Amber husk fluted with gold, fruit on the sand marked with a rich grain, treasure

Whirl up, sea— whirl your pointed pines, splash your great pines on our rocks, hurl your green over us,

Hymen, O Hymen king, what bitter thing is this? what shaft, tearing my heart? what scar, what light, what fire searing my eye—balls and my eyes w…

YOU are as gold as the half—ripe grain that merges to gold again, as white as the white rain that beats through

Bear me to Dictaeus, and to the steep slopes; to the river Erymanthus. I choose spray of dittany, cyperum, frail of flower,

So you have swept me back, I who could have walked with the l… above the earth, I who could have slept among the l… at last;

Silver dust lifted from the earth, higher than my arms reach, you have mounted. O silver,

I saw the first pear as it fell— the honey—seeking, golden—banded, the yellow swarm was not more fleet than I,

From citron—bower be her bed, cut from branch of tree a—flower, fashioned for her maidenhead. From Lydian apples, sweet of hue, cut the width of board and lathe,

Are you alive? I touch you. You quiver like a sea—fish. I cover you with my net. What are you —banded one?

Each of us like you has died once, has passed through drift of wood—l… cracked and bent and tortured and unbent

NOR skin nor hide nor fleece Shall cover you, Nor curtain of crimson nor fine Shelter of cedar—wood be over you, Nor the fir—tree

Stars wheel in purple, yours is no… as Hesperus, nor yet so great a st… as bright Aldeboran or Sirius, nor yet the stained and brilliant… stars turn in purple, glorious to…