Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HERE IS MUSIC: 12. THE ELECTRIC CHAIN, by AUSTIN PHILIPS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HERE IS MUSIC: 12. THE ELECTRIC CHAIN, by                    
First Line: I rang. I waited. Jangled voices came
Last Line: Shall we, in mystic marriage, speak from throne to throne?
Subject(s): Youth


I RANG. I waited. Jangled voices came
And went. Next, silence. Still, I waited on.
Steps sounded. Something clicked. I heard my name
Spoken. Forthwith achieved reunion.
Reached royal joy. Found infinite happiness.
Knew swift soulagement, exquisite intimateness.
Felt some firm, supra-human force transport
Me into space, where, like a star, I hung
Sparkling, suspended, spiritually to consort
With other star, bright-shining but unseen
By me, and crowned among
A myriad more, midst whom,
Neath high, stupendous dome,
It shone as Empress-Queen. ...
So that, across whole worlds, I talked, alone,
In mystic, mental marriage, spoke from throne to throne.

No subtle trend of Sex,
Strong, secret, swift, complex,
Came to confuse, enchain my enfranchised mind;
No grey-blue eyes, no smile
Gleamed, to make volatile
Such senses as (when face to face, enshrined
With my heart's mate—enchanted, stirred) I find
Bewilder thought, make blind
Judgment, bid choice of word
Become uneasy, blurred:
No stark, derisive and implacable sense
Of Age affronting Youth
With love—of rare, young ruth—
Afflicting, fierce, unbearable, intense,
Hovered, to hurt and harm
The hour's unbroken charm,
Or mar the ecstasy,
Infinite, incomparable, unimaginable,
Borne through the aether, brought me blessedly
By each successive, golden syllable,
And liquid, flute-like note and jewelled vocable.

Ah, 'twas but You, I know,
Five slender miles, or so,
Away, across this valley, 'mong those hills,
You, who, primordiate,
Compass, incorporate
All I have sought through aeons; whose beauty thrills
My earthly body; whose sweet soul-side stills
My senses, uplifts and fills
Me, so that I seem feoffee
Of all Eternity. ...
You—yet another You: with whom I lose my fears,
My shame, and bridge the wide
Great space which gleams to divide
Us two: that Gulf of our unequal years. ...
You—yet another You, with whom
I lived in Eden's bloom,
Shared scores of long-dead lives,
Touched every height, depth, given
In Love's large gamut of prerogatives,
Saw half-a-hundred hopes and day-dreams riven,
Knew each and all delight bestowed on man by Heaven.

But, nay! 'twas You, unchanged.
'Twas I, none else, who ranged—
Transformed, transported, disinhibited slave—
Lord of myself at last,
King of the Present, Past,
And Future, swift to snatch and seize and save
Flotsam of Happiness from slackening wave
And sluggish sea, that gave
Me momentary release
And fleeting, passing Peace
From present incarnation's stress and pain,
Put back the hand of Time,
Placed me once more in prime
Of manhood, and restored my Youth again:
So that the words I spoke,
Eager, impetuous, broke
All barriers, made brave breach
In clogging wall of sad self-consciousness,
Then flooded on to reach—
Simple, convincing, vital through strong stress—
Truth's inner essence, falsely famed as fathomless.

Lo! I flung forth each word
As one whose lips be lord
Of language long-time lost and baulked and banned,
Spoke like great Gulf-stream's flow,
Or flood fresh fed with snow,
Toyed with a phrase, then threw it, fitly planned
Across the Infinite at Your command;
To find fair, facile hand
Fling it back homewards; to hear
Sweet, rippling laughter, dear
Unto my soul since Light and Cosmos came—
And, with them, Consciousness,
And Man, and Gladsomeness
In Sound and Song, and spiritual Fire and Flame. ...
My life, itself, felt fused
In, magically used
By, Yours which seemed to stay
Static and stellar, still, suspensory,
And yet, the while, take way
Towards mine, which steadfast, fixed and stationary,
In turn reached out, touched Yours in proud polarity.

But one thing, most of all,
Mighty and magical,
I seemed to compass, conquering sorry Fate,
Who, in this present phase
Of Life, played cruel, base
Trick, changed my birth-time, sought to segregate
Me from my aeons-old associate,
My soul's, my heart's one mate;
Made me grown man ere She
Shone on this Earth, so be
Always too old in body for complete
And perfect union,
Twin beings rendered one. ...
Since, even as our astral bodies swam to meet,
A decade seemed to fall,
Friendly, impartial,
From me: a dozen years
To die in scarce one second: I, to discover
Fresh, Faust-like outlook, lose sad need for tears,
Find grim, grey hours grow light, long severance over,
And know myself, once more, corporeally Your lover.

Vain dream! I started. Jangled voices came
And went. Next, silence. Still I waited on
Uselessly. Nothing sounded. Flown the Flame
Of Life. No more, for me, reunion,
Nor royal joy, nor infinite happiness,
Nor swift soulagement, exquisite intimateness,
No firm, no supra-human force to transport
Me into space, where, like a star, I hung
But now, suspended, spiritually to consort
With other star, bright-shining but unseen
By me, and crowned among
A myriad stars, midst whom,
Neath high, stupendous dome,
It shone as Empress-Queen. ...
Ah, when again, across whole worlds, alone
Shall we, in mystic marriage, speak from throne to throne?





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