The Pagan + 

I walked into her Temple, as of yore + 

My Tyrian sires, allured by cryptic signs; + 

But sudden as I entered closed the door + 

Upon the hope that mortal love resigns + 

Before her ancient, myrtle-bowered shrines. + 

I sorrowed not; though every lamp I lit + 

Flamed up in speech articulate and said, + 

Beware, O foolish Worshipper! ’t is writ: + 

“Who craves a gift shall give his soul instead, + 

Who lights a lamp is cursèd of the dead.” + 

I did not heed; I passed from shrine to shrine, + 

Filling the lamps with oil, the Fane with light; + 

But when I approached, O One Eternal, thine, + 

I heard the terror of her tongue, and Night + 

Was creeping on her brow of malachite. + 

I did not stop, although the votive oil + 

I poured into thine urn to water turned; + 

But when the Dawn her enchantments came to foil, + 

The secret of thy clemency I learned⁠— + 

Again the oil upon thine altar burned. + 

Then suddenly the Temple shook and swayed, + 

And all the shrines, except thine, disappeared; + 

Even so her heart, by knowledge undismayed, + 

On Love’s one altar with thy hand upreared, + 

To Love’s one God is evermore endeared. + 