(please refer to author's note, first)

I smuggle in; a contraband

Stolen to forgotten land

Affixed to a sapience, rare

Shadowed by a mystic prayer

Its name, Irene, and deep she sighs

Amid her breaths; in sleep she lies

And as in death, her face is still

To, the prophecy, fulfill

Statuesque, in hallowed hall

The silence doth her mem'ry lull

And lids, as the cover of night, falling

Blind her to the light, now calling

To restore her sight as recompense

(In this) her lethe residence

A sepulchre that ne'er relents

Its grasp upon this porcelain masque

Refusing air, beneath her cask

Wherefore lies this sleeper, cunning

What spell has wrought her gaze, once stunning

And liquid voice of water, running

To frozen stillness, 'neath the earth

And stolen from her virgin birth

The innocence of ancient knoll

And taken from her youthful soul

In that olden garden, growing

The golden bowl of beauty sowing

Between four rivers, lively flowing

The love of wind and sea and lyre

She whose laugh ordains desire

That now moans mute, held by the hand

Of noxious host, in pale dream-land

Encased within her mind's restriction

By the master's malediction

Who renders all my pleas un-sount

Beneath his lofty prison mount

Upon where trickles Cupid's fount

The man, the lady, has enthralled

(If man, his visage could be called)

By tender melodies, which conceal

Her perception from the real

Exchanging it for eternal trance;

The dirge and haunting-spirit's dance

Wisp in her head like whirling smoke

Do clarity and aspiration choke

O lady, lady, fairest; mine

Let not the truth, forever pine

Rise up into the lake, above

Unbarred by sleep, for truest love

This ring that spews its zeal about

Through marble heaven-pointed spout

Sprays high into the June-lit sky

To lift your mind above the lie;

To painted peace you lend your eye

But this dream has not always been

Recall the airs of summer, seen

Truly then, not so subdued

As now; this dream so blindly hued

Behold, again these morning skies

Forgo your passionless sighs

O sleeper, dearest one, arise