The Laurel in the Generalife Garden
In the Generalife a lovely laurel,
Gay as victory and glad as love,
Bathes its boughs in fountain mists auroral,
Hides a pearl within each bloom of coral.
And the green earth smiles to heaven above.
Like a blushing girl elate and slender,
Tint of flesh it taketh with the spring;
Like an odalisk in her nude splendour,
Waiting by the water, flushed and tender,
Ready for her fair apparelling.
Beauteous laurel! Many a mystic hour
Have I rested me beside its form,
Sealed my lips upon its precious flower —
Sweet red mouth! — and, thrilling to its power,
Felt it give me back my kisses warm.