T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Puella Erotica
By Francis Saltus Saltus (18491889)(From Shadows and Ideals, 1890) SHE stands most insolent in her gems and gold, | |
Haughtily cold; | |
Draining the cool Falernian’s amber foam: | |
Her palace is the world and she its queen | |
Entrancing the obscene | 5 |
Libidinous patricians of old Rome. | |
The drunken nobles, gorged with regal feasts, | |
Crouch like tame beasts | |
Before her sandaled feet, and deck with flowers | |
The glowing Paros of her perfect breast, | 10 |
Pledging with feverish zest | |
Her stately beauty through the riotous hours. | |
Effeminate Cæsars, with a Satyr leer, | |
Sigh to her ear | |
Their brutal whine and maddening desires; | 15 |
No gleam of pleasure lingers in her glance | |
Fixed on the wanton dance, | |
Timed by the torment of a hundred lyres. | |
The boisterous laugh of Rome degenerate | |
And passionate | 20 |
Breaks thro’ the golden hall, but no rare smile | |
The indolent coral of her lip illumes; | |
She breathes the heady fumes, | |
And, statuesque, stands placid in her guile. | |
Nude slaves drag hampers of rich food and spice, | 25 |
Perfumes and ice, | |
Unto the reeking, gold-crushed board in haste, | |
With monster lampreys from Pompeii caught fresh, | |
Fed upon human flesh, | |
To tempt her morbid delicacy of taste. | 30 |
The Roman youths have vainly striven for weeks | |
Unto her cheeks | |
To bring the rose; and to her lips the strain | |
Of joyous song, but all their wealth and power, | |
Lavished within an hour, | 35 |
Move not her proud, indifferent disdain. | |
Rome is not Rome! The pampered beauty seems | |
To live in dreams, | |
Shunning of late the gladiatorial fights, | |
And the mad bacchanals she once adored | 40 |
Fail, and have not restored | |
Her shattered mien, nor tendered new delights. | |
They do not know how the proud beauty burns | |
With love, and yearns | |
For one fair, golden-headed galley slave, | 45 |
Doomed by the Emperor on the coming day | |
To be the tiger’s prey, | |
And whom by prayer or plea she cannot save! | |