Page:The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) Holmes.djvu/217

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THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.
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Tranced in her Lord's Olympian smileHis lotus-loving Memphian lies,—The musky daughter of the NileWith plaited hair and almond eyes.
Might we but share one wild caressEre life's autumnal blossoms fall, And Earth's brown, clinging lips impressThe long cold kiss that waits us all!
My bosom heaves, remembering yetThe morning of that blissful day When Rose, the flower of spring, I met,And gave my raptured soul away.
Flung from her eyes of purest blue,A lasso, with its leaping chain Light as a loop of larkspurs, flewO'er sense and spirit, heart and brain.
Thou com'st to cheer my waning age,Sweet vision, waited for so long! Dove that would seek the poet's cageLured by the magic breath of song!
She blushes! Ah, reluctant maid,Love's drapeau rouge the truth has told! O'er girlhood's yielding barricadeFloats the great Leveller's crimson fold!
Come to my arms!—love heeds not years;No frost the bud of passion knows.—Ha! what is this my frenzy hears?A voice behind me uttered,—Rose!
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