Falerina by Madison Cawein

/ The night is hung above us, love, / With heavy stars that love us, love, / With clouds that curl in purple and pearl, / And winds that whisper of us, love: / On burly hills and valleys, that lie dimmer, / The amber foot-falls of the moon-sylphs glimmer.

/ The moon is still a crescent, love; / And here with thee 'tis pleasant, love, / To sit and dream in its thin gleam, / And list thy sighs liquescent, love: / To see thy eyes and fondle thy dark tresses, / Set on warm lips imperishable kisses.

/ The sudden-glaring fire-flies / Swim o'er the hollow gyre-wise, / And spurt and shine like jostled wine / At lips on which desire lies: / Or like the out-flashed hair of elf or fairy / In rapid morrice whirling feat and airy.

/ Up, -- all the blue West sundering, -- / A creamy cloud comes blundering / O'er star and steep, and opening deep / Grows gold with silent thundering: / Gold flooding crystal crags immeasurable, / Lost Avalons of old Romance and Fable.

/ The bee dreams in the cherry bloom / That sways above the berry bloom; / The katydid grates where she's hid / In leafy deeps of dreary gloom: / The forming dew is globing on the grasses, / Like rich spilled gems of some dark queen that passes.

/ The mere brief gusts are wrinkling; / A thousand ripples twinkling / Have caught the stars on polished spars / Their rustling ridges sprinkling: / And all the shadow lurking in its bosom / Is touched and bursten into golden blossom.

/ Stoop! and my being flatter, love; / With sudden starlight scatter, love, / From the starry grace of thy rare face, / Whose might can make or shatter, love! / Come, raiment love in love's own radiant garments. / And kindle all my soul to rapturous torments!

/ Bow all thy beauty to me, love, / Lips, eyes, and hair to woo me, love, / As bows and blows some satin rose / Snow-soft and tame, that knew thee, love. / Unto the common grass, that worshiping cowers, / Dowering its love with all her musk of flowers.