TO THE IMAGE OF KUANYIN, GODDESS OF MERCY,
SEATED ON A ROCK
by: C. Doyle
- HERE
- The Lady Kuanyin sits, the air
- Is full of spray,
- And there
- It caught and damped her long black hair;
- She smiles as if all day
- There were
- All around
- Strange sea-beasts with tendrils found
- And flashing wings and frightful necks
- With fire-opal stripes and specks,
- Sapphire waves that emerald flecks,
- And a whole enchanted breeze,
- And unknown coasts with distant trees,
- And beaches starry with the twinkle
- Of agates, where the commonest sea-winkle
- Should be made
- Of sea-green jade--
- And exquisite sea-girls
- With curling hair that grows
- Just in the shape of a rose
- Turned upside down, all curls,
- And tiger teeth to tear
- Whatever flesh
- Of man or fish
- Be there--
- And in fantastic trails and sweeps
- Of pink and gold the seaweed creeps
- Up her rock, and there shall gay
- Turquoise-warted starfish play,
- And the sea
- Anemone
- Stranger than worldly ones shall be,
- And rocks with outlines curved like flame
- May all adore and know her name.
- While below
- Who shall know
- What curious horrors wind and go
- Deep beneath the island waves?
- Or who the wretches Lady Kuanyin saves
- From sorrow's drowning, or to whom
- She lets her wavelets creep and come
- To cool despair's hell-flame -- ah stronger far
- Than deities that on altars are!
- All these
- She sits and sees,
- And as well
- The unending swell,
- And quiet indescribable.
-
- She sits upon my chimney-shelf
- And sitting thinks, and smiles to herself,
- Till all around the atmosphere
- With her thoughts becomes so clear
- That unhappiness could never be
- Where they turn the air to sea.
- And her face is white as spray
- And white her robe as silver bay,
- And there she sits and thinks and smiles--
- As though she saw us also there,
- Standing unaware,
- In all the turquoise air
- Among her isles.
-
'To the Image of Kuanyin' was published
in Galleys Laden: Poems by Four Writers. Oxford: B.H.
Blackwell, 1918. |
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