Page:Songs of the Springtides - Swinburne (1880).pdf/39

 And all the host of all men driven afoam By the red hand of Rome, Round some fierce amphitheatre overthronged With fair clear faces full of bloodier lust Than swells and stings the tiger when his mood Is fieriest after blood And drunk with trampling of the murderous must That soaks and stains the tortuous close-coiled wood Made monstrous with its myriad-mustering brood, Face by fair face panted and gleamed and pressed, And breast by passionate breast Heaved hot with ravenous rapture, as they quaffed The red ripe full fume of the deep live draught, The sharp quick reek of keen fresh bloodshed, blown Through the dense deep drift up to the emperor's throne From the under steaming sands With clamour of all-applausive throats and hands,