T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
To
By Francis Saltus Saltus (18491889)(From Honey and Gall, 1873) SLEEP and dream, lissome maid, while in rapture | |
I caress thy grand poem of flesh; | |
While I toy with each rich purple mesh | |
Or gnarled tresses: when striving to capture | |
All the hot biting odors from lips— | 5 |
Half apart with the sweetness that slips | |
From thy dimpled white smilings, sleep-fresh. | |
’Tis the perfect round curve of thy shoulder, | |
And thy sleek supple flanks I admire. | |
For thy moonish-white skin doth inspire | 10 |
My hot, vexed, restless gaze to pierce bolder; | |
For thou sleepest, and red is thy dream | |
With the naphtha of lust, and its gleam | |
From the snows of thy breast hurls its fire. | |
Nay, awake not, nor turn, till I press thee, | 15 |
For thy sleep is consoling as Night. | |
And thy calm dreams shall taste the fire-might | |
Of Love’s blendings, as mad, I caress thee, | |
And thy white form with red kisses mark— | |
Till thine eyes wake from lethargies dark— | 20 |
To the glamours and splendors of light. | |
Then from dream-bliss to Life-bliss arisen, | |
Thine hot tears, my hot tears will dispute, | |
Then thy low pant sounds softer than lute | |
To my ear; and thy bare arms imprison— | 25 |
A no longer wild phantom of sighs, | |
For thou closest thy large blurrèd eyes, | |
And liest wond’ring, nude, pallid, and mute! | |
Let my kisses then follow incessant, | |
O’er thy lips, o’er thy soft cheek of fur: | 30 |
Let them moisten, as sultry they err | |
The black shade of thy silk brows’ crescent— | |
While I breathe the mysterious air, | |
From thy chaos of undulate hair, | |
Vague and dreamy as memories of myrrh. | 35 |