The Soul of Osiris

THE COURT OF THE PROFANE. 7 For, swooning at the fervid lips Of Artemis, the maiden kisses Sob, and the languid body slips Down to enamelled wildernesses. Fallen and loose the shaken tresses ; Fallen the sandal and girdling gold, Fallen the music manifold Of moving limbs and strange caresses, And deadly passion that possesses The magic ecstasy of these Mad maidens, tender as blue seas. Night spreads her yearning pinions, The baffled day sinks blind to sleep ; The evening breeze outswoons the sun’s Dead kisses to the swooning deep. Upsoars the moon ; the flashing steep Of heaven is fragrant for her feet ; The perfume of the grove is sweet As slumbering women furtive creep To bosoms where small kisses weep, And find in fervent dreams the kiss Most memoried of Artemis. Impenetrable pleasure dies Beneath the madness of new dreams ; The slow sweet breath is turned to sighs More musical than many streams Under the moving silver beams,