AQUARIUM

by: Maurice Maeterlinck

OW my desires no more, alas,

Summon my soul to my eyelids' brink,

For with its prayers that ebb and pass

It too must sink,

 

To lie in the depth of my closéd eyes;

Only the flowers of its weary breath

Like icy blooms to the surface rise,

Lilies of death.

 

Its lips are sealed, in the depths of woe,

And a world away, in the far-off gloom,

They sing of azure stems that grow

A mystic bloom.

 

But lo, its fingers--I have grown

Pallid beholding them, I who perceive

Them traces the marks its poor unblown

Lost lilies leave.

 

And I know it must die, for its hour is o'er;

Folding its impotent hands at last,

Hands too weary to pluck any more

The flowers of the past!

• The Intruder - Complete text of the play by Maurice Maeterlinck.
• Mary Magdalene - A monologue from the play by Maeterlinck.
• Maurice Maeterlinck - A brief biography of the playwright sometimes called the "Belgian Shakespeare."
• Maurice Maeterlinck: Bibliography - A bibliography of the works of Maurice Maeterlinck; includes a list of critical and biographical resources.
• Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) - An examination of the works of Belgian poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck.
• Symbolism and Maurice Maeterlinck - An analysis of the works of Belgian poet and dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck.
• Purchase books by Maurice Maeterlinck