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 spring
Scatters its sweetness from above.

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

The violets bud beneath her tread,
The teeming earth in tongues of flame
Spits lambent crocus shoots, with shame
Each challenged snowdrop hangs its head.

She stands and stretches out to me
Her 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 supprest
As her lips move to form my name.

But ere one syllable can pass
Those 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 cries
Choked backward, whilst my surcharged sight
Aches sparklingly, as closing night
Thickens its pressure on my eyes.