The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1874-03-14
CLEOPATRA.


years ago In Blackwood. Aside from the
nj agnificence of its diction. the Idea OF inc
poem IL so bold and original that very few
will feel themselves familiar with IL even
on n second reading.
Here, CHAIRMAN, take my bracelets
They bar with II purple stain
NY arms; then over my pillows
They are hot where have lain;
Open the lattice wider,
gauze on my bosom throw,
And let me inhalc the olOrs
That over the garden dow.
dreamed that was with my Antony,
And in his arms lay;
All, me! the vision h IS vanished
Its music has died away;
The flame and the perfume have perished-
AS this spiced aromatic pastiiie
That wound the blue smoke OF Its odor
Is now but an ashy NIL.
scatter upon me rose leaves
They cool me aftermy sleep
And with sandal odOrs ian me,
Till into my veins they creep;
Reach down the lutte, and play me
A melancholy tune, ,
To rhyme with the dream that has van
ished.
And the slumbering afternoon.
There, browsing in golden sunlight,
LOiters the slow, smooth Nile,
Through slender papyri, that cover
The sleeping crocodile.
The lotus rolls ON the water,
And opens its heart of gold,
And over its brOad-leaf pavement
Never ripple is rolled.
The twilight breeze is too lazy
Those feathery palms to wave,
And yon little cioud is us motloniess
AS stone above grave.
All me, this lifeless nature
Oppress:s my heart and brain!
nl,i ,ptpr nd
For lightning and wild, fierce rain!
Fling down that lute-I hate it!
Take rather his bucklcr and sword,
And crash 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 flash across the light.
Look! listen! as backward and forward
To his hoop of gold he clings,
How he trembles, with crest uplifted
And shrieks as he madly swings!
Oh, cOckatOo, shrek for Antony!
Cry "Come, my love, come homer,
Shrek, "Antony! Antony! Antony!"
TIL he hears you even in Rome
There-leave me, and take from my cham
That wretched little gazelle
With its bright blacks eyes so meaningless,
And its silly tinkling bell!
Take him-my nerves he veXes-
The thing without blood or brain
Or, by the body of Isis,
I'll snap his thin neck III twain!
Leave me to gaze at the landscape
Mistily stretching away.
Ger the mountains quivering play;
TIL the fiercer splendor of sunset
POurs nom the west its ire,
And melted, as in cruciDie,
And the bald, blear skull of the desert
With glowing mountains Is crowned,
That burning like molten jewels
Circle its temples round.
Iwill lie and dream of the past-time,
Eons of thought away,
And through the jungle of memory
Loosen my fancy to play;
When, a smooth and velvety tiger,
Ribbed with yellow and black,
Supplied and cushion footed,
Il 1'wandered, where never the track
\ OF human creature had rustled
NtGke silence of the mighty woods,
And fierce In a tyrannous Freedom,
knew but the law OF my moods.
The elephant, trumpeting. started
When he heard my footsteps near,
And the spotted giraties fed wildly
In q yellow cloud of fear.
Isucked in the noontide splendor,
Quivering along the glade,
Oryawning, painting and dreaming,
Basked in the Tamarisk shade,
Till heard my wild mate roaring,
As the shadows of night came on.
To brood in the trees thick branches
And the shadows of sleep was gone;
Then reused, and roared in answer,
And unsheathed from my cushioned feet
Ny curving claws, and stretched me,
And wandered my mate TO greet.
We toyed in the amber moonlight,
Upon the warm nat sand.
And struck ut each other our massive
arms
How powerful he was and grand!
His yellow eyes flashed fiercely
Ae ha cr0uchpd and paZpd at me.
And his isquivering tail, like a serpent,
Twitched, curving nervouSly,
Then like a storm he seized me,
With wild triumphant cry,
And we met, as two clouds in heaven
When the thunders before them fly.
We grappled and struggled together,
And his teeth in the swelling folds of m,
neck
At times, in our play, drew blood.
Often another suitor-
For was flexible and fair
Fought fo' me in the moonlight,
While lay crouching there,
Till his blood was drained by the desert;
And ruffied with triumph and power,
He licked me and lay beside me
To breathe him vast half hour.
Then down to the fountains we loitered,
Where the antelopes came TO drink;
Like a bolt we sprang upon them,
Ere they find time to shrink.
We drank their blood and crushed them,
And tore them limb from limb.
Aud 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,
It's poor and petty strifei
Come 10 my arms. my hero,
Tie shadows OF twilight grow.
And the tigers ancient fierceness
IN my veins begins to how.
Come not cringing to sue me!
Take me with triumph and power,
Asa warrior that storms a fortressl
L will not shrink or COVER.
Come, az you came in the desert,
Ere we were women and men,
When the tiger passions were in us,
And love as you loved me then.