The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme :: :: University of Virginia Library

She stopped; then swiftly caught his hands
And folded him in coiling bands,
An Eden-serpent, deadly sweet
From winsome head to lissome feet.
Her snaky glances brightly stole
Through his, and paralyzed his soul.
She needed not to murmur word
Of sortilege or charm; he heard
Her witching heartbeats throb and seethe
In all his frame; he felt her breathe
Her sorceries through every vein;
He felt her magic in his brain;
He only gasped to suck perfume;
He drank her fragrant, dazing bloom;
The draught was death; he drank his doom.

She saw him fall; she saw him lost;
She uttered not a word of boast.
She saw her glamour win its prize,

And could not speak, except in sighs.
But triumph sent the pagan blood
Athwart her face in burning flood,
And lit her eyes to flamings, while
She kissed him with a syren smile,
Victorious, a queen of guile!

A soul was lost, a victim fell
For aye beneath her evil spell,
Forever fell to worship sin
And whomsoever rules therein.