Explore "Benjamin Fraser" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Their spirits beat upon mine / Like the wings of a thousand butterflies.
I closed my eyes and felt their spirits vibrating.
I closed my eyes, yet I knew when their lashes / Fringed their cheeks from downcast eyes, / And when they turned their heads;
And when their garments clung to them, / Or fell from them, in exquisite draperies.
Their spirits watched my ecstasy / With wide looks of starry unconcern.
Their spirits looked upon my torture;
They drank it as it were the water of life;
With reddened cheeks, brightened eyes / The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt, / Like the wings of a butterfly drifting suddenly into sunlight.
And they cried to me for life, life, life.
But in taking life for myself, / In seizing and crushing their souls, / As a child crushes grapes and drinks / From its palms the purple juice, / I came to this wingless void, / Where neither red, nor gold, nor wine, / Nor the rhythm of life is known.