Classic Poem

The snake I clasp round my throat was chosen
By one I love who had first loved me,
The golden snake, with his red eyes frozen
As gems upcast by a sanguine sea,
The golden snake, with his magic olden
As Thebes may be.

For him full many a slave was stranger
To sun and life in the far-hewn mine,
And he has looked like a living danger
On warlike Pharaohs laid in line.
I tremble, knowing his scales resemble
The dead spears' shine.

At night, when all of the world reposes,
I dream the darkness begins to gleam,
And smoothly strangling, the reptile closes
About my throat in a gliding stream
That brightens fast as the necklace tightens,
Within my dream.