Explore "The Paphian Venus" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ With anxious eyes and dry, expectant lips, / Within the sculptured stoa by the sea, / All day she waited while, like ghostly ships, / Long clouds rolled over Paphos: the wild bee / Hung in the sultry poppy, half asleep, / Beside the shepherd and his drowsy sheep.
/ White-robed she waited day by day; alone / With the white temple's shrined concupiscence, / The Paphian goddess on her obscene throne, / Binding all chastity to violence, / All innocence to lust that feels no shame -- / Venus Mylitta born of filth and flame.