University of Virginia Library

55   Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore;
Twenty-eight young men, and all so friendly:
Twenty-eight years of womanly life, and all so lone-     some.
56  She owns the fine house by the rise of the bank;
She hides, handsome and richly drest, aft the blinds      of the window.
57  Which of the young men does she like the best?
Ah, the homeliest of them is beautiful to her.
58  Where are you off to, lady? for I see you;
You splash in the water there, yet stay stock still in      your room.
59  Dancing and laughing along the beach came the      twenty-ninth bather;
The rest did not see her, but she saw them and loved      them.
60  The beards of the young men glisten'd with wet, it      ran from their long hair;
Little streams pass'd all over their bodies.
61  An unseen hand also pass'd over their bodies;
It descended tremblingly from their temples and      ribs.
62  The young men float on their backs — their white      bellies bulge to the sun — they do not ask who      seizes fast to them;
They do not know who puffs and declines with pen-     dant and bending arch;
They do not think whom they souse with spray.