H. D. At Baia. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

At Baia

By H. D.


From “Hesperides” I SHOULD have thought
In a dream you would have brought
Some lovely perilous thing:
Orchids piled in a great sheath,
As who would say, in a dream,	5
“I send you this,
Who left the blue veins
Of your throat unkissed.”

Why was it that your hands,
That never took mine—	10
Your hands that I could see
Drift over the orchid heads
So carefully;
Your hands, so fragile, sure to lift
So gently, the fragile flower stuff—	15
Ah, ah, how was it

You never sent, in a dream,
The very form, the very scent,
Not heavy, not sensuous,
But perilous—perilous!—	20
Of orchids, piled in a great sheath,
And folded underneath on a bright scroll,
Some word:

Flower sent to flower;
For white hands the lesser white,	25
Less lovely, of flower leaf.

Or,

Lover to lover—no kiss,
No touch, but forever and ever this!