The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-10
CLEOPATRA.

CLEOPAIhh,
Her mouth is fragrant as vine,
vine with birds IN all its boughs;
Serpent and scarab TOR sign
Between the beauty of her OTOWs
And the amOrOus deep lids divine.
Her great curled hair makes luminous
Her checks, her lifted throat and chin.
shall che not have the hearts OF us
To shatter, and the loves therein
70 shed between her fingers thus?
Shall ruined broken strays OF light
Pearl after pearl she shreds them through
Her long sweet sleepy fingers, white
AS any pearls heart veined with blue,
And soft as dew on a soft night,
As II the very eyes of love
Sbone through her shutting lids, and stole
The slow looks OF q snake or dove:
As it her lips abSorbed the whole
OF love, her soul the soul thereof
Lost all the lordy pearls that were
Wrung from the seas heart, from the green
Coasts of the Indian gulfriver;
Lost all the loves of the world-so keen
Towards this queen for love of her.
You see against her throat the small
Sharp glittering shadows OF them shake;
And through her halr the imperial
Curled likeness of the rver-snake,
Whose bite shall make an end of all.
Through the scales sheathing him like wings
Through hieroglyphs of gold and gem,
The strong sense of her beauty stings,
Like keen pulse of love in them,
A running flame through all his rings.
Under those low large lids of hers
She hath the histories of all time;
The fruit OF tolage-strcken years;
The old seasons with their heavy chime
That leaves its rhyme in the worlds ears.
Che sees the heart OF death made bare,
The ravelled riddle OF the skies
The faces faded that were lair,
The mouths made speechess that were wise,
The hollow eyes and dusty hair;
The shape and shadow of mystic things,
Things that fate fashions or forbids;
The staff OF time-forgotten kings,
Whose names falls OIL the Pyramids
Their cotfin-lids and grave-clothings;
Dank dregs, the scum of pool or clod
God-spawn OF liza1d-iooted clans,
And those dog-headed hulks that trod
Swart necks OF the old Egy ptians,
Raw draughts OF mans beginning God;
The poised hawk quivering ere he smote,
With plume-like gems on breast and back:
The asps and water-worms ahoat
Between the rash-howers moist and slack,
Ihe cats warm black bright rising throat.
The purple days of drouth expand
Like scroll opened out again
The molten heaven drier than sand,
The hot red heaven without rain
Sheds IRON pain on the empty land.
All Egypt aches in the suns sight
The lips OF men are harsh for drouth,
The fierce air leaves their cheeks burnt white,
Wy luo ultler DlOW10B south,
Whose dusty mouth is sharp to bite.
All this she dreams Of and her eyes
Are wrought after the sense hereof.
There is no heart in her for sighs;
The face OF her is more than love
A name above the Ptolemies.
Her great grave beauty covers her
As that sleek spoil beneath her feet
Ul0thed once the anointed soothsayer:
The hallowing is gone forth fro"' a.
Now, made unmeet for priests -, .do. ~
q :, sous and god-like things,
vi rate and lear and life and death,
On hate that cleaves and love that clngs.
All that is brought forth of mans breath
And perisheth with what it brings.
She holds her mitre close, her lips
Hold fast the key of things to be;
Actlum, and sound OF war that dips
Down the blown valleys of the sea,
For sails that flee, and storms OF ships;
The laughing red sweet mouth of wine
At endng of lfe's festival;
That spice of cerecloths and the fine
White bitter dust funereal
Sprinkled on all things for sign;
His face, who was and was not he,
In whom, alive, her life abode;
The end, when she gained heart to see
Those ways OF death wherein she trod,
Goddess by god, with Antony.
Al0e1nOn Charles S1ClnbOu1'ae,