Why is it, child, you choose to wear That artful 1830 air Of artlessness made artifice? To lure all lips to long to kiss The saint-like halo of your hair? "I am the spirit of a fan. Ah, once, what wanton breezes ran Across my silk and ivory! As a fan's breath is life to me, I have no heart for any man. "As a fan fluttered by a wrist, Bright lips that now are dust have kissed, I waken, out of other hours, The phantoms of forgotten flowers That hold me to a phantom tryst. "If these calm eyes, if that pure cheek, If this soft haloed hair, could speak The false, fantastic, final truth, In some remote, remembered youth I loved Gavarni for a week." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TRAFALGAR SQUARE by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES NUPTIAL SLEEP by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY TO THE ROSE UPON THE ROOD OF TIME by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS WOO NOT THE WORLD by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II |