TO LAYLAH EIGHT-AND-TWENTY Lamp of living loveliness, Maid miraculously male, Rapture of thine own excess Blushing through the velvet veil Where the olive cheeks aglow Shadow-soften into snow, Breasts like Bacchanals afloat Under the proudly phallic throat! Be thou to my pilgrimage Light, and laughter sweet and sage, Till the darkling day expire Of my life in thy caress, Thou my frenzy and my fire, Lamp of living loveliness! Thou the ruler of the rod That beneath thy clasp extends To the galaxies of God From the gulph where ocean ends, Cave of dragon, ruby rose, Heart of hell, garden-close, Hyacinth petal sweet to smell, Split-hoof of the glad gazelle, Be thou mine as I am thine, As the vine's ensigns entwine At the sacring of the sun, Thou the even and I the odd Being and becoming one On the abacus of God! Thou the sacred snake that rears Death, a jewelled crest across The enchantment of the years, All my love that is my loss. Life and death, two and one, Hate and love, moon and sun, Light and darkness, never swerve From the norm, note the nerve, Name the name, exceed the excess Of thy lamp of loveliness, Living snake of lazy love, Ithyphallic that uprears Its Palladium above The enchantment of the years!