T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Flame
By George Sterling (18691926)(1921) THOU art that madness of supreme desire, | |
Which lacking, beauty is but dross and clay. | |
Within thy veins is all the fire of day | |
And all the stars divinity of fire. | |
Thine are the lips and loins that never tire, | 5 |
And thine the bliss that makes my soul dismay. | |
Upon thy breast what god at midnight lay, | |
To make thy flesh the music of his lyre? | |
Ah! such alone should know thy loveliness! | |
Ah! such alone should know thy full caress, | 10 |
O goddess of intolerable delight! | |
I beg of Fate the guerdon and the grace, | |
Far beyond death, to know in thine embrace | |
Eternal rapture in eternal night. | |