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White of heat in vain they soar:

Red of heat they strew the floor.
XII

Fury on it! have its debt!
Thunder on the Hill accurst,

Golgotha, be ye! and sweat
Blood, and thirst the Passion's thirst.

Red of heat and white of heat,
Champ it like fierce teeth that eat.

XIII
Strike it as the ages crush

Towers! for while a shape is seen
I am rivalled. Quench its blush,

Devil! But it crowns me Queen,
Red of heat, as none before,

White of heat, the circlet wore.
XIV

Lowly I will be, and quail,
Crawling, with a beggar's hand:

On my breast the branded Nail,
On my head the iron band.

Red of heat, are none so base!
White of heat, none know such grace!

XV
In their heaven the sainted hosts,

Robed in violet unflecked,
Gaze on humankind as ghosts:

I draw down a ray direct.
Red of heat, across my brow,

White of heat, I touch Him now.
XVI

Robed in violet, robed in gold,
Robed in pearl, they make our dawn.

What am I to them? Behold
What ye are to me, and fawn.

Red of heat, be humble, ye!
White of heat, O teach it me!

XVII
Martyrs! hungry peaks in air,

Rent with lightnings, clad with snow,
Crowned with stars! you strip me bare,

Pierce me, shame me, stretch me low,
Red of heat, but it may be,

White of heat, some envy me!
XVIII

O poor enviers! God's own gifts
Have a devil for the weak.

Yea, the very force that lifts
Finds the vessel's secret leak.

Red of heat, I rise o'er all:
White of heat, I faint, I fall.

XIX
Those old Martyrs sloughed their pride,

Taking humbleness like mirth.
I am to His Glory tied,

I that witness Him on earth!
Red of heat, my pride of dust,

White of heat, feeds fire in trust.
XX

Kindle me to constant fire,
Lest the nail be but a nail!

Give me wings of great desire,
Lest I look within, and fail!

Red of heat, the furnace light,
White of heat, fix on my sight.

XXI
Never for the Chosen peace!

Know, by me tormented know,
Never shall the wrestling cease

Till with our outlasting Foe,
Red of heat to white of heat,

Roll we to the Godhead's feet!
Beat, beat! white of heat,

Red of heat, beat, beat!
A PREACHING FROM A SPANISH BALLAD

I
Ladies who in chains of wedlock

Chafe at an unequal yoke,
Not to nightingales give hearing;

Better this, the raven's croak.
II

Down the Prado strolled my seigneur,
Arm at lordly bow on hip,

Fingers trimming his moustachios,
Eyes for pirate fellowship.

III
Home sat she that owned him master;

Like the flower bent to ground
Rain-surcharged and sun-forsaken;

Heedless of her hair unbound.
IV

Sudden at her feet a lover
Palpitating knelt and wooed;

Seemed a very gift from heaven
To the starved of common food.

V
Love me? she his vows repeated:

Fiery vows oft sung and thrummed:
Wondered, as on earth a stranger;

Thirsted, trusted, and succumbed.
VI

O beloved youth! my lover!
Mine! my lover! take my life

Wholly: thine in soul and body,
By this oath of more than wife!

VII
Know me for no helpless woman;

Nay, nor coward, though I sink
Awed beside thee, like an infant

Learning shame ere it can think.
VIII

Swing me hence to do thee service,
Be thy succour, prove thy shield;

Heaven will hear!--in house thy handmaid,
Squire upon the battlefield.

IX
At my breasts I cool thy footsoles;

Wine I pour, I dress thy meats;
Humbly, when my lord it pleaseth,

Lie with him on perfumed sheets:
X

Pray for him, my blood's dear fountain,
While he sleeps, and watch his yawn

In that wakening babelike moment,
Sweeter to my thought than dawn! -

XI
Thundered then her lord of thunders;

Burst the door, and, flashing sword,
Loud disgorged the woman's title:

Condemnation in one word.
XII

Grand by righteous wrath transfigured,
Towers the husband who provides

In his person judge and witness,
Death's black doorkeeper besides!

XIII
Round his head the ancient terrors,

Conjured of the stronger's law,
Circle, to abash the creature

Daring twist beneath his paw.
XIV

How though he hath squandered Honour
High of Honour let him scold:

Gilding of the man's possession,
'Tis the woman's coin of gold.

XV
She inheriting from many

Bleeding mothers bleeding sense
Feels 'twixt her and sharp-fanged nature

Honour first did plant the fence.
XVI

Nature, that so shrieks for justice;
Honour's thirst, that blood will slake;

These are women's riddles, roughly
Mixed to write them saint or snake.

XVII
Never nature cherished woman:

She throughout the sexes' war
Serves as temptress and betrayer,

Favouring man, the muscular.
XVIII

Lureful is she, bent for folly;
Doating on the child which crows:

Yours to teach him grace in fealty,
What the bloom is, what the rose.

XIX
Hard the task: your prison-chamber

Widens not for lifted latch
Till the giant thews and sinews

Meet their Godlike overmatch.
XX

Read that riddle, scorning pity's
Tears, of cockatrices shed:

When the heart is vowed for freedom,
Captaincy it yields to head.

XXI
Meanwhile you, freaked nature's martyrs,

Honour's army, flower and weed,
Gentle ladies, wedded ladies,

See for you this fair one bleed.
XXII

Sole stood her offence, she faltered;
Prayed her lord the youth to spare;

Prayed that in the orange garden
She might lie, and ceased her prayer.

XXIII
Then commanding to all women

Chastity, her breasts she laid
Bare unto the self-avenger.

Man in metal was the blade.
THE YOUNG PRINCESS--A BALLAD OF OLD LAWS OF LOVE

1--I
When the South sang like a nightingale

Above a bower in May,
The training of Love's vine of flame

Was writ in laws, for lord and dame
To say their yea and nay.

II
When the South sang like a nightingale

Across the flowering night,
And lord and dame held gentle sport,



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