THE OFFENDED MOON
O Moon, O lamp of hill and secret dale!
Thou whom our fathers, ages out of mind,
Worshipped in thy blue heaven, whilst behind
Thy stars streamed after thee a glittering trail,
Dost see the poet, weary-eyed and pale,
Or lovers on their happy beds reclined,
Showing white teeth in sleep, or vipers twined,
’Neath the dry sward; or in a golden veil
Stealest thou with faint footfall o’er the grass
As of old, to kiss from twilight unto dawn
The faded charms of thine Endymion?. . . .
“O child of this sick century, I see
Thy grey-haired mother leering in her glass
And plastering the breast that suckled thee!”
LOLA DE VALENCE
INSCRIPTION FOR THE PICTURE BY
EDWARD MANET
Friends, though on every side of you you see
Such beauties that desire must hesitate,
In Lola de Valence there scintillate
Strange charms o’ a gem of rose and ebony.
