NARCISSI
(For My Mother)
I.
They read: A youth in higher Thessaly,
Hot with the chase, came to a lost pool, lying
Under great jutting rocks and a vast tree
That hid it from the sun's hot curious spying,
Still and ice-cool, and ringed with quiet grass
That pressed to curve its blades into the pool,
As rippleless and clear as burnished brass.
He slouched, relieved, to a low shaley stool
And leaned to drink, when in the glass below
A face leaned up to meet him, flushed and laughing,
Gay-eyed, with thirsty lips that formed a bow
As if from his own beauty to be quaffing.
He paused, torn with amazement and faint fear,
At sight of the fair naiad mounting near.
They read: A youth in higher Thessaly,
Hot with the chase, came to a lost pool, lying
Under great jutting rocks and a vast tree
That hid it from the sun's hot curious spying,
Still and ice-cool, and ringed with quiet grass
That pressed to curve its blades into the pool,
As rippleless and clear as burnished brass.
He slouched, relieved, to a low shaley stool
And leaned to drink, when in the glass below
A face leaned up to meet him, flushed and laughing,
Gay-eyed, with thirsty lips that formed a bow
As if from his own beauty to be quaffing.
He paused, torn with amazement and faint fear,
At sight of the fair naiad mounting near.
II.
The careless hair, he saw, was in a tousle,
The brow was olive-pale, the cheeks were red
As fresh-clipped roses flung in mad carousal;
The careless hair, he saw, was in a tousle,
The brow was olive-pale, the cheeks were red
As fresh-clipped roses flung in mad carousal;
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