Page:Poems, Alan Seeger, 1916.djvu/110

 I hungered; at my hand delicious dainties teemed—

Fair pyramids of fruit; pastry in sugared piles.

I thirsted; in cool cups inviting vintage beamed—

Sweet syrups from the South; brown muscat from the isles.

I yearned for passionate Love; faint gauzes fell away.

Pillowed in rosy light I found my heart's desire.

Over the silks and down her florid beauty lay,

As over orient clouds the sunset's coral fire.

Joys that had smiled afar, a visionary form,

Behind the ranges hid, remote and rainbow-dyed,

Drew near unto my heart, a wonder soft and warm,

To touch, to stroke, to clasp, to sleep and wake beside.

Joy, that where summer seas and hot horizons shone

Had been the outspread arms I gave my youth to seek,

Drew near; awhile its pulse strove sweetly with my own,

Awhile I felt its breath astir upon my cheek.

I was so happy there; so fleeting was my stay,—

What wonder if, assailed with vistas so divine,

I only lived to search and sample them the day

When between dawn and dusk the sultan's courts were mine!

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