Upon a cushion soft My limbs I place, My every garment doffed For deeper grace; From burning doves embalmed In baccharis, The scented fumes have calmed Me like a kiss. Beyond the phallic shrine That tripods light, I pledge with holy wine An image white; Anadyomene, Than foam more fair, When from the ravished sea She rose to air. Daughter of God, accept These gifts of mine! Last night my body slept In arms divine. These sated lips and eyes That erstwhile sued, Accord this sacrifice In gratitude. LEDA Once on a time They say that Leda found Beneath the thyme An egg upon the ground; And yet the swan She fondled long ago Was whiter than Its shell of peeping snow. AMŒBEUM: ALCÆUS AND SAPPHO ALCUSÆUS Violet-weaving Sappho, pure and lovely, Softly-smiling Sappho, I would utter Something that my secret hope has cherished, Did no painful sense of shame deter me. SAPPHO Had the impulse of thy heart been honest, It had urged no evil supplication; Shame had not abashed thy eyes before me, And thy words had done thee no dishonor. ALCÆUS Softly-smiling Sappho, longing bids me Tell thee all that in my heart lies hidden. SAPPHO Have no fear, Alcæus, to offend me! Thy emotion stirs my heart to pity. ALCÆUS I desire thee, violet-weaving Sappho! Love thee madly, softly-smiling Sappho! SAPPHO Hush, Alcæus! thou must choose a younger Comrade for thy couch, for I would never Join thy years to mine--the Gods forbid it-- Youth and ardent fire to age and ashes. THE LOVE OF SELENE Across the still sea's moonlit wave Selene came Softly to seek the Latmian cave, Her breast aflame With secret passion's ruthless throe, Her scruples done, And burning with desire to know Endymion. THE CRETAN DANCE As the moon in all her splendor Slowly rose above the forest, Silent stood the Cretan women Round the altar. Girdled close their clinging tunics, Made of some transparent fabric, Traced the every curve and lissome Of their bodies. With revering eyes uplifted To the round and rising planet, Soon its drifting beams of silver Lit their faces. Soft and clear its sphere effulgent, Full defined above the treetops, Steeped in pale unearthly glamor All the landscape. When the argent glimmer rested On the altar piled with garlands, And its glow unveiled the marble Aphrodite;