Frederic Manning - Simaetha lyrics

Thou art wine, Simaetha! When mine eyes drink thee My blood flames, with the golden joy thou art Bewildering me, until thy loveliness Is veiled in its own light; nor know I then Pure brows, and placid lips and eyes, and hair With wind and sunlight glorious: but all Are mingled in one flame. Oh thou in me Art shrined, as none hath seen thee, as gods live Whom Time shall not consume; nor rusts thy gold Ever, so hath my soul enclosed thee round With its divine air. Yea, thy very life, Which flows through all the guises of thy moods, Escaping as they die, and laughs and weeps And builds again its beauty, have I set Beyond the jeopards of rough time: yea, all Thine ivory, imperilled loveliness, And winey sanguine, where the cheek's curve takes Light as a bloom upon it, not to pa**, So there be God. Thy praise hath made speech song: And song from lip to lip flies, and black ships Bear it from sea to sea; and on some quay Where rise tall masts, and gay booths flank the ways A tumbler sings it; and an alien air Trembles with thee, while strange men wonder, dumb, To see thee pa**: thou being all my song.