Paradise Re-Entered

Through the strait gate of passion,     Between the bickering fire     Where flames of fierce love tremble     On the body of fierce desire:     To the intoxication,     The mind, fused down like a bead,     Flees in its agitation     The flames' stiff speed:     At last to calm incandescence,     Burned clean by remorseless hate,     Now, at the day's renascence     We approach the gate.     Now, from the darkened spaces     Of fear, and of frightened faces,     Death, in our awful embraces     Approached and passed by;     We near the flame-burnt porches     Where the brands of the angels, like torches     Whirl, - in these perilous marches     Pausing to sigh;     We look back on the withering roses,     The stars, in their sun-dimmed closes,     Where 'twas given us to repose us     Sure on our sanctity;     Beautiful, candid lovers,     Burnt out of our earthy covers,     We might have nestled like plovers     In the fields of eternity.     There, sure in sinless being,     All-seen, and then all-seeing,     In us life unto death agreeing,     We might have lain.     But we storm the angel-guarded     Gates of the long-discarded,     Garden, which God has hoarded     Against our pain.     The Lord of Hosts, and the Devil     Are left on Eternity's level     Field, and as victors we travel     To Eden home.     Back beyond good and evil     Return we. Eve dishevel     Your hair for the bliss-drenched revel     On our primal loam.