SRANGE fabled face! From sterile shore to shore
O'er plungmg seas, thick-sprent with glistening brine,
The voyagers of the World with sail and heavy oar
Have sought thy shrine.
Beauty inexorable hath lured them on:
Remote unnamed stars enclustering gleam—
Burn in thy flowered locks, though creeping daybreak wan
:Prove thee but dream.
Noonday to night the enigma of thine eyes
Frets with desire their travel-wearied brain,
Till in the vast of dark the ice-cold moon arise
And pour them peace again;
And with malign mirage uprears an isle
Of fountain and palm, and courts of jasmine and rose,
Whence far decoy of siren throats their souls beguile,
And maddening fragrance flows.
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