Poems (Scudder)/Antinous
ANTINOUS
As forth he came into the frail starlight Which through huge bulks of tamarisk and palm But faintly glossed the unmoving ebon calm Of waters nearest shore, the lotus white Seemed girlish hands outflung in soft affright To clutch and hold him back. But well he knew His heart and ever steered the slight canoe On through the glamourous, moon-haunted night. On toward the cataracts' unceasing roar Past ruined palaces and gardens dim He flashed by startled watchers on the shore Like an embodied moon-ray white and slim—A flash, a plunge, a moan—and nothing more 'Twixt sky and foam-streaked water seen of him.