Classic Poem

A DREAM in living bronze is she,
A dusky goddess full revealed;
Clad but in Nature's modesty —
Her wondrous beauty unconcealed.

Half to her knee, the rushing stream
An instant pauses on its way;
The ripples in the sunshine gleam,
And tiny rainbows round her play.

Lithe as the bamboo growing near
Within the tangled, tropic glade;
As graceful as the startled deer
Half hidden in the distant shade.

The limbs, the hips, the swelling bust
Of famed Olympus' fairest queen,
Ne'er modelled yet on lines more just
Was ever sculptured marble seen!

Her curl-fringed eyes, now black, now brown,
Are depths of passion unexplored;
Her teeth, a glistening, pearly crown
A Rajah would delight to hoard.

A dream, a dream in bronze is she,
A dusky goddess full revealed!
Clad but in Nature's modesty —
Her wondrous beauty unconcealed!