COLOPHON

                          TO LAYLAH EIGHT-AND-TWENTY

                    LAMP of living loveliness,
                    Maid miraculously male,
                    Rapture of thine own excess
                    Blushing through the velvet veil
                    Where the olive cheeks aglow
                    Shadow-soften into snow,
                    Breasts like Bacchanals afloat
                    Under the proudly phallic throat!
                    Be thou to my pilgrimage
                    Light, and laughter sweet and sage,
                    Till the darkling day expire
                    Of my life in thy caress,
                    Thou my frenzy and my fire,
                    Lamp of living loveliness!

                    Thou the ruler of the rod
                    That beneath thy clasp extends
                    To the galaxies of God
                    From the gulph where ocean ends,
                    Cave of dragon, ruby rose,
                    Heart of hell, garden-close, {235}
                    Hyacinth petal sweet to smell,
                    Split-hoof of the glad gazelle,
                    Be thou mine as I am thine,
                    As the vine's ensigns entwine
                    At the sacring of the sun,
                    Thou the even and I the odd
                    Being and becoming one
                    On the abacus of God!

                    Thou the sacred snake that rears
                    Death, a jewelled crest across
                    The enchantment of the years,
                    All my love that is my loss.
                    Life and death, two and one,
                    Hate and love, moon and sun,
                    Light and darkness, never swerve
                    From the norm, note the nerve,
                    Name the name, exceed the excess
                    Of thy lamp of loveliness,
                    Living snake of lazy love,
                    Ithyphallic that uprears
                    Its Palladium above
                    The enchantment of the years!



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