Echoes

There is a far unfading city         Where bright immortal people are;         Remote from hollow shame and pity,         Their portals frame no guiding star         But blightless pleasure's moteless rays         That follow their footsteps as they dance         Long lutanied measures through a maze         Of flower-like song and dalliance.         There always glows the vernal sun,         There happy birds for ever sing,         There faint perfumed breezes run         Through branches of eternal spring;         There faces browned and fruit and milk         And blue-winged words and rose-bloomed kisses         In galleys gowned with gold and silk         Shake on a lake of dainty blisses.         Coyness is not, nor bear they thought,         Save of a shining gracious flow;         All natural joys are temperate sought.         For calm desire there they know,         A fire promiscuous, languorous, kind;         They scorn all fiercer lusts and quarrels,         Nor blow about on anger's wind,         Nor burn with love, nor rust with morals.         Folk in the far unfading city,         Burning with lusts my senses are,         I am torn with love and shame and pity,         Be to my heart a guiding star:         Wise youths and maidens in the sun,         With eyes that charm and lips that sing,         And gentle arms that rippling run,         Shed on my heart your endless spring!