Sloth (I) & (II)

Sloth (I) Too many a Samsan lip your teeth indent: Too many a Sybil girl you lure to make The Great Refusal for a fireside sake: And glamoured poet many a look has sent Into those eyeballs bear-brown, somnolent, Nor dreamed that devils in each muddy lake Were sucking his devotion in to slake The furrowed belly of your fanged content! Religion's bane and Freedom's subtlest foe! Behold the poppied freight your barges bring The dim-lit souls that crave the prophet's gleam, Or fettered people's writhing 'neath their woe-- Gossamer clips and thriftless harvesting Of phantom flocks and shadowy tilth of dream! Sloth (II) My dreams dissolve the day's illusive net: While crested Action's billows blinding beat, Omniscient Eyes in troughs of Faith I meet: I wait with ancient stars until they set Lest forward progress should their runes forget: I am the rest that makes the bar complete: And, in the shackled body of Defeat, The womb of Baby Triumph living yet! I am the blende of sleeping radiance: The Siding where belated Industry Draws from a Silent Tank tomorrow's zest: Prophetic Art's preparatory Trance: Dilating Force's Sabbath systole: The Night of Brahm when worn Creators rest!