MYRRH sweetens all their supple limbs; they muse With flesh not loathful of the chilly flaws. A brazier mid the steady wafture draws Now flame now shadow o'er their pallid hues. On cushioned beds the crimson swathings fuse With marble and amber of fair limbs at pause, Upright or bending thro' the filmy gauze That shows the suave lines of their pliant thews. An Asian woman, bare amid the billow Of the warm air-stream, like a writhen willow Lifts nerveless arms and shivers in the wind; Whereat the Ausonian maidens pale as swans, Do marvel at the swarthy tresses twined Sleek and untrammelled round her bust of bronze. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON LADY POLTAGRUE: A PUBLIC PERIL by HILAIRE BELLOC PLEDGE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON JULY IN GEORGY by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: SHACK DYE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE NEGRO'S TRAGEDY by CLAUDE MCKAY |