Page:Arthur Machen, A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin.djvu/41

If they had not opened the door of the south, they would have feasted for ever,
Listening to the song of the fairy Birds of Rhiannon.
Let not anyone instruct me concerning the Glassy Isle;
In the garments of the saints who returned from it were rich odours of Paradise.
All this I knew, and yet my knowledge was ignorance.
For one day, as I walked by Caer-rhiu in the principal forest of Gwent,
I saw golden Myfanwy as she bathed in the brook Tarogi,
Her hair flowed about her; Arthur's crown had dissolved into a shining mist.
I gazed into her blue eyes as it were into twin heavens,
All the parts of her body were adornments and miracles.
O gift of the everlasting:
O wonderful and hidden mystery:
When I embraced Myfanwy a moment became immortality.

Arthur Machen