Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE INCENSE DANCE, by T. LAWRASON RIGGS



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE INCENSE DANCE, by                    
First Line: Through the dim hangings, slowly cleft in twain
Last Line: In rosy haidarabad or kashmir's storied vale.
Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers; Yale University


THROUGH the dim hangings, slowly cleft in twain,
The dancer glides, white-swathed, incarnate grace --
Nor know I if that weirdly pulsing strain
Inspire the trend of her consummate pace,
Or be her footfall's airy-tuned trace.
Poised o'er her head she bears the incense tray,
A rapt, mysterious smile upon her face,
Then flowerwise stoops in languorous delay
Upon a pedestal the spicy grains to lay.

Anon the stately treading dance she turns
To drop in brazen jars at either side
Her salvered balm with lissome hand. The urns
Sudden exhale a musky, vaporous tide,
That softly glows, here green, there violet dyed;
'Neath the white veil upon her ebon hair
Of clustered headdress. Lore above compare
The incense god is whispering -- so her eyes declare.

She breathes the perfume, while the zither's strings
In rippled sweeps of fuller joyance swell,
And her lithe arms in mazy willowings
Are wound, and many a supple-woofed spell,
Potent all thoughts of more than this to quell,
Is echoed sinuous to her finger tips.
Surely from some scent-heavy lotus-bell
She comes to shroud the heart in sweet eclipse --
E'er with rapt mysterious smile upon her lips,

She brings the magic of an Indian night
Where smolder peacock-breasts of phosporgreen,
Ruffled by jungle zephyrs ne'er so light,
The while their eyed trains in myriad sheen
Sway 'gainst the lacy-fretted marble screen,
That, blanching 'neath the moon in splendor pale,
Girdles some Ranee's odorous demesne,
Glints through the haze a wreathed pearly pride,
Where echoes oft the bowered nightingale,
In rosy Haidarabad or Kashmir's storied vale.





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