T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Triumph of the Flesh
By George Moore (1852–1933)(From Pagan Poems, 1881) WE have passed from the regions of dreams and of vision | |
| And the flesh is the flesh and the rose is the rose; | |
| And we see but the absolute joy of the present | |
| In the Sunlight of beauty. | |
| I am filled with carnivorous lust: like a tiger | 5 |
| I crouch and I feed on my beautiful prey: | |
| There is nought in the monstrous world of Astarte | |
| So fair as thy body. | |
| Let me lie, let me die on thy snow-coloured bosom, | |
| I would eat of thy flesh as of delicate fruit, | 10 |
| I am drunk of its smell, and the scent of thy tresses | |
| Is as flame that devours. | |
| Thou are demon and God, thou art hell, thou art Heaven, | |
| Thou are love that is lust, thou art lust that is love, | |
| And I see but the heavenly grace of thy body, | 15 |
| A picture—a poem. * * * * * | |
| And the flesh is a soul, tho’ it be art eternal. | |