When my arms wrap you round I press My heart upon the loveliness That has long faded from the world; The jewelled crowns that kings have hurled In shadowy pools, when armies fled; The love-tales wove with silken thread By dreaming ladies upon cloth That has made fat the murderous moth; The roses of that old time were Woven by ladies in their hair, The dew-cold lilies ladies bore Through many a sacred corridor Where such gray clouds of incense rose That only gods' eyes did not close: For that pale breast and lingering hand Come from a more dream-heavy land, A more dream-heavy hour than this; And when you sigh from kiss to kiss I hear white Beauty sighing, too, For hours when all must fade like dew, But flame on flame, deep under deep, Throne over throne, where in half sleep, Their swords upon their iron knees, Brood her high lonely mysteries. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BRAVE OLD OAK by HENRY FOTHERGILL CHORLEY THE CROWING OF THE RED COCK by EMMA LAZARUS SONG: THE STRICKEN DEER by THOMAS MOORE THE MORAL FABLES: THE TALE OF THE COCK, AND THE JEWEL by AESOP |