Page:Eclogues; a book of poems.djvu/35

 NOCTURNE

I WILL MAKE this girl a bed of ferns

Beneath the trees,

And she shall come to me naked and shy in the starlight,

And when I kneel to kiss her body

Faunish I will be aware of its human scent

Mingled with the resin odours of the shrouded wood

As salt in tears.

We will be silent in the world;

And if she think good

We will go down to the green pool

To lie with our bellies on the cool grass

And drink together.

The flying beetles and the bats

And the birds drowsy in the branches

Shall be our companions.

The sheep in the open fields

Shall see our white bodies

glimmering in the woodland dusk.

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