Princesse Verte

That night I drank deeply and long of my favourite nectar
Glass after glass I prepared, and drained each one off with insatiable and ever-increasing apetite

I drank till the solid walls of my own room, when I atlast found myself there
Appeared to me like transparent glass, shot throughout with emerald flame
Surrounded on all sides by phantoms

Beautiful, hideous, angelic, devilish

I reeled to my couch in a sort of waking swoon, conscious of strange sounds everywhere
Like the clanging of brazen bells, and the silver fanfaranade of the trumpets of war
Conscious too of a similar double sensation -
Namely, as though Myself were divided into two persons, who opposed eachother in deadly combat
In which neither could possibly obtain even the merest shadow-victory!