Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HERODIAS, SELECTION, by STEPHANE MALLARME


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HERODIAS, SELECTION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ay, for myself, myself I flower forlorn!
Last Line: Its chill gems part at last.
Subject(s): Dreams; Virginity; Youth; Nightmares; Vestals


Ay, for myself, myself I flower forlorn!
You amethystine gardens buried deep
In wise abysses dim and bottomless,
You understand; and you, neglected gold,
Keeping your ancient glory unprofaned
Under the dark sleep of primeval earth;
You, stones wherefrom mine eyes, like limpid gems,
Borrow their blaze melodious; and you,
Metals that give the tresses of my youth
A deadly splendor in their massive fall!

As for thee, woman born in centuries
Malign for the iniquities that lurk
In caverns Sibylline, -- who dar'st to speak
Of one for whom, a mortal, shall from the cup
Of my slipped robes, aroma savage-sweet,
Rise the white shudder of my nakedness, --
Foretell that if the warm blue summer sky
That woman natively unveils before,
See me in my star-shivering shamefastness,
I die!

The horror of virginity
Delights me; I would live, amid the fright
The touch of mine own hair can make me know,
To feel, at eve, within my couch withdrawn,
Inviolate reptile, in the useless flesh
Cold scintillation of thy pallid light,
Thou dying, thou consumed with chastity,
White night of icicles and cruel snow!

And thy lone sister, O my sister aye,
My dream shall rise to thee; even now so clear,
So wondrous clear the heart that dreamed it so,
I seem alone in my lone native land
With all about me in idolatry
Before a glass whose sleeping calm reflects
Herodias, with clear gaze of adamant . . .
Oh, last charm, yes! I feel't, I am alone.

NURSE

You will die, lady?

HERODIAS

No, good grandam, no.
Be calm, and leave me; pardon this hard heart.
First close the shutters, if you will. The sky
Smiles like a seraph in the pane's profound,
And I detest the beautiful sky.
The waves
Cradle themselves and, yonder, know you not
A country where the inauspicious heaven
Shows Venus' hated aspects, who to-night
Burns in the leafage; thither 1 will go.

Light again -- call it child's play if you will --
Those tapers where the wax at the light flame
Weeps in the idle gold an alien tear,
And . . .

NURSE

Now?

Farewell. [Exit Nurse.
You lie, O naked flower
Of my lips!
I await a thing unknown!
Heedless, perhaps, of the mystery and your cries,
Though you fling out the supreme murdered sobs
Of maidenhood that feels amid its dreams
Its chill gems part at last.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net