Classic Poem

THE LOTOS.

Drooping in the sunlit streams,
We are wrapped all day in dreams;

Morn and noon and evening light
Robed for us in garbs of night.

Only when the moon appears
Through a silvery mist of tears,

From the waters dark and still,
We arise to drink our fill.

Of the tender love he sheds
On our fair enamored heads.

Ah! no longer wrapped in dreams,
How we pant beneath his beams!

How, with breath of softest sighs,
We unclose our yearning eyes,

And our snowy necks in pride
Curve about the glittering tide!

Warmth for warmth and kiss for kiss,
All our pulses burn with bliss,

Till revealed our inmost charms
Glowing in the Night-God's arms.

THE LILY.

View us, white-robed Lilies,
We whose beauty's rareness
Sleeps until the Bridegroom Sun
Woos our virgin fairness.

Then, our bosoms baring,
'Neath his ardent kisses,
Stem, and leaf, and delicate heart
Trembling into blisses,

The full, fervid Godhead
Thrills our being tender,
And our happy souls expand
In ecstatic splendor.

Thus all, all we yield him
Of our shrined sweetness, —
All that maiden warmth may grant
To true love's completeness.