So you have swept me back, I who could have walked with the l… above the earth, I who could have slept among the l… at last;

YOU are as gold as the half—ripe grain that merges to gold again, as white as the white rain that beats through

Are you alive? I touch you. You quiver like a sea—fish. I cover you with my net. What are you —banded one?

NOR skin nor hide nor fleece Shall cover you, Nor curtain of crimson nor fine Shelter of cedar—wood be over you, Nor the fir—tree

The light passes from ridge to ridge, from flower to flower— the hepaticas, wide—spread under the light

Can we believe—by an effort comfort our hearts: it is not waste all this, not placed here in disgust, street after street,

Bear me to Dictaeus, and to the steep slopes; to the river Erymanthus. I choose spray of dittany, cyperum, frail of flower,

Each of us like you has died once, has passed through drift of wood—l… cracked and bent and tortured and unbent

Amber husk fluted with gold, fruit on the sand marked with a rich grain, treasure

Weed, moss—weed, root tangled in sand, sea—iris, brittle flower, one petal like a shell is broken,

Stars wheel in purple, yours is no… as Hesperus, nor yet so great a st… as bright Aldeboran or Sirius, nor yet the stained and brilliant… stars turn in purple, glorious to…

From citron—bower be her bed, cut from branch of tree a—flower, fashioned for her maidenhead. From Lydian apples, sweet of hue, cut the width of board and lathe,