HAD I but known
yesterday,
Helen,
you could discharge the ache
Out of the
cloud;
Had I known
yesterday you could take
The turgid electric ache away,
Drink
it up with your proud
White body, as lovely white
lightning
Is drunk
from an agonised sky by the earth,
I might have hated you,
Helen.
But since my limbs gushed full of
fire,
Since from out
of my blood and bone
Poured a heavy flame
To you, earth of my atmosphere,
stone
Of my steel,
lovely white flint of desire,
You have no
name.
Earth of my
swaying atmosphere,
Substance of my inconstant breath,
I cannot but cleave to
you.
Since you have drunken up the
drear
Painful
electric storm, and death
Is washed from the
blue
Of my eyes, I
see you beautiful.
You are strong and passive and beautiful,
I come like winds that
uncertain hover;
But you
Are the earth I hover
over.