| |
| HOW, as a spider’s web is spun | |
| With subtle grace and art, | |
| Do thy light footsteps, every one, | |
| Cross and recross my heart! | |
| Now here, now there, and to and fro, | 5 |
| Their winding mazes turn; | |
| Thy fairy feet so lightly go | |
| They seem the earth to spurn. | |
| Yet every step leaves there behind | |
| A something, in thy dance, | 10 |
| That serves to tangle up my mind | |
| And all my soul entrance. | |
| |
| How, as the web the spiders spin | |
| And wanton breezes blow, | |
| Thy soft and filmy laces in | 15 |
| A swirl around thee flow! | |
| The cobweb ’neath thy chin that ’s crossed | |
| Remains demurely put, | |
| While those are ever whirled and tossed | |
| That show thy saucy foot; | 20 |
| That show the silver grayness of | |
| Thy stockings’ silken sheen, | |
| And mesh of snowy skirts above | |
| The silver that is seen. | |
| |
| How, as the spider, from his web, | 25 |
| Dangles in light suspense, | |
| Do thy sweet measures’ flow and ebb | |
| Sway my enraptured sense! | |
| Thy fluttering lace, thy dainty airs, | |
| Thy every charming pose— | 30 |
| There are not more alluring snares | |
| To bind me with than those. | |
| Swing on! Sway on! With easy grace | |
| Thy witching steps repeat! | |
| The love I dare not—to thy face— | 35 |
| I offer at thy feet. | |
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