I Make way for the dancers! Sappho sings . . . . Shall they dance When their wombs are heavy With the seed of the Conqueror? Make way! II Two come With breasts of bronze And feet of ivory. They dance And Sappho sings And the sea echoes. Bare limbs in the moonlight That burn with shame . . . . III Silver and gold Is the Agean sea -- The dancers tire. Silver and gold Their dark, attared hair . . . . Delight sinks, drugged, asleep; Madness awakes -- Beauty cries out, aghast. IV Waken, O sterile breasts! These are my lips that stain! These are my hands that slay! . . . . Your mouth melts into mine As a pomegranate broken -- Our flesh fuses As dusk with darkness. You are flame In the midnight of youth That was ashes. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN EQUAL SACRIFICE by ROBERT FROST ISOLATION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON WE FACE THE FUTURE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DOMESDAY BOOK: AT NICE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS TWO SONNETS: 1 by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON |