Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WEREWIFE, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: She came to me in a dazzling guise Last Line: And the kiss of her stung like the fang of a snake. Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Beauty; Faces; Love; Marriage; Soul; Weddings; Husbands; Wives | ||||||||
SHE came to me in a dazzling guise Of gleaming tresses and glimmering eyes, With long, limp lashes that drooped and made For their baleful glances bowers of shade; And a face so white -- so white and sleek That the roses blooming in either cheek Flamed and burned with a crimson glow Redder than ruddiest roses blow -- Redder than blood of the roses know That Autumn spills in the drifted snow. And what could my fluttering, moth-winged soul Do but hover in her control? -- With its little, bewildered bead-eyes fixed Where the gold and the white and the crimson mixed? And when the tune of her low laugh went Up from that ivory instrument That you would have called her throat, I swear The notes built nests in her gilded hair, And nestled and whistled and twittered there, And wooed me and won me to my despair. And thus it was that she lured me on, Till the latest gasp of my love was gone, And my soul lay dead, with a loathing face Turned in vain from her dread embrace, -- For even its poor dead eyes could see Her sharp teeth sheathed in the flesh of me, And her dripping lips, as she turned to shake The red froth off that her greed did make, As my heart gripped hold of a deathless ache, And the kiss of her stung like the fang of a snake. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BLESSING FOR A WEDDING by JANE HIRSHFIELD A SUITE FOR MARRIAGE by DAVID IGNATOW ADVICE TO HER SON ON MARRIAGE by MARY BARBER THE RABBI'S SON-IN-LAW by SABINE BARING-GOULD KISSING AGAIN by DORIANNE LAUX A TIME PAST by DENISE LEVERTOV A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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