ON nights like this, when bayou and lagoon Dream in the moonlight's mystic radiance, I seem to walk like one deep in a trance With old-world myths born of the mist and moon. Lascivious eyes and mouths of sensual rose Smile into mine; and breasts of luring light, And tresses streaming golden to the night, Persuade me onward where the forest glows. And then it seems along the haunted hills There falls a flutter as of beautiful feet, As if tempestuous troops of Mænads meet To drain deep bowls and shout and have their wills. And then I feel her limbs will be revealed Like some great snow-white moth among the trees; Her vampire beauty, waiting there to seize And dance me downward where my doom is sealed. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FAIRIES OF THE CALDON LOW; A MIDSUMMER LEGEND by MARY HOWITT UPON THE SAYING THAT MY VERSES WERE MADE BY ANOTHER by ANNE KILLIGREW FARM-YARD SONG by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE THE FAIRY KING by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM I AM FREEZING by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS EPIGRAM by DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS THE FASHIONS, 1806 by LEWIS BEACH |