Marsh-Bloom

Requiem, requiem, requiem, Blood-red blossom of poison stem Broken for Man, Swamp-sunk leafage and dungeon-bloom, Seeded bearer of royal doom, What now is the ban? -- What to thee is the island grave? With desert wind and desolate wave Will they silence Death? Can they weight thee now with the heaviest stone? Can they lay aught on thee with "Be alone," That hast conquered breath? -- Lo, "it is finished"--a man for a king! Mark you well who have done this thing: The flower has roots; Bitter and rank grow the things of the sea; Ye shall know what sap ran thick in the tree When ye pluck its fruits. -- Requiem, requiem, requiem, Sleep on, sleep on, accused of them Who work our pain; A wild Marsh-blossom shall blow again From a buried root in the slime of men, On the day of the Great Red Rain. [Outro]