—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.

         —T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

When you were in the dark forest—transported, sightless,
fevered by fragrance and joy,
and home, the Stone, called you
to dim lights and literary dreams,
the unsaid flowed between us
stirred by a warm balsam of memories so precious
one must keep them vague,
and by a rapture so violent
it must be domesticated
You said: let’s not leave this cold castle
as you pointed around to things, on walls on mantles, saying:
These were born of pure utilitarian need, a function—that’s all, you know
and this is how I came to understand that Imagination is man’s only natural state,
and Beauty his revenge for The Fall.
Our spectral evenings: a Holbein jigsaw as it rained and rained;
details about Cranach and Dürer, too
Artists do not “develop”! you thundered,
then looking up, you smiled, and said:
The Truth, my dear, does not set one free—my God, how they’ve lied to us…
nothing imprisons a man more; nothing makes him retreat further into himself
So let’s not leave this cold castle
That tapestry you think so beautiful?—purely to keep out the cold, the damp. Nothing more.
The Stone is old, and every monarchy was born poor.
So we stayed on—soft lights and literary dreams,
(I like best that part of the tower almost destroyed by the Turks),
knowing that in weeks we’d scale a nearby mountain to see the noble-white flower
famed in this land,
starry, lonely, and rare;
the venerated mountain-woods flower of the most inaccessible cliffs,
and of the collars of the emperor’s best men, his lost men;
that takes root as earth has frozen over,
and, too, blossoms in the cold.

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.

The featured image is courtesy of Pixabay.

All comments are moderated and must be civil, concise, and constructive to the conversation. Comments that are critical of an essay may be approved, but comments containing ad hominem criticism of the author will not be published. Also, comments containing web links or block quotations are unlikely to be approved. Keep in mind that essays represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Imaginative Conservative or its editor or publisher.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email