The Temple Dancing Girl

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

You will be mine; those lightly dancing feet,

Falling as softly on the careless street

As the wind-loosened petals of a flower,

Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour.

And all the Temple’s little links and laws

Will not for long protect your loveliness.

I have a stronger force to aid my cause,

Nature’s great Law, to love and to possess!

Throughout those sleepless watches, when I lay

Wakeful, desiring what I might not see,

I knew (it helped those hours, from dusk to day),

In this one thing, Fate would be kind to me.

You will consent, through all my veins like wine

This prescience flows; your lips meet mine above,

Your clear soft eyes look upward into mine

Dim in a silent ecstasy of love.

The clustered softness of your waving hair,

That curious paleness which enchants me so,

And all your delicate strength and youthful air,

Destiny will compel you to bestow!

Refuse, withdraw, and hesitate awhile,

Your young reluctance does but fan the flame;

My partner, Love, waits, with a tender smile,

Who play against him play a losing game.

I, strong in nothing else, have strength in this,

The subtlest, most resistless, force we know

Is aiding me; and you must stoop and kiss:

The genius of the race will have it so!

Yet, make it not too long, nor too intense

My thirst; lest I should break beneath the strain,

And the worn nerves, and over-wearied sense,

Enjoy not what they spent themselves to gain.

Lest, in the hour when you consent to share

That human passion Beauty makes divine,

I, over worn, should find you over fair,

Lest I should die before I make you mine.

You will consent, those slim, reluctant feet,

Falling as lightly on the careless street

As the white petals of a wind-worn flower,

Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour.

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Poems in English 

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• A Clear Midnight. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Are You the New person, drawn toward Me? by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Ah Poverties, Wincings and Sulky Retreats. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Soledad by Robert Hayden by Walt Whitman
• Runagate Runagate by Robert Hayden by Walt Whitman
• Perseus by Robert Hayden by Walt Whitman
• O Daedalus, Fly Away Home by Robert Hayden by Walt Whitman
• Among the Multitude. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• American Feuillage. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• An Army Corps on the March. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• All is Truth. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• A Carol of Harvest, for 1867 by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• A Promise to California. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• After the Sea-Ship. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• A Boston Ballad, 1854. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman

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