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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  The Housemaid

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

The Housemaid

By Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947)
 
POOR pulses ready still to beat
At any sound of Love’s light feet,
Poor hungry heart too young to learn
Youth is no more, poor eyes that burn
Still on the women in the street.        5
 
O print-clad damsel, fresh and fair,
Bending above the threshold there
On supple knees and swaying line,
And honeyed curve—dear maid, be mine.
For O, I know about thy neck        10
Hide silver globes without a fleck,
About thy soft and odorous waist
I know what other joys are placed,
And those strong limbs that make a lap
As soft as down,—ah blessed hap        15
To lie therein; these round arms bare,
How strongly would you draw me there.
 
O how you make my blood a song,
And how this foolish heart will long,
And even brain will have its dream—        20
Ah there, far up the street a gleam
Turns like a wing, it is her hand,
She kisses it—we understand.