BEAUTY X

Withered shadows clung to the
frozen, barren ground;
'neath the gloaming's violet cincture
Earth dropped in a swound.

Falling stars to boreal whorls
surrendered their beams,
their fiery orbs fading as broken,
breathless dreams,
as Creation to the Seasons' design
sighing acquiesced,
thro' the hebetude 'pon Nature's
past rainbows reminisced.

'Mid the growing gloom her second
soul glowed for a spell,
mayhap She bethought herself in
Winter's realm to dwell.

And I sought my restless spirit
from a vain quest to unchain,
from hopes of wisdom and felicity  
I ne'er could attain,
for Beauty's expanse, Her majesty,
gleam infinitely more
than a flawed mortal being as I
could fathom, render, adore.

As my troubled heart swayed betwixt
discontent and pique,
thro' shifting gales I discerned 
a voice of yore gentle speak.
Tho' my trembling form cowered, 
enwrapped in doubt and fear,
my kernel knew the bell-like tones
that hover e'er near.

"My grace you invoke, tho' my
endeavours you thwart,
sweet paeans to me compose, 
yet, construe not their import.
Thro' Eternity shall I endure, child,
the cosmos imbue with my breath, 
my Light to worlds and heavens lend,
to Life and Birth, e'en Death.
This night I bide 'mid unclad boughs
'neath a gelid gibbous moon,
with snowy chisel and frosty wedge
was such stark splendour hewn.
Behold how Night unveils her jewel, 
a nacred flame up-thrust
o'er horizon's fringe, thro' darkness
to shine, as your own inmost light must.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: POLYHYMNIA, MUSE OF ELOQUENCE (edited)

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Charles Meynier