Because you are fair as souls of the lost are fair,
As your eyes twinkle with promise, your leaping feet
Are winged with desire, and your hands wantonly wander, and sweet
Is the breath of love in your lips, and the rose in your hair
Sweet, alive, a promise sweet to be sought,
And the maze you tread is as old as the world,
Hold me, body and soul, in your embrace,
And time, as you dance, is nought.
You dance, and I know the desire of all flesh, and the pain
Of all longing of body for body; you summon repel,
Entreat, entice, bewilder, and spellbind,
Link by link, with deliberate steps, of a flower-soft chain.
Your laugh quickens my heart,
You smile and I know,
The delight of your love, the rose in your hair is a star,
It brightens, I follow; It fades, yet I see it afar ;
You pause: I awake; have I dreamt? Was it longer ago
Than a dream that I saw you smile? For you turn, you turn,
As a startled beast in the toils: it is you that entreat,
Desperate, hating the coils that have fastened your feet,
The desire you desired that has come; and your lips now yearn,
And your hands now ache, and your feet faint for love.
Longing has taken hold even on you,
You, the witch of desire pause anew
Your stillness moves.
Time, as you dance, is as nought, and the moments seem
Swift as eternity, time is at end, for you close
Eyes and lips and hands in sudden repose;
You smile: was it all an ecstatic dream?
Arthur Symons
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