1O FURIOUS! O confine me not!(What is this that frees me so in storms?What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds mean?)
[ begin page 308 ]ppp.01500.316.jpg2O to drink the mystic deliria deeper than any other man!O savage and tender achings!(I bequeath them to you, my children,I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.)3O to be yielded to you, whoever you are, and you to be yielded me, in defiance of the world!(Know, I am a man, attracting, at any time, her I but look upon, or touch with the tips of my fingers,Or that touches my face, or leans against me.)4O to return to Paradise!O to draw you to me—to plant on you, for the first time, the lips of a determined man!O rich and feminine! O to show you to realize the blood of life for yourself, whoever you are—and no matter when and where you live.5O the puzzle—the thrice-tied knot—the deep and dark pool! O all untied and illumined!O to speed where there is space enough and air enough at last!O to be absolved from previous follies and degrada- tions—I from mine, and you from yours!O to find a new unthought-of nonchalance with the best of nature!O to have the gag removed from one's mouth!O to have the feeling, to-day or any day, I am suffi- cient as I am!6O something unproved! something in a trance!O madness amorous! O trembling!
[ begin page 309 ]ppp.01500.317.jpgO to escape utterly from others' anchors and holds!To drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and dangerous!To court destruction with taunts—with invitations!To ascend—to leap to the heavens of the love indicated to me!To rise thither with my inebriate Soul!To be lost, if it must be so!To feed the remainder of life with one hour of ful- ness and freedom!With one brief hour of madness and joy.