Explore "Cape Jessamines" by O. Henry on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Cape jessamines! Remove them from my sight! / I can not bear that odor, cloying sweet, / That hangs about them like a heavy sigh. / They bring back to my memory haunting days / Of deep regret, and open all my wounds again. / Fair, dream-like flower, that in this Southern town / Within the dark green copses of thy birth / Hangeth faint and heavy with thine own sweet breath, / To me ye are a mockery, and your odor foul. / Come, sit thee down, Rinaldo, I will tell thee all. / Knewest thou fair Rosamond, the Houston belle, / Who years ago, like some fair Lorelei of old / Upon the hearts of all our gallants set her feet? / I loved her madly and I swore to win / Her from the suing courtiers in her train. / Alas! Rinaldo -- this sudden faintness -- quick -- some wine! / Ah! thanks, it gives me strength to tell the tale. / For years I have not been myself. Since one / Sad night that in my mem'ry burns white-hot / Like some sad bark that washes, derelict / Within the trough of sullen alien tides, / I've drifted down the mournful muttering seas; / But at the smell of jessamines, my brain / Quick strikes those aching chords of old, / And all the latest agony revives.
It grasps me now -- more wine, Rinaldo -- thanks; / I'm better now. 'Twas on one summer's night / I stood with Rosamond to count the stars. / With downcast eyes and softly heaving breast, / She pledged a kiss for every star that fell. / My pretty, sweet, shy dove. Methinks they fell / Too seldom till, anon, some frolic boys / Sent up a sky rocket, and when it burst / Upon her lips I pressed full seventeen. / But -- peace! I wander from my theme. / At last my love o'erpowered, and I spake / In thrilling tones, and wooed her there. / What clogs my heart? More wine, Rinaldo, quick! / Oh, then she fastened on me those dark orbs, / In them illimitable sadness, and such store / Of pity that her face angelic seemed. / More wine, Rinaldo -- thanks. I'm better now.