 | Poems Lyrical and Dramatic |  |
102
ALCÆUS.
Alcæus sat above the sea,
And struck across his lyre;
About him blue immensity,
And night-winds breathing fire.
He called the Queen of billowy limb
O'er billowy sand and shoal,
To take the song that broke from him
And breaking burned his soul.
And struck across his lyre;
About him blue immensity,
And night-winds breathing fire.
He called the Queen of billowy limb
O'er billowy sand and shoal,
To take the song that broke from him
And breaking burned his soul.
“Her threads of hair are amber fine,
Her lip a curling wave;
The quick flash of her turning eyne
Would thrill me in the grave.
Her cast-off zone, if one should steal,
It throngs with magic such,
That he who touches it may feel
The lightnings of her touch.
Her lip a curling wave;
The quick flash of her turning eyne
Would thrill me in the grave.
Her cast-off zone, if one should steal,
It throngs with magic such,
That he who touches it may feel
The lightnings of her touch.
103
“The gurgling rush of swollen brooks,
The hiss of southern seas,
Burst through her eager lips and looks;
Her silken-sided knees
Are pink as shells: she walks like wind,
Or light, or thought, or sound;
A tingling air she leaves behind,
A flame-track on the ground.
The hiss of southern seas,
Burst through her eager lips and looks;
Her silken-sided knees
Are pink as shells: she walks like wind,
Or light, or thought, or sound;
A tingling air she leaves behind,
A flame-track on the ground.
“So here I sit and harp all night
To storm, and cloud, and star,
Though music fails my keen delight,
And voice fades off afar.
What blast of flutes shall sweep to thee,
What lightning-word declare,
The throb of life that came to me
Through the flame-cloud of her hair?”
To storm, and cloud, and star,
Though music fails my keen delight,
And voice fades off afar.
What blast of flutes shall sweep to thee,
What lightning-word declare,
The throb of life that came to me
Through the flame-cloud of her hair?”
| Poems Lyrical and Dramatic | |