La Nue

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

Oft when sweet music undulated round,

Like the full moon out of a perfumed sea

Thine image from the waves of blissful sound

Rose and thy sudden light illumined me.

And in the country, leaf and flower and air

Would alter and the eternal shape emerge;

Because they spoke of thee the fields seemed fair,

And Joy to wait at the horizon’s verge.

The little cloud-gaps in the east that filled

Gray afternoons with bits of tenderest blue

Were windows in a palace pearly-silled

That thy voluptuous traits came glimmering through.

And in the city, dominant desire

For which men toil within its prison-bars,

I watched thy white feet moving in the mire

And thy white forehead hid among the stars.

Mystical, feminine, provoking, nude,

Radiant there with rosy arms outspread,

Sum of fulfillment, sovereign attitude,

Sensual with laughing lips and thrown-back head,

Draped in the rainbow on the summer hills,

Hidden in sea-mist down the hot coast-line,

Couched on the clouds that fiery sunset fills,

Blessed, remote, impersonal, divine;

The gold all color and grace are folded o’er,

The warmth all beauty and tenderness embower, —

Thou quiverest at Nature’s perfumed core,

The pistil of a myriad-petalled flower.

Round thee revolves, illimitably wide,

The world’s desire, as stars around their pole.

Round thee all earthly loveliness beside

Is but the radiate, infinite aureole.

Thou art the poem on the cosmic page —

In rubric written on its golden ground —

That Nature paints her flowers and foliage

And rich-illumined commentary round.

Thou art the rose that the world’s smiles and tears

Hover about like butterflies and bees.

Thou art the theme the music of the spheres

Echoes in endless, variant harmonies.

Thou art the idol in the altar-niche

Faced by Love’s congregated worshippers,

Thou art the holy sacrament round which

The vast cathedral is the universe.

Thou art the secret in the crystal where,

For the last light upon the mystery Man,

In his lone tower and ultimate despair,

Searched the gray-bearded Zoroastrian.

And soft and warm as in the magic sphere,

Deep-orbed as in its erubescent fire,

So in my heart thine image would appear,

Curled round with the red flames of my desire.

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• Epigram—Divine Service at Lamington by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram—Commissary Goldie’s Brains by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram at RoslinInn by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram at Brownhill Inn by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epigram Addressed to an Artist by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Elegy on Willie Nicol’s Mare by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Elegy on the Year 1788 by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Elegy on the late Miss Burnet of Monboddo by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Elegy on the Death of Sir James Hunter Blair by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Elegy on the Death of Robert Ruisseaux by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Elegy on Stella by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Elegy on Captain Matthew Henderson by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Election Ballad for Westerha’ by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Election Ballad at close of Contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs, 1790 by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Duncan Gray by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Dialogue Song—Philly and Willy by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Despondency: An Ode by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Delia: An Ode by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Complimentary versicles to Jessie Lewars by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Complimentary Epigram to Mrs. Riddell by Robert Burns by Robert Burns

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