Isaac Rosenberg

Here you will find the Poem Ah, Koelue of poet Isaac Rosenberg

Ah, Koelue

Ah, Koelue! 
Had you embalmed your beauty, so 
It could not backward go, 
Or change in any way, 
What were the use, if on my eyes 
The embalming spices were not laid 
To keep us fixed, 
Two amorous sculptures passioned endlessly? 
What were the use, if my sight grew, 
And its far branches were cloud-hung, 
You small at the roots, like grass, 
While the new lips my spirit would kiss 
Were not red lips of flesh, 
But the huge kiss of power? 
Where yesterday soft hair through my fingers fell, 
A shaggy mane would entwine, 
And no slim form work fire to my thighs, 
But human Life's inarticulate mass 
Throb the pulse of a thing 
Whose mountain flanks awry 
Beg my mastery -- mine! 
Ah! I will ride the dizzy beast of the world 
My road -- my way!