Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE DECEIT by HARRY HIBBARD KEMP

First Line: ON THE WAY TO ISTRAL WHERE THE SEA SWEEPS / IN
Last Line: FOR A WITCH, GOD WOT, HAD SNARED ME IN THE SEMBLANCE OF A MAID!
Subject(s): DUPLICITY; LUST; NIGHT; WITCHCRAFT & WITCHES; DECEIT; BEDTIME;

ON the way to Istral where the sea sweeps in
I met and kissed a maiden irresistible as sin;
Her breasts were tipped like coral and her unbound hair
Hung thick across her bosom, and her face was fair.

I lay with her a night-space in the white moonshine
And wakened in the morning like a drunkard after wine ...

I wakened in the morning with a lover's greed
For renewal of embracement ... and embraced a weed
And a length of blackened driftwood. ... Then I rose afraid,
For a witch, God wot, had snared me in the semblance of a maid!



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