BORGIA
OH, Love, why do you call to me to come
To this your feast of barren, Dead-Sea fruit?
Have I not eaten of your feasts before,
Amid the sound of dulcimer and lute?
Have I not heard your praises sung
By voices that, alas, have long been mute?
Long since in gardens perfumed and bedecked,
'Mid light and laughter, royal and divine,
The Borgias offered death in jeweled cups,
To those who drank of their rare-vintaged wine.
Ah, Love! last Borgia of a race accursed,
I know each velvet trickery of thine.
In every song there lurks a threat of tears,
In every flower there hides a sudden sting;
And he who laughs his fill when Borgia smiles,
Must pay the score in Borgia's reckoning.
Full great the price for such a passing joy—
The swan must die—that Love may hear him sing.
Ah, wily host, who opens lavish doors,
And offers me my wish and full desire!
I know full well the hand that becks me—strikes—
I know thee, Borgia—thief and subtle liar!
Yet will I sell my hard-won pallid peace
For this last cup of poison and of fire!
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1940, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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