”
And he cries, “Would God that my youth were mine,
And the spring once more and a woman’s love,
For the green runs down to the blue sea-line
Where the soughing sand and the live waves move;
But her mouth for my love and the red rich wine
Are as far from me as the sky above.”
And he wails, “Hell help me and slake my thirst!
Scourge me and burn me, beat and flay!
And so may I love with my flesh accurst
Ere the night skies whiten and blanch the day.
For I ache desirous: all love rehearsed
Is the boon fain lost for the boon I pray.”
(E J Rupert Atkinson)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Life Poems, Night Poems, Youth Poems, Cry Poems, Spring Poems, Woman Poems, Wine Poems, Desire Poems, Doubt & Skepticism Poems, Passion PoemsBased on Keywords: ruck, soughing, belie, oppresses, rehearsed, sea-line, desirous, hereby, blanch, flay, decoyed