April Twilights and Other Poems

<h3><SPAN name="ANTINOUS" id="ANTINOUS"></SPAN>ANTINOUS</h3> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="letra">W</span>ith attributes of gods they sculptured him,<br/></span> <span class="i4">Hermes, Osiris, but were never wise<br/></span> <span class="i0">To lift the level, frowning brow of him<br/></span> <span class="i4">Or dull the mortal misery in his eyes,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The scornful weariness of every limb,<br/></span> <span class="i4">The dust-begotten doubt that never dies,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Antinous, beneath thy lids, though dim,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The curling smoke of altars rose to thee,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Conjuring thee to comfort and content.<br/></span> <span class="i4">An emperor sent his galleys wide and far<br/></span> <span class="i0">To seek thy healing for thee. Yea, and spent<br/></span> <span class="i4">Honour and treasure and red fruits of war<br/></span> <span class="i4">To lift thy heaviness, lest thou should’st mar<br/></span> <span class="i0">The head that was an empire’s glory, bent<br/></span> <span class="i0">A little, as the heavy poppies are.<br/></span> <span class="i4">Did the perfection of thy beauty pain<br/></span> <span class="i0">Thy limbs to bear it? Did it ache to be,<br/></span> <span class="i4">As song hath ached in men, or passion vain?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Or lay it like some heavy robe on thee?<br/></span> <span class="i4">Was thy sick soul drawn from thee like the rain,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Or drunk up as the dead are drunk each hour<br/></span> <span class="i0">To feed the colour of some tulip flower?<br/></span> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_21" id="page_21">{21}</SPAN></span></div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />