DEIRDRE
A yearning wonder in the wind that kissed
The shyly nodding sprays of blackthorn blossom,
And terror in the sudden clinging mist
A veil close drawn to hide a panting bosom.
The plaintive crooning of the foamless water
Grew to a voice that faintly sobbing cried
"Naois brought the King of Scotland's daughter
A white doe with her fawnling by her side."
The low hills dappled mauve and dun and gold
Deepened to violet, to crimson pale
As though they knew her passing once again—
That Rose of Sorrow, sweetest Rose of Old.
And then beyond all suns I heard a wail,
A cry of anguish for one lately slain.
The shyly nodding sprays of blackthorn blossom,
And terror in the sudden clinging mist
A veil close drawn to hide a panting bosom.
The plaintive crooning of the foamless water
Grew to a voice that faintly sobbing cried
"Naois brought the King of Scotland's daughter
A white doe with her fawnling by her side."
The low hills dappled mauve and dun and gold
Deepened to violet, to crimson pale
As though they knew her passing once again—
That Rose of Sorrow, sweetest Rose of Old.
And then beyond all suns I heard a wail,
A cry of anguish for one lately slain.
THE MOTHER OF MEROVEE
As with both hands she backward drew the mass
Of tawny hair that veiled her to the knee
Heavy with wet, and forward leaned to see
Mirrored as clear as in unwrinkled glass
Shoulder and bosom smooth and rosy warm,
And the sweet dimpling of her girlish throat,
The blinding azure seemed to rise and float
And dazzle toward her in a wondrous form
Of ivory and gold and chrysoprase
With fins that opalescent smote the spray,
And locks that outward spreading hotly flamed
Against the paler sunlight, and a face
Of fierce inhuman beauty. Flee away?
Too late—she waited shrinking and ashamed.
Of tawny hair that veiled her to the knee
Heavy with wet, and forward leaned to see
Mirrored as clear as in unwrinkled glass
Shoulder and bosom smooth and rosy warm,
And the sweet dimpling of her girlish throat,
The blinding azure seemed to rise and float
And dazzle toward her in a wondrous form
Of ivory and gold and chrysoprase
With fins that opalescent smote the spray,
And locks that outward spreading hotly flamed
Against the paler sunlight, and a face
Of fierce inhuman beauty. Flee away?
Too late—she waited shrinking and ashamed.
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