Swan-Song of Orpheus a  

From "Orpheus; Liber Quartus vel Mortis"
"Collected Works iii" p. 209f

O Hawk of gold with power enwalled,
    Whose face is like an emerald;
Whose crown is indigo as night;  
    Smaragdine snakes about thy brow  
Twine, and the disc of flaming light  
    Is on thee, seated in the prow  
Of the Sun's bark, b enthroned above  
With lapis-lazuli for love  
    And ruby for enormous force  
Chosen to seat thee, thee girt round  
With leopard's pell, and golden sound  
    Of planets choral in their course!  
O thou self-formulated sire!  
Self-master of thy dam's desire! c  
Thine eyes blaze forth with fiery light;  
    Thine heart a secret sun of flame!  
I adore the insuperable might:  
    I bow before the unspoken Name.

For I am yesterday, and I  
    To-day, and I to-morrow, born  
Now and again, on high, on high  
    Travelling on Dian's naked horn! d  
I am the Soul that doth create  
    The Gods, and all the Kin of Breath.  
I come from the sequestered a state;  
    My birth is from the House of Death.

Hail! ye twin hawks high pinnacled  
    That watch upon the universe!  
Ye that the bier b of God beheld!  
    That bore in onwards, ministers  
Of peace within the House of Wrath,  
Servants of him that commeth forth  
At dawn with many-coloured lights  
    Mounting from underneath the North,  
The shrine of the celestial Heights!

He is in me, and I in Him!  
    Mine is the crystal radiance  
That filleth æther to the brim  
    Wherein all stars and suns may dance.  
I am the beautiful and glad  
    Rejoicing in the golden day.
I am the spirit silken-clad  
    That fareth on the fiery way.  
I have escaped from Him, whose eyes  
Are closed at eventide, and wise  
To drag thee to the House of Wrong: -  
I am armed! I am armed! I am strong! I am strong!  
I make my way: opposing horns  
    Of secret foemen push their lust  
In vain: my song their fury scorns;  
    They sink, they grovel c in the dust.

Hail, self-created Lord of Night!  
Inscrutable and infinite!  
    Let Orpheus journey forth to see  
    The Disk a in peace and victory  
Let him adore the splendid sight,  
    The radiance of the Heaven of Nu;  
Soar like a bird, laved b by the light,  
    To pierce the far eternal blue!
Hail! Hermes! thou the wands of ill  
    Hast touched with strength, and they are shivered!  
The way is open onto will!  
    The pregnant Goddess is delivered!

Happy, yea, happy! happy is he  
    That hath looked forth upon the Bier  
        That goes to the House of Rest!  
His hearth is lit with melody;  
    Peace in his house is master of fear;  
        His holy Name is in the West  
When the sun sinks, and royal ,rays  
Of moonrise flash across the day's!

I have risen! as a mighty hawk of gold!  
From the golden egg I gather, and my wings the world enfold.  
I alight in mighty splendour from the thronéd boats of light;  
Companies of Spirits follow me; adore the Lords of Night.  
Yea, with gladness did they pæan c, bowing low before my car,  
I my ears their homage echoed from the sunrise to the star.  
I have risen! I am gathered as a lovely hawk of gold,  
I the first-born of the Mother in her ecstasy of old.  
Lo! I come to face the dweller in the sacred snake of Khem, d  
Come to face the Babe and Lion, come to measure force with them!  
Ah! these locks flow down, a river, as the earth's before the Sun,  
As the earth's before the sunset, and the God and I are One.  
I who entered in a Fool, gain the God by clean endeavour;  
I am shaped as men and women, fair for ever and for ever.

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     a Much of the following invocation is a free rendering of several fine passages in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. (The Poet's note Collected Works p. 209.)

     b the Sun's bark: the Boat of the Sun.

     c thy dam's desire: master of the desire of She who bore you; "dam" the mother, also for woman-man-relation.

     d Dian's naked horn: must mean Diana's moon, Diana the Roman equivalent of the Greek Artemis, as defined in notes above.

     a sequestered: "secluded," "cut off from the environment."

     b bier: a carriage or frame for conveying a corpse to the grave.

     c grovel: to lie prone, or creep on the earth; to feel low or mean.

     a The Disk: as evident from the first verse line five, this word can get spelled "disc" as well as "disk". Our Poet might mean "The Disk" for the Sun itself, whereas "the disc" mean lamen or some such form, who knows?

     b laved: washed.

     c paean: sing a hymn of feast and celebration.

     d Khem: Egyptian word for Egypt.

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