• Cupid looked on Helen's breast,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• 80Saw the heart within its nest,
• Saw the flame of the heart's desire,—
• Marked his arrow's burning crest.
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Cupid took another dart,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Fledged it for another heart,
• Winged the shaft with the heart's desire,
• Drew the string and said, ‘Depart!’
• 90 ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

• Paris turned upon his bed,
• ( O Troy Town!)
• Turned upon his bed and said,
• Dead at heart with the heart's desire,—
• ‘Oh to clasp her golden head!’
• ( O Troy's down,
• Tall Troy's on fire!)

   

• It was Lilith the wife of Adam:
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Not a drop of her blood was human,
• But she was made like a soft sweet woman.

• Lilith stood on the skirts of Eden;
• ( Alas the hour!)
• She was the first that thence was driven;
• With her was hell and with Eve was heaven.

• In the ear of the Snake said Lilith:—
• 10 ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• ‘To thee I come when the rest is over;
• A snake was I when thou wast my lover.

• ‘I was the fairest snake in Eden:
• ( Alas the hour!)
• By the earth's will, new form and feature
• Made me a wife for the earth's new creature.

• ‘Take me thou as I come from Adam:
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Once again shall my love subdue thee;
• 20The past is past and I am come to thee.

• ‘O but Adam was thrall to Lilith!
• ( Alas the hour!)
• All the threads of my hair are golden,
• And there in a net his heart was holden.

• ‘O and Lilith was queen of Adam!
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• All the day and the night together
• My breath could shake his soul like a feather.

• ‘What great joys had Adam and Lilith!—
• 30 ( Alas the hour!)
• Sweet close rings of the serpent's twining,
• As heart in heart lay sighing and pining.

• ‘What bright babes had Lilith and Adam!—
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Shapes that coiled in the woods and waters,
• Glittering sons and radiant daughters.

• ‘O thou God, the Lord God of Eden!
• ( Alas the hour!)
• Say, was this fair body for no man,
• 40That of Adam's flesh thou mak'st him a woman?

• ‘O thou Snake, the King-snake of Eden!
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• God's strong will our necks are under,
• But thou and I may cleave it in sunder.

• ‘Help, sweet Snake, sweet lover of Lilith!
• ( Alas the hour!)
• And let God learn how I loved and hated
• Man in the image of God created.

• ‘Help me once against Eve and Adam!
• 50 ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Help me once for this one endeavour,
• And then my love shall be thine for ever!

• ‘Strong is God, the fell foe of Lilith:
• ( Alas the hour!)
• Nought in heaven or earth may affright him;
• But join thou with me and we will smite him.

• ‘Strong is God, the great God of Eden:
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Over all He made He hath power;
• 60But lend me thou thy shape for an hour!

• ‘Lend thy shape for the love of Lilith!
• ( Alas the hour!)
• Look, my mouth and my cheek are ruddy,
• And thou art cold, and fire is my body.

• ‘Lend thy shape for the hate of Adam!
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• That he may wail my joy that forsook him,
• And curse the day when the bride-sleep took him.

• ‘Lend thy shape for the shame of Eden!
• 70 ( Alas the hour!)
• Is not the foe-God weak as the foeman
• When love grows hate in the heart of a woman?

• ‘Would'st thou know the heart's hope of Lilith?
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Then bring thou close thine head till it glisten
• Along my breast, and lip me and listen.

• ‘Am I sweet, O sweet Snake of Eden?
• ( Alas the hour!)
• Then ope thine ear to my warm mouth's cooing
• 80And learn what deed remains for our doing.

• ‘Thou didst hear when God said to Adam:—
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• “Of all this wealth I have made thee warden;
• Thou'rt free to eat of the trees of the garden:

• ‘“Only of one tree eat not in Eden;
• ( Alas the hour!)
• All save one I give to thy freewill,—
• The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

• ‘O my love, come nearer to Lilith!
• 90 ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• In thy sweet folds bind me and bend me,
• And let me feel the shape thou shalt lend me!

• ‘In thy shape I'll go back to Eden;
• ( Alas the hour!)
• In these coils that Tree will I grapple,
• And stretch this crowned head forth by the apple.

• ‘Lo, Eve bends to the breath of Lilith!
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• O how then shall my heart desire
• 100All her blood as food to its fire!

• ‘Lo, Eve bends to the words of Lilith!—
• ( Alas the hour!)
• “Nay, this Tree's fruit,—why should ye hate it,
• Or Death be born the day that ye ate it?

• ‘“Nay, but on that great day in Eden,
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• By the help that in this wise Tree is,
• God knows well ye shall be as He is.”

• ‘Then Eve shall eat and give unto Adam;
• 110 ( Alas the hour!)
• And then they both shall know they are naked,
• And their hearts ache as my heart hath achèd.

• ‘Aye, let them hide 'mid the trees of Eden,
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• As in the cool of the day in the garden
• God shall walk without pity or pardon.

• ‘Hear, thou Eve, the man's heart in Adam!
• ( Alas the hour!)
• Of his brave words hark to the bravest:—
• 120“This the woman gave that thou gavest.”

• ‘Hear Eve speak, yea list to her, Lilith!
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Feast thine heart with words that shall sate it—
• “This the serpent gave and I ate it.”

• ‘O proud Eve, cling close to thine Adam,
• ( Alas the hour!)
• Driven forth as the beasts of his naming
• By the sword that for ever is flaming.

• ‘Know, thy path is known unto Lilith!
• 130 ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• While the blithe birds sang at thy wedding,
• There her tears grew thorns for thy treading.

• ‘O my love, thou Love-snake of Eden!
• ( Alas the hour!)
• O to-day and the day to come after!
• Loose me, love,—give breath to my laughter!

• ‘O bright Snake, the Death-worm of Adam!
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Wreathe thy neck with my hair's bright tether,
• 140And wear my gold and thy gold together!

• ‘On that day on the skirts of Eden,
• ( Alas the hour!)
• In thy shape shall I glide back to thee,
• And in my shape for an instant view thee.

• ‘But when thou'rt thou and Lilith is Lilith,
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• In what bliss past hearing or seeing
• Shall each one drink of the other's being!

• ‘With cries of “Eve!” and “Eden!” and “Adam!”
• 150 ( Alas the hour!)
• How shall we mingle our love's caresses,
• I in thy coils, and thou in my tresses!

• ‘With those names, ye echoes of Eden,
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Fire shall cry from my heart that burneth,—
• “Dust he is and to dust returneth!”

• ‘Yet to-day, thou master of Lilith,—
• ( Alas the hour!)
• Wrap me round in the form I'll borrow
• 160And let me tell thee of sweet to-morrow.

• ‘In the planted garden eastward in Eden,
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Where the river goes forth to water the garden,
• The springs shall dry and the soil shall harden.

• ‘Yea, where the bride-sleep fell upon Adam,
• ( Alas the hour!)
• None shall hear when the storm-wind whistles
• Through roses choked among thorns and thistles.

• ‘Yea, beside the east-gate of Eden,
• 170 ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Where God joined them and none might sever,
• The sword turns this way and that for ever.

• ‘What of Adam cast out of Eden?
• ( Alas the hour!)
• Lo! with care like a shadow shaken,
• He tills the hard earth whence he was taken.

• ‘What of Eve too, cast out of Eden?
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• Nay, but she, the bride of God's giving,
• 180Must yet be mother of all men living.

• ‘Lo, God's grace, by the grace of Lilith!
• ( Alas the hour!)
• To Eve's womb, from our sweet to-morrow,
• God shall greatly multiply sorrow.

• ‘Fold me fast, O God-snake of Eden!
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• What more prize than love to impel thee?
• Grip and lip my limbs as I tell thee!

• ‘Lo! two babes for Eve and for Adam!
• 190 ( Alas the hour!)
• Lo! sweet Snake, the travail and treasure,—
• Two men-children born for their pleasure!

• ‘The first is Cain and the second Abel:
• ( Sing Eden Bower!)
• The soul of one shall be made thy brother,
• And thy tongue shall lap the blood of the other.’
• ( Alas the hour!)

   

• Could you not drink her gaze like wine?
• Yet though its splendour swoon
• Into the silence languidly
• As a tune into a tune,
• Those eyes unravel the coiled night
• And know the stars at noon.

• The gold that's heaped beside her hand,
• In truth rich prize it were;
• And rich the dreams that wreathe her brows
• 10 With magic stillness there;
• And he were rich who should unwind
• That woven golden hair.

• Around her, where she sits, the dance
• Now breathes its eager heat;
• And not more lightly or more true
• Fall there the dancers' feet
  page: 93  
• Than fall her cards on the bright board
• As 'twere an heart that beat.

• Her fingers let them softly through,
• 20 Smooth polished silent things;
• And each one as it falls reflects
• In swift light-shadowings,
• Blood-red and purple, green and blue,
• The great eyes of her rings.

• Whom plays she with? With thee, who lov'st
• Those gems upon her hand;
• With me, who search her secret brows;
• With all men, bless'd or bann'd.
• We play together, she and we,
• 30 Within a vain strange land:

• A land without any order,—
• Day even as night, (one saith,)—
• Where who lieth down ariseth not
• Nor the sleeper awakeneth;
• A land of darkness as darkness itself
• And of the shadow of death.

• What be her cards, you ask? Even these:—
• The heart, that doth but crave
• More, having fed; the diamond,
• 40 Skilled to make base seem brave;
• The club, for smiting in the dark;
• The spade, to dig a grave.

• And do you ask what game she plays?
• With me 'tis lost or won;
• With thee it is playing still; with him
• It is not well begun;
• But 'tis a game she plays with all
• Beneath the sway o' the sun.

• Thou seest the card that falls,—she knows
• 50 The card that followeth:
• Her game in thy tongue is called Life,
• As ebbs thy daily breath:
• When she shall speak, thou'lt learn her tongue
• And know she calls it Death.

   

• Master of the murmuring courts
• Where the shapes of sleep convene!—
• Lo! my spirit here exhorts
• All the powers of thy demesne
• For their aid to woo my queen.
• What reports
• Yield thy jealous courts unseen?

• Vaporous, unaccountable,
• Dreamworld lies forlorn of light,
• 10Hollow like a breathing shell.
• Ah! that from all dreams I might
• Choose one dream and guide its flight!
• I know well
• What her sleep should tell to-night.

• There the dreams are multitudes:
• Some that will not wait for sleep,
• Deep within the August woods;
• Some that hum while rest may steep
• Weary labour laid a-heap;
• 20 Interludes,
• Some, of grievous moods that weep.

• Poets' fancies all are there:
• There the elf-girls flood with wings
• Valleys full of plaintive air;
• There breathe perfumes; there in rings
• Whirl the foam-bewildered springs;
• Siren there
• Winds her dizzy hair and sings.

• Thence the one dream mutually
• 30 Dreamed in bridal unison,
• Less than waking ecstasy;
• Half-formed visions that make moan
• In the house of birth alone;
• And what we
• At death's wicket see, unknown.