POEMS OF JAMES RYDER RANDALL
Woman! I shall cling beside thee
As a marvel in thy way;
While I scorn, I shall deride thee
With this requiem of “Jamais!”
Sleep—with adders on thy pillow—
Wake—but spectral shapes of clay,
Flocking from the cloud and billow,
Goad thee with—“Jamais!” “Jamais!”
THE CAMEO BRACELET
Eva sits on the ottoman there,
Sits by a Psyche carved in stone,
With just such a face and just such an air,
As Esther upon her throne.
She’s sifting lint for the brave who bled,
And I watch her fingers float and flow
Over the linen, as thread by thread,
It flakes to her lap like snow.
A bracelet clinks on her delicate wrist,
Wrought, as Cellini’s were at Rome,
Out of the tears of the amethyst
And the wan Vesuvian foam.
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