The Poetry Corner

Paradise Re-Entered

By D. H. Lawrence (David Herbert Richards)

Through the strait gate of passion, Between the bickering fire Where flames of fierce love tremble On the body of fierce desire: To the intoxication, The mind, fused down like a bead, Flees in its agitation The flames' stiff speed: At last to calm incandescence, Burned clean by remorseless hate, Now, at the day's renascence We approach the gate. Now, from the darkened spaces Of fear, and of frightened faces, Death, in our awful embraces Approached and passed by; We near the flame-burnt porches Where the brands of the angels, like torches Whirl, - in these perilous marches Pausing to sigh; We look back on the withering roses, The stars, in their sun-dimmed closes, Where 'twas given us to repose us Sure on our sanctity; Beautiful, candid lovers, Burnt out of our earthy covers, We might have nestled like plovers In the fields of eternity. There, sure in sinless being, All-seen, and then all-seeing, In us life unto death agreeing, We might have lain. But we storm the angel-guarded Gates of the long-discarded, Garden, which God has hoarded Against our pain. The Lord of Hosts, and the Devil Are left on Eternity's level Field, and as victors we travel To Eden home. Back beyond good and evil Return we. Eve dishevel Your hair for the bliss-drenched revel On our primal loam.