LILIES
Lily, red wood lily,
Flaunting fairy lily,
Lily springing where the heel
Was down-impressed of Pan;
Lily at whose throat the moon
Flutters like a moth a-swoon—
Round and round thy shining reel
Deft-foot things of Pan.
Lily, Pan's red lily,
Sunlight-drunken lily,
Golden, golden lily tipped
With dawn's drowned fire;
Lily, burning lily,
Mad and mad and shrilly
Trip the hooves where Pan has tripped,
Gleam the flanks mad Pan has nipped,
Gyre, gyre, gyre,
Mad and mad and shrilly,
Pipes go never stilly,
Hooves make eager rhythm where
The song is thee,
Shrilly, shrilly, shrilly,
Flare and flute note trilly,
Hearken, hearken, hearken there,
Shadows dance and darken there,
Hand and hoof and haunches bare
Encircle thee.
O lily, red wood lily,
Flaunting fairy lily,
Never stop the piping of the Pan god's tune:—
"Life's a music hath no word,
Death's a lute no hand has stirred,
Eternity's a rondeau in an old, old rune."
Never stop their piping there,
Never yield them—never spare,
Lest thou dream Christ's lily fair—
More fair than thou.