Erotica/A Vision

by Arthur Clark Kennedy

A Vision

Lo, all her body clothed with love,Meet for the kisses of a King,My lady cometh, and the springScatters its sweetness from above.

Through gates of horn she issueth,Down pathways of the land of dreams,Her footsteps softly fall, she seemsRe-risen from the hand of death.

The violets bud beneath her tread,The teeming earth in tongues of flameSpits lambent crocus shoots, with shameEach challenged snowdrop hangs its head.

She stands and stretches out to meHer white arms, whiter than desire,Some seven times heated in God's fire;All Love's alluring bravery

Glows in her slight transfigured frame,My heart throbs wildly in my breast,Charged with vague yearnings, long supprestAs her lips move to form my name.

But ere one syllable can passThose red lips where my lips have kissed,The vision rolls up like a mist,Or breath that fadeth from a glass,

Leaving me lone with longing criesChoked backward, whilst my surcharged sightAches sparklingly, as closing nightThickens its pressure on my eyes.