And then I knew the first vague bliss That swept through Lilith like strange fire, Consuming all her loveliness With one imperious desire, When in the twilight she beheld, Through the green apple shades obscure, The Lord God moulding from the dust Her splendid virgin paramour. I knew what aching shudder ran Through the dark bearers, file on file, When Pharaoh's daughter went to merge Her peerless beauty in the Nile; What slumbering deliciousness Awoke beside the Dorian stream When the young prince from over sea Broke on the lovely Spartan's dream; And all the fervour and desire, The raptures and the ecstasies, Of Aucassin and Nicollette, Of Abelard and Heloïse, And all the passionate despair, So bravely borne for many a year, Of Tristram and the dark Iseult, Of Launcelot and Guinevere! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...UPON WEDLOCK, AND DEATH OF CHILDREN by EDWARD TAYLOR ON HIS RETURN FROM SPAIN by THOMAS WYATT BOX-CAR LETTERS by KARLE WILSON BAKER MY CHRISTIAN NAME by DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK MY TREASURE by WILLIAM ARTHUR DUNKERLEY |