T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Infidels
By George Sterling (1869–1926)(1921) COLD and eternal stare his eyes of stone, | |
| As now, adored across the templed gloom, | |
| The graven god exalts his granite room. | |
| Implacably his acolytes intone: | |
| The smitten gong makes answer in a groan; | 5 |
| Slowly the azures of the worship fume, | |
| Phantoms awhile of that enduring tomb, | |
| And “‘Life is evil!’” now the bonzes drone. | |
| Without, a darkness passionate with breath | |
| Of unseen flowers—a fragrance at the shrine | 10 |
| Of two that lie incredulous of death. | |
| The grass is cool beneath her, and the night | |
| Holds, as a rose her immaterial wine, | |
| The moan and murmur of the old delight. | |