Page:Love Poems and Others.djvu/21

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LILIES IN THE FIRE

IAh, you stack of white lilies, all white and gold,I am adrift as a sunbeam, and without formOr having, save I light on you to warmYour pallor into radiance, flush your cold
White beauty into incandescence: youAre not a stack of white lilies to-night, but a whiteAnd clustered star transfigured by me to-night,And lighting these ruddy leaves like a star dropped through
The slender bare arms of the branches, your tire-maidensWho lift swart arms to fend me off; but I comeLike a wind of fire upon you, like to someStray whitebeam who on you his fire unladens.
And you are a glistening toadstool shining hereAmong the crumpled beech-leaves phosphorescent,My stack of white lilies burning incandescentOf me, a soft white star among the leaves, my dear.
IIIs it with pain, my dear, that you shudder so?Is it because I have hurt you with pain, my dear?
  Did I shiver?—Nay, truly I did not know—  A dewdrop may-be splashed on my face down here.
Why even now you speak through close-shut teeth.I have been too much for you—Ah, I remember!

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