You who taught the sun his light And rolled the darkness into night, Who gave the air her liberty And curled the currents of the sea; You who turbaned gentian skies With clouds of fleecy fineries, Whose icy vision could impose Her perfect transcience on a rose; You who found a baby’s hue For Heaven; and chose an empty blue With which to save the infinite From the bombardment of our sight; You who taught music how to pry Into a whisper’s melody, And gave the sunbeams cause to claim Shadow as the true home of flame; You from whom I learnt to bless The unencumbered loneliness That love must give and love must take, You who taught my heart to break And to cry out, while it was breaking, “This is not sleeping, this is waking,” In a mood of mockery One day you gave myself to me!

SONNET

Into the pitiless silver of the night When all the world is powdered by the moon, And day’s warm shadows, frozen into light, Forget the drowsy comfort of the noon, Into the pitiless white of the harsh flame That you called love, well-knowing it was death, With open eyes and arms outstretched I came, Kneeling to know the blessing of your breath, Icily blowing from the core of heat, That was my spirit since it came from you. It was my victory and the defeat Of all the sweet evasions that I knew, Through the ordeal of silver and of white My soul has gained the freedom of the night.