NE SIT ANCILLAE TIBI AMOR PUDORI by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

There's just a twinkle in your eye
That seems to say I @3might@1, if I
Were only bold enough to try
An arm about your waist.

I hear, too, as you come and go,
That pretty nervous laugh, you know;
And then your cap is always so
Coquettishly displaced.

Your cap! the word's profanely said,
That little topknot, white and red,
That quaintly crowns your graceful head,
No bigger than a flower,

You set with such a witching art,
And so provocatively smart,
I'd like to wear it on my heart,
An order for an hour!

O graceful housemaid, tall and fair,
I love your shy imperial air,
And always loiter on the stair,
When you are going by.

A strict reserve the fates demand;
But, when to let you pass I stand,
Sometimes by chance I touch your hand
And sometimes catch your eye.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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