Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-10-14

CLEOPArRA.
FROM BIAokswooD's MAGAZINE.

CLEOPATRA.
FROM BHAoKswoop's MAGAZINE.
The following remarkable poem wi
published in Il recent number of BEaej
toooA. The vivid brilliahcy of desgriptio
and the SENSUAL richness Of color whic
characterize the first half of the poem a,
very fascinating, while the power of amin,
in the closing portions presents
psychological study.
Here, CHAIRMAN. take my bracelets,
They bar with a purple stain
Ny arms. Turn over my piIlows-
They are hot where Ihaye lain.
Open the lattice wider,
A gauze on my bosom throw.
And let me inhale the odors
That over the garden low.
dreamed 1 was with my Antony,
And in his arms / lay
All, me! the vision has vanished
Its music has died aNFGJ.
The fame and the perfume have perished-
As this spiced aromatic pHstille
That wound the blue smoke of its Odor
IL now but an ashy hill.
LNNNt1A ulNu me IoHe-ledNer,
They cool me after my sleep,
And with sandal odors fan me
Till into my veins they creep;
Reach down the Lutte, and play me
A melancholy tune,
To rhyme with the dream that has vanished.
Aud the slumbering afternoon.
There, browsing in golden sunlight,
Loiters the low smooth Nile,
Through slender pspyTi, that cover
The sleeping crocodile.
The lotus Tolls on the water,
And opens its heart Of gold,
And over its broad leaf-payement
Never q ripple is rolled,
The twilight breeze is too lazy
Those feathery palms to wave,
And yon little cloud is as mOtionless
As a stone above a grave.
All mel this Iifeiess nature
Expresses my heart and braihl
Oil for a storm and thunder
For lightning and wild fierce rain
Fling down that lute-I hate it!
Take rather h $ buckler and sword,
And crash them and clash them together,
Till this sleeping world is stirred.
Hark! to my Indian beauty
Ny cockatoO, creamy white,
With roses under his feathers
That flashes across the light.
Look! listen as backward and forward
To his hoop of gold he clings;
How he trembles, with CREST uplifted,
And he shrieks as he madly swings
Oh, cOckatoO, shrek for Antony
Cry, "Come, my love, come hOmei''
Shrek ANTONY ANTONY Antony -
Till he hears you even in Rome,
There-leave me, end take from my chamber
That wretchedl little gaselle,
With its bright black eyes 30 meaningless,
And its silly tinkliEg belll
Take him-my nerves he vexes-
The thing without blood or brain,
Or, by the body Of Isis,
II snap his thin neck in twaini
Leave me to gaze at the landscape
Mistily stretching away,
When the afternoons opaline tremors
Ger the mountains quivering play
I'LL the hercer splendor Of sunset
Pours from the west its FIRE
An melted, as in a crucible,
Their earthly forms expire
And the bald blear skull Of the desert
With glowing mountains is crow! ed,
That, burning like molten jewels,
Circle its temples round.
I will lie and dream Of the past time,
lions of thought away,
And through the jungle Of memory
Loosen my fancy to play;
NheR, a smooth and velVety tiger,
Ribbed with yellow and black,
Supple and cushion-footed,
| wandered, where never the track
of a human creature had rustled
The silence Of mighty woods,
And, fierce in a ty%rannOus freedom,
1 knew but the law of my moods.
The el phRnt, trumpeting, started
When he heard my footstep near,
And the spotted girafes fed wildly
In a yellow cloud of fear.
/ sucked in the noUntide splendor,
Quivering along the glade,
Or, painting, and dreaming,
Basked in the taHarisk shade,
Till l heard my wild mate roaring,
As the shadows of night came on,
10 brood IN the trees thick branches,
And the shadow Of sleep was gone
Ihen L reused, and reared In answer,
And unsheathed from my cushioned feet
MY curVing claws, and stretched ME,
AM wandered my mate to greet.
We toyedin the amber moonlight,
Upon the warm fiat sand,
And struck at each othef our massive arnis-
How powerful he was and grandl
His yellow eyes flashed hercely
As he crouched and gazed at me.
And his quiyering tail, like a serpent,
IWlched, curTihg herFphsls!
Jheu, like q STORM, he seized me,
With a wild, triumphant cry,
And we met, Ms two clouds in heaven,
W hen the thunders before them hy,
We grappled and struggled together,
For his love, like his rage, was rude
And his teeth in the swelling folds of my neck
Al times, in our play, drew blood,
Often another sutton
For l was hekfie and fair
Fought for me in the moonlight,
While l lay crouching there,
Till his b cod was drained by the desert,
And rufied with triumph and power,
He licked me and lay beside me
To breathe him a vast half hour.
Then downto the fountain we loitsred,
Where the antelOpes came to drink;
Like a bolt we spraHg upon them,
Ere they had time to shrink,
We drank their blood and crushed them.
And tore them limb from limb,
And the hungriest lion doubted
Ere he disputed with him.
That was a life to live for
Not this weak human life,
With its frivolous. bloodless passions,
Its poor and petty strife
to my arms, my hero,
The shadows Of twilight grow,
And the tigers ancient fierceness
In my veins begins to flow.
Come not cringing TO sue mel
Take me with triumph and power;
As a warrior that storms a fortress
1 will not shrink or cover.
as you came in the desert,
Ere we were women and men,
When the tiger passions were in us,
And love a. you loved me then : W. WI 6.