T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Wife of Lot
By Francis Saltus Saltus (18491889)(From Lot’s Wife, 1890) NOW Lot, the son of Haran, dwelt within | |
The city’s walls and loved its many ways; | |
But he was pure of heart unto his praise, | |
And much deplored all God-defying sin. | |
He lived estranged from the licentious throng, | 5 |
Doting upon the fairness of his wife, | |
Proud of the blameless quiet of his life, | |
A righteous man and unashamed of song. * * * * * | |
Now Ilcah, Lot’s fair wife, in Sodom born, | |
Was in her sullied heart adverse to him; | 10 |
Because his eyes by labor had grown dim, | |
She suffered by his love in silent scorn. | |
For he was like old dreamers in the night, | |
Loving to doze and ponder on his herds, | |
And even his infrequent passion words | 15 |
Were tame unto her, offering no delight. | |
She, in the blooming May-time of her years, | |
With passionate eyes and lustrous veils of hair, | |
Yearned for love’s ecstasy and its despair, | |
A love of laughter, ravishment and tears. | 20 |
And she, grown weary of Lot’s grave renown, | |
Would seek the city’s heart on festal days, | |
And strut like zonahs on its marble ways, | |
For she adored a man within the town, | |
One whom her girlish spirit idolized, | 25 |
A valorous chief, a most athletic man, | |
With mighty limbs, known as the lord Suran, | |
Who for his famed virility was prized. | |
And he had led her to Vul’s temple, where, | |
Ravished by his bright armor and the glance | 30 |
Of conquering eyes, in a voluptuous trance | |
She veiled his breast with all her loosened hair. | |
And while the priests officiating cried: | |
“Give to great Vul, oh women! all your charms!” | |
She lay amort for love within his arms, | 35 |
And on his perfumed bosom softly sighed. | |
And he, for she was ravenous to learn, | |
Taught her the mysteries and the holy rites | |
That steeped her bosom in unknown delights, | |
Strange pleasures, and new minglements that burn! | 40 |
And she revered the aroma of his beard, | |
Giving her radiant body for his play, | |
And in the temple in the hot midday, | |
Alone, to tempt his vigor she appeared. | |
Veiled to the eyes, but amorous of the spot, | 45 |
Loving the sensual magic of the gloom, | |
Seeking sweet impious bonds that foster doom, | |
Her heart made merry by her scorn of Lot. | |
Her limbs were maddened by strong Suran’s touch; | |
She sang to him in passionate unrest; | 50 |
His curlèd head was warm upon her breast; | |
His flanks were fruitful, and she loved him much. | |
Ay, with such adoration that, to fill | |
His lecherous eyes with raptures held so dear, | |
She would have braved cold death without a fear, | 55 |
If, following, Suran would have loved her still! | |
To please his whim at the great Autumn feast, | |
Held to Val’s glory on the dying year, | |
Rosy and nude, fair Ilcah did appear, | |
Surrendering her beauty to the priest. | 60 |
Ay, in the holy vaults, for Suran’s sake, | |
She learned the arcana of the zonahs there, | |
Slumbering with women amorous and bare, | |
So that he, too, in pleasure might partake. | |
And she in beauty through the temple trod, | 65 |
Warm with her loves and flushed by flowers and wine, | |
Hailing her prostitution as divine | |
And most delightful, worthy of her god. | |
And Lot had honored her with manly trust, | |
And let the days pass dreaming of his herds, | 70 |
Counting his kine and listening to his birds, | |
Serenely unsuspicious and most just. | |