quote · Legacy record
O thou most dear! Who art thy sex’s complex harmony God-set more facilely; To thee may love draw near Without one blame or fear. Unchidden save by his humility: Thou Perseus’ Shield wherein I view secure The mirrored Woman’s fateful-fair allure! Whom Heaven still leaves a twofold dignity, As girlhood gentle, and as boyhood free; With whom no most diaphanous webs enwind The barèd limbs of the rebukeless mind. Wild Dryad, all unconscious of thy tree, With which indissólubly The tyrannous time shall one day make thee whole; Whose frank arms pass unfretted through its bole Who wear’st thy femineity Light as entrailèd blossoms, that shalt find It erelong silver shackles unto thee. Thou whose young sex is yet but in thy soul;— As hoarded in the vine Hang the gold skins of undelirious wine, As air sleeps, till it toss its limbs in breeze;— In whom the mystery which lures and sunders; Grapples and thrusts apart; endears, estranges, —The dragon to its own Hesperides— Is gated under slow-revolving changes, Manifold doors of heavy-hingèd years. So once, ere Heaven’s eyes were filled with wonders To see Laughter rise from Tears, Lay in beauty not yet mighty, Conchèd in translucencies, The antenatal Aphodrite, Caved magically under magic seas; Caved dreamlessly beneath the dreamful seas.
O thou most dear! Who art thy sex’s complex harmony God-set more facilely; To thee may love draw near Without one blame or fear. Unchidden save by his humility: Thou Perseus’ Shield wherein I view secure The mirrored Woman’s fateful-fair allure! Whom Heaven still leaves a twofold dignity, As girlhood gentle, and as boyhood free; With whom no most diaphanous webs enwind The barèd limbs of the rebukeless mind. Wild Dryad, all unconscious of thy tree, With which indissólubly The tyrannous time shall one day make thee whole; Whose frank arms pass unfretted through its bole Who wear’st thy femineity Light as entrailèd blossoms, that shalt find It erelong silver shackles unto thee. Thou whose young sex is yet but in thy soul;— As hoarded in the vine Hang the gold skins of undelirious wine, As air sleeps, till it toss its limbs in breeze;— In whom the mystery which lures and sunders; Grapples and thrusts apart; endears, estranges, —The dragon to its own Hesperides— Is gated under slow-revolving changes, Manifold doors of heavy-hingèd years. So once, ere Heaven’s eyes were filled with wonders To see Laughter rise from Tears, Lay in beauty not yet mighty, Conchèd in translucencies, The antenatal Aphodrite, Caved magically under magic seas; Caved dreamlessly beneath the dreamful seas.
In print by 1921 AD · modern
Recorded in a printed collection by this date; the original date of these words is still unknown.
Meaning not yet available
An individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.
Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Francis Thompson (identity unresolved)
Attribution: unknown - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- In print by 1921 AD · modern
In print by 1921: recorded in My Commonplace Book (third English edition,1921). Collection publication is an upper bound for this wording, not its earliest origin, composition date or the author's lifetime.
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- My Commonplace Book (third English edition,1921) (1921 AD)
Page 93 · printed citation: Francis Thompson (Sister Songs). · compiler notes excluded
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.