Poems (Scudder)/Antinous
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ANTINOUS
As forth he came into the frail starlight
Which through huge bulks of tamarisk and palm
But faintly glossed the unmoving ebon calm
Of waters nearest shore, the lotus white
Seemed girlish hands outflung in soft affright
To clutch and hold him back. But well he knew
His heart and ever steered the slight canoe
On through the glamourous, moon-haunted night.
On toward the cataracts' unceasing roar
Past ruined palaces and gardens dim
He flashed by startled watchers on the shore
Like an embodied moon-ray white and slim—
A flash, a plunge, a moan—and nothing more
'Twixt sky and foam-streaked water seen of him.
Which through huge bulks of tamarisk and palm
But faintly glossed the unmoving ebon calm
Of waters nearest shore, the lotus white
Seemed girlish hands outflung in soft affright
To clutch and hold him back. But well he knew
His heart and ever steered the slight canoe
On through the glamourous, moon-haunted night.
On toward the cataracts' unceasing roar
Past ruined palaces and gardens dim
He flashed by startled watchers on the shore
Like an embodied moon-ray white and slim—
A flash, a plunge, a moan—and nothing more
'Twixt sky and foam-streaked water seen of him.