Hard have you won her, and must hold as fast!
She is Love's reveller those tawny eyes
Are up and down still in warm passion cast,
And woe betide the soul whom they surprise!
Yet is she yours you deem not for a while.
But have you felt the fiery stress of her?
It is a woman's, yet a serpent's smile
A Cleopatra yields her worshipper.
The cruel sweetness of her beauty lurks
In all her lovers' ruin; none may dare
To toy with her but love like poison works
To madness or the sorrow of despair:
And you the Antony of her desire?
Her love is still as a consuming fire.
Love's Reveller.
written byRobert Crawford
© Robert Crawford