"O soft embalmer of ye still midnight,
-- Allow me thee to adown,
-- Of any sort thou fancieth;
-- Each holdeth its own fancy, I say -
-- Yet the pleasure we partake in
-- Was caus'd by the fang'd grin,
-- Save!, do I for him anger hold?
-- Nay - I knew I was fey!"
"Had I what it taketh I would do;
I sense - I cannot sense,
I am - yet! I am not -
Once I kiss'd the image
Of the Seven Angels of Death..."
-- "Yet as thou so didst,
-- On my lips a kiss landéd,
-- And with the shadows blendéd
-- The tendermost silken mourn;
-- In which the light hidden is -
-- Yon Hell's brazen doors
-- Wrothfully it trieth to push."
"Then, lo! the Black Death,
Serpent-like 'twixt the breasts crept;
Hush'd with a gasp of life's breath, -- "Hush'd with a gasp of life's breath,
Together red tears they wept, -- Together red tears we wept - in vain,
And pass'd the procession of dancers dead - -- And pass'd the procession of dancers dead -
As in darkness were we lock'd in wed." -- As in darkness were we lock'd in wed;
-- I kiss'd the Seven Angels of Death."
"And Hell open'd its doors,
Yet what was 'fore my eyes -- "Yet what was 'fore my eyes
But if not the brightest light." -- But if not the brightest light."
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