Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. DISENTANGLEMENT, by EDWARD CARPENTER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. DISENTANGLEMENT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Be not torn by desire
Last Line: True end of thy voyage.
Subject(s): Desire; Love


BE not torn by desire:
When burning clinging love assails thee—like a red-hot thing which
sticks to the flesh it scorches—.
Beware!
For love is good and lust is good—but not to tear and rend thee.

Slowly and resolutely—as a fly cleans its legs of the honey in which
it has been caught—
So remove thou, if it only be for a time, every particle which sullies the
brightness of thy mind;
Return into thyself—content to give, but asking no one, asking
nothing;
In the calm light of His splendor who fills all the universe, the
imperishable indestructible of ages,
Dwell thou—as thou canst dwell—contented.

2

Now understand me well:
There is no desire or indulgence that is forbidden; there is not one good
and another evil—all are alike in that respect;
In place all are to be used.
Yet in using be not entangled in them; for then already they are bad, and
will cause thee suffering.

When thy body—as needs must happen at times—is carried along on
the wind of passion, say not thou, "I desire this or that";
For the "I" neither desires nor fears anything, but is free and in
everlasting glory, dwelling in heaven and pouring out joy like the sun on all
sides.
Let not that precious thing by any confusion be drawn down and entangled in
the world of opposites, and of Death and suffering.
For as a light-house beam sweeps with incredible speed over sea and land,
yet the lamp itself moves not at all,
So while thy body of desire is (and must be by the law of its nature)
incessantly in motion in the world of suffering, the "I" high up above is fixed
in heaven.

Therefore I say let no confusion cloud thy mind about this matter;
But ever when desire knocks at thy door,
Though thou grant it admission and entreat it hospitably, as in duty bound,

Fence it yet gently off from thy true self,
Lest it should tear and rend thee.

3

And him thou lovest or her thou lovest—
If without confusion thou beholdest such one fixed like a star in heaven,
and ever in thy most clinging burning passion rememberest Whom thou lovest,
Then art thou blessed beyond words, and thy love is surely eternal;
But if by confusion thou knowest not whom thou lovest—but seest only
the receptacle of desire which inhabits the world of change and suffering—
Then shalt thou be whirled and gulfed in a sea of torment, and shalt travel
far and be many times lost upon that ocean before thou shalt know what is the
true end of thy voyage.





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