CHILD of lubricious art! of sanguine sport! Of pangful mirth! sweet ermin'd sprite! Who lov'st, with silent, velvet step, to court The bashful bosom of the night. Whose elfin eyes can pierce night's sable gloom, And witch her fairy prey with guile, Who sports fell frolic o'er the grisly tomb, And gracest death with dimpling smile! Daughter of ireful mirth, sportive in rage, Whose joy should shine in sculptur'd base relief, Like Patience, in rapt Shakespeare's deathless page, Smiling in marble at wan grief. Oh, come and teach me all thy barb'rous joy, To sport with sorrow first, and then destroy. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CENSUS-TAKER by ROBERT FROST THE LISTENERS by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE FLANNAN ISLE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON FABLE; ROME, 1875 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE REEDS by KONSTANTIN DMITRIYEVICH BALMONT COMMENDATORY VERSES TO MASSINGER'S PLAY, 'THE BONDMAN' by WILLIAM BASSE |