WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.570 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.570 --> 00:00:05.760 align:middle line:84% I'll read some more serious poems now. 00:00:05.760 --> 00:00:13.890 align:middle line:84% And I think I'll start with The Equilibrists. 00:00:13.890 --> 00:00:19.170 align:middle line:84% That is the balance of the people. 00:00:19.170 --> 00:00:20.550 align:middle line:90% Balanced, and yet apart. 00:00:20.550 --> 00:00:27.030 align:middle line:84% The lovers who could not consummate their love. 00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:31.050 align:middle line:84% Full of her long, white arms and milky skin. 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:35.310 align:middle line:84% He had a thousand times remembered sin. 00:00:35.310 --> 00:00:38.370 align:middle line:84% Alone in the press of people, traveled he. 00:00:38.370 --> 00:00:42.690 align:middle line:84% Minding her jacinth, and myrrh, and ivory. 00:00:42.690 --> 00:00:44.370 align:middle line:90% Mouth, he remembered. 00:00:44.370 --> 00:00:46.560 align:middle line:84% The great orifice from which came 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.440 align:middle line:90% heat that flamed upon the kiss. 00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:53.820 align:middle line:84% To cold words came down spirals from the head. 00:00:53.820 --> 00:00:59.040 align:middle line:84% Gray doves from the officious tower, ill spared. 00:00:59.040 --> 00:01:03.060 align:middle line:84% Body-- it was a white field, ready for love. 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:07.470 align:middle line:84% On her body's field, with a gaunt tower above, 00:01:07.470 --> 00:01:08.580 align:middle line:90% the lilies grew. 00:01:08.580 --> 00:01:12.420 align:middle line:84% Beseeching him to take, if he would pluck and wear them, 00:01:12.420 --> 00:01:14.910 align:middle line:90% bruise and break. 00:01:14.910 --> 00:01:16.500 align:middle line:90% Eyes talking. 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:19.170 align:middle line:90% Never mind the cruel words. 00:01:19.170 --> 00:01:23.580 align:middle line:84% Embrace my flowers, but not embrace the swords. 00:01:23.580 --> 00:01:27.570 align:middle line:84% But what they said, the doves came straight with flying, 00:01:27.570 --> 00:01:29.040 align:middle line:90% and unsaid. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:32.820 align:middle line:90% Honor, honor they came crying. 00:01:32.820 --> 00:01:35.250 align:middle line:90% Impersonate her doves. 00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:37.830 align:middle line:90% Too pure, too wise. 00:01:37.830 --> 00:01:42.960 align:middle line:84% Clambering on his shoulder saying, Arise, leave me now, 00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:45.120 align:middle line:90% and never let us meet. 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:50.010 align:middle line:84% Eternal distance now, command thy feet. 00:01:50.010 --> 00:01:54.150 align:middle line:84% Predicament indeed, which such discovers honor among thieves, 00:01:54.150 --> 00:01:56.850 align:middle line:90% honor between lovers. 00:01:56.850 --> 00:01:59.820 align:middle line:84% Oh, such a little word his honor, they feel. 00:01:59.820 --> 00:02:05.130 align:middle line:84% But the great word is between them, cold as steel. 00:02:05.130 --> 00:02:07.500 align:middle line:84% At length I saw these lovers full level 00:02:07.500 --> 00:02:11.190 align:middle line:84% come into their torture of equilibrium. 00:02:11.190 --> 00:02:14.010 align:middle line:84% Dreadfully, had fore-sworn each other. 00:02:14.010 --> 00:02:19.170 align:middle line:84% And yet they were bound each to each, and they did not forget. 00:02:19.170 --> 00:02:22.770 align:middle line:84% And rigid as two painful stars and toiled 00:02:22.770 --> 00:02:26.340 align:middle line:84% about the cloistered night their prison world. 00:02:26.340 --> 00:02:30.420 align:middle line:84% They burned with fierce love always to come near, 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:35.190 align:middle line:84% but honor beat them back, and kept them clear. 00:02:35.190 --> 00:02:39.630 align:middle line:84% The strict lovers, they are ruined now, I cried in anger. 00:02:39.630 --> 00:02:45.240 align:middle line:84% But with puzzled brow, devising for those devoted and brave, 00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:50.230 align:middle line:84% came a discounting man what would you have? 00:02:50.230 --> 00:02:54.360 align:middle line:84% For spin your period out, and draw your breath. 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:58.050 align:middle line:84% A kind of speculum begins with death. 00:02:58.050 --> 00:03:01.800 align:middle line:84% Would you ascend to heaven, and bodiless dwell? 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:05.310 align:middle line:84% Or take your bodies, honorless, to hell. 00:03:05.310 --> 00:03:08.370 align:middle line:84% In heaven, you have heard no marriage is. 00:03:08.370 --> 00:03:11.040 align:middle line:84% No white flesh tender to your lecheries. 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:15.540 align:middle line:84% Your male and female tissue, sweetly shapes sublimed away. 00:03:15.540 --> 00:03:18.900 align:middle line:90% And furious blood escaped. 00:03:18.900 --> 00:03:21.120 align:middle line:90% Great lovers lie in hell. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:25.470 align:middle line:84% The stubborn ones infatuated the flesh upon the bones. 00:03:25.470 --> 00:03:28.920 align:middle line:84% Stoop raped, they rend each other when they kiss. 00:03:28.920 --> 00:03:33.660 align:middle line:84% The pieces kiss again, no end to this. 00:03:33.660 --> 00:03:38.160 align:middle line:84% But still I watch them spinning, orbited nice. 00:03:38.160 --> 00:03:42.360 align:middle line:84% Their flames were not more radiant than their ice. 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:46.110 align:middle line:84% I dug in the quiet Earth and wrought the tomb. 00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:51.180 align:middle line:84% And made these lines to memorize their doom. 00:03:51.180 --> 00:03:53.610 align:middle line:90% Equlibrists lie here. 00:03:53.610 --> 00:03:56.340 align:middle line:90% Stranger, tread light. 00:03:56.340 --> 00:03:59.790 align:middle line:84% Close, but untouching in each other's sight. 00:03:59.790 --> 00:04:01.200 align:middle line:90% Molded, the lips. 00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:03.900 align:middle line:90% And ashy, the tall skull. 00:04:03.900 --> 00:04:08.150 align:middle line:84% Let them lie-- perilous, and beautiful.