Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/158

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 * Made you long for its odorous breath;
 * But ah! 'twas to take
 * To your bosom a snake,
 * For its pestilent fragrance was death.

And I saw it again, in a far northern land,—
 * Not a pansy, not purple and white;
 * Yet in beauteous guise
 * Did this poison-plant rise.
 * Fair and fatal again to my sight.

And men longed for her kiss and her odorous breath
 * When no friend was beside them to tell
 * That to kiss was to die.
 * That her truth was a lie,
 * And her beauty a soul-killing spell.