THE SECOND SONNET OF BATHROLAIRE

By James Elroy Flecker

Now the sweet Dawn on brighter fields afar

Has walked among the daisies, and has breathed

The glory of the mountain winds, and sheathed

The stubborn sword of Night's last-shining star.

In Bathrolaire when Day's old doors unbar

The motley mask, fantastically wreathed,

Pass through a strong portcullis brazen teethed,

And enter glowing mines of cinnabar.

Stupendous prisons shut them out from day,

Gratings and caves and rayless catacombs,

And the unrelenting rack and tourniquet

Grind death in cells where jetting gaslight gloams,

And iron ladders stretching far away

Dive to the depths of those eternal domes.