Thou art that madness of supreme desire, <br />Which lacking, beauty is but dross and clay. <br />Within thy veins is all the fire of day <br />And all the stars divinity of fire. <br />Thine are the lips and loins that never tire, <br />And thine the bliss that makes my soul dismay. <br />Upon thy breast what god at midnight lay, <br />To make thy flesh the music of his lyre? <br />Ah! such alone should know thy loveliness! <br />Ah! such alone should know thy full caress, <br />O goddess of intolerable delight! <br />I beg of Fate the guerdon and the grace, <br />Far beyond death, to know in thine embrace <br />Eternal rapture in eternal night.<br /><br />George Sterling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/flame-26/
