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(1921)
I WITHIN the stillness of the crypt he lay— | |
| The vanquished tyrant, quivering and stark, | |
| Shackled, alone with anguish and the dark, | |
| And conscious that the immolating day | |
| Swept on him as a tiger on its prey, | 5 |
| To quench with agonies the vital spark, | |
| When cruel eyes should gloat and laughters mark | |
| The final shames of the tormented clay. | |
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| Astounded by atrocities of pain, | |
| He broke the offended silence with a moan— | 10 |
| This offal of the rack and glowing brand— | |
| While, as he strove at the relentless chain | |
| And shuddered, prostrate, on the salted stone, | |
| A dungeon-rat fed on his mangled hand. | |
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II But they, his conqueror and faithless queen, | 15 |
| Beneath the midnight moon lay arrogant, | |
| Nor saw her beams on kingly marble slant,— | |
| On jasmine and the crowding roses’ sheen, | |
| Nor heard the fingers of the harper glean | |
| Harvests of sound, not heard the ceaseless chant | 20 |
| Of voices to their godhood consonant. | |
| For them the naked dancer swayed unseen. | |
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| For them there stood no past, nor time to be, | |
| For whom all rapture was a tideless sea | |
| Wherein they dwelt beyond all sound and sight, | 25 |
| Without a star to touch them with its ray | |
| Nor pulse of waves to reach them where they lay, | |
| Welded in dumb convulsions of delight. | |
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