Authors note: According to Rabbinical legend, Adam and Lilith, his first wife, quarreled as soon as they were created, as to which should be master. Lilith, in anger at Adam's claim, repeated a spell which gave her wings, and fled to the wild placed of the earth. She married Sammael, a fallen Angel, and in conspiracy with him compassed the fall of Adam and Eve by borrowing the form of the Serpent which guarded the gate of Eden, and tempting the woman from the midst of the foliage of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Hence in old Italian pictures of the Temptation, the Serpent is sometimes represented with a beautiful woman's face. A curse was laid on Lilith that no child of hers should live: and she henceforth had a terrible power over children, who, when they sicken and die, are said to be bewitched by her. She was doomed forever to wander unseen, unloved, alone.

-Darl Macleod Boyle

 

Where Lilith Dances

I.
Where the tall cypresses stand dark
Against the setting sun,
And the shades of the night lurk in their leaves
Ere ever the night be won,
And the great white owl, he waits for her
Who comes when the day is done:

II.
Or, in the glade of a mystic wood,
Beneath a midnight sky,
Where the satyrs dance 'neath the strange, gaunt trees,
And the moon looks from on high:
O, the wicked moon, she sees and laughs,
As she passes swiftly by!
But the pale, shy stars turn their eyes away
From the light in Lilith's eye:

III.
For the dead gaunt trees feel their buds break green
When Lilith dances past,
And the little twigs all shake with joy
And whisper soft "At last!"
And the little night-flowers smile and sigh,
For the morning cometh fast;
And the holy starts had no peace in heaven
Saw they her gliding past!

IV.
O, the weird white mistletoe bends from the oak,
As she danceth beneath the trees,
And the perfume of dark night-flowers creeps out
And hangs on the trembling breeze,
And the dim red poppy, whose name is Dream
Longs for her flowing hair,
And the great white poppy of dreamless sleep
Droops over Lilith's lair,
But the wine-dark poppy, whose gift is Death
Stands lone in the chill night air!

V.
Or, in a storm-vext mountain pass
By the torrents' shuddering foam,
She danceth with the lonely winds
And the clouds that know on home;
Content, remembering Lilith's face,
Round the round world to roam!

VI.
And by the side of a reedy stream
On a white dream-night in June,
When reed and iris whisper soft
Their secrets to the moon,
Her feet keep time to the pipes of Pan,
As he plays a mystic tune,
And the young wind wakes before the dawn,
The dawn that breaks too soon.

VII.
Or, ofttimes through a little town
Built long and long ago,
She glides adown the grass-grown ways,
Beneath the full moon's glow,
O the moon gleams red o'er the ancient down,
As Lilith passes slow!

VIII.
Or in some antique garden strays,
Beneath a hedge of yew,
And from the rich red roses shakes
The treasures of the dew:
But she goes not nigh the lilies tall
The Virgin's lilies white,
For Lilith loves not Mary's flower,
Gift of the Angel bright:
She loves the poppy whose name is Sleep,
And the deadly flowers of night.

IX.
Or when the weird white hawthorn makes
A glimmer in the night.
And all the trees are dreaming deep
Bathed in the chill moonlight,
'Tis there and then that Lilith meets
The spirits of the night:

X.
In the dim, haunted vale they dance
Besides the pools of sleep,
But they go not up the mountain side
That rises grey and steep,
For there the lonely rowan trees
Their holy vigil keep.

XI.
Or, when the first faint flush of dawn
Tinges the desert sands,
And the desert, like a mighty sea,
Stretches to distant lands,
Ere ever the sun has risen yet,
For a moment's space she stands

XII.
Or on the waves of the foaming sea
She dances through the night,
And rides through the mist of the dashing spray,
On the great wave-crests of white.
She sports with sea-maids on the sands,
Besides the moaning waves,
And the sea-flowers quiver and cling to her
As she glides through ocean-caves,
And the lonely sailor hears her song
Rise through the surging waves.

XIII.
Oft in the dreaming meadows,
When children are at play,
Beside the flower-twined hedgegrow,
At the dim close of day,
Poor childless Lilith beckons,
And bids the children stay,
But at one glance from Lilith's eyes
Their white souls flee away!

XIV.
And mortal man who sees her dance,
By wood or lake or shore,
Will roam the world for love of her,
Nor knows he joyance more,
And he who heareth Lilith sing
Will ne'er be as before.

XV.
For in her song are youth and age,
Evening, the sea-waves knell,
And storm, and death, and moonlit skies,
And thoughts that none may tell,
And he who hears can ne'er have peace,
Through Earth and Heaven and Hell!


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