Beauty And Hate

I have sought and followed you, drunk with your sacred wine; Led out by a laughing wind on a tumbling sea, On crags amid clouds, in cups that allure the bee, And deep in the gem-lit gloom of the tortuous mine, And on widespread wings where the great worlds dance and shine I have sought by the golden light; but have bent the knee At last where you lie, a humble goddess and free, Naked and flushed in the warmth of a crimson shrine. The hordes of hate have trampled your blooms in mire, And cackle and roar as their mockery priests blaspheme, And sing the marching hymn of a wingless might. They forge their god in the heat of unholy fire The squat strong incubus born of an evil dream; And it shrinks and crumbles away in the golden light.