Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VARIATIONS: 14, by CONRAD AIKEN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VARIATIONS: 14, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Beautiful body made of ivory
Last Line: Quietly you possess me.
Subject(s): Beauty; Dreams; Nightmares


Beautiful body made of ivory,
Beautiful body made of ivory and roses,
Beautiful body made of gold and beaten silver,
Garlanded with ivy, --
Colder than starlight you stand and wait me;
Colder than starlight on the snow of mountains;
Whiter than starlight on the snow of oceans
You wait and are silent.
Beautiful dreamer of dreams;
Beautiful dreamer of cold-hearted music;
Roseate dreamer of involuted music,
Chords of tense silver;
Clearly you sound to me in the night time,
Solemnly, like a rich wind moving,
You move in my heart's enchanted forests,
You sigh and are restless.
Beautiful dream of the dreamer,
Rare dream profoundly and curiously unfolding, --
Unfolding like a lotus in waves of cool fragrance,
Unfolding in slow measure,
You are like moonlight prodigally unfolding;
You are like the universe of stars unfolding,
Unfolding in slow clouds of sound and silence,
Grave and immortal.

Beautiful body made of roses;
Beautiful body made of roses and sea-waves;
Beautiful body with eyes of cold starlight,
Slow-moving dreamer;

Beautiful woman made of love,
White body made of dreamdust and stardust,
Silently and sedately you enter me, --
Quietly you possess me.





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