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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  Mazurka

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Mazurka

By Samuel Ward (1814–1884)

[From Lyrical Recreations. 1871.]

STAND aside while Schàmiloff,

In the hall of Pèterhof,

Drags the Queen of Beauty off,

Duchess Olga Ròmanoff,

Stemming the dance’s tide

With the Mazurka stride

Which she, so lately

Grand Duchess stately,

Follows sedately.

Now, with a victor’s pride,

Clasps he her slender waist,

Twin-like they onward glide,

As though by foemen chased;

Now casts her loose, but holds,

Vice-like, her captive hand;

While, like a tempest, rolls

Louder the frantic band.

He tramps with fiercer swing,

She his pace following

Lightly as bird on wing,

Follows without demur

His clashing heel and spur;

He proud as Lucifer,

She, as an angel calm

Trusting his iron arm

Through the wild dance’s swarm,

Till the orchestral storm

Melts into melodies

Soft as a summer breeze.

Now other steps they choose,

He in his turn pursues

And her forgiveness woos,

With a beseeching joy,

Woos her retreating coy,

When, like a thunder-clap,

Halt! bids the leader’s rap,

And Duchess Olga sees

Schàmiloff on his knees.