Song of the Peri

Beauty, the Gift of Gifts, I give to thee.     Pleasure and love shall spring around thy feet     As through the lake the lotuses arise     Pinkly transparent and divinely sweet.     I give thee eyes aglow like morning stars,     Delicate brows, a mist of sable tresses,     That all the journey of thy lie may be     Lit up by love and softened by caresses.     For those who once were proud and softly bred     Shall, kneeling, wait thee as thou passest by,     They who were pure shall stretch forth eager hands     Crying, "Thy pity, Lord, before we die!"     And one shall murmur, "If the sun at dawn     Shall open and caress a happy flower,     What blame to him, although the blossom fade     In the full splendour of his noontide power?"     And one, "If aloes close together grow     It well may chance a plant shall wounded be,     Pierced by the thorntips of another's leaves,     Thus am I hurt unconsciously by thee."     For some shall die and many more shall sin,     Suffering for thy sake till seven times seven,     Because of those most perfect lips of thine     Which held the power to make or mar their heaven.     And though thou givest back but cruelty,     Their love, persistent, shall not heed nor care,     All those whose ears are fed with blame of thee     Shall say, "It may be so, but he was fair."     Ay, those who lost the whole of youth for thee,     Made early and for ever, shamed and sad,     Shall sigh, re-living some sweet memory,     "Ah, once it was his will to make me glad."     Thy nights shall be as bright as summer days,     The sequence of thy sins shall seem as duty,     Since I have given thee, Oh, Gift of Gifts! -     The pale perfection of unrivalled beauty.