The Banquet

Wine ran; rich yellow wine upon the marble floor         Recklessly spilled; the Nubians ran to pour         A fresh libation; and to scatter showers         Of red rose petals; candles overturned         Smouldered among the ruins of the flowers,         And overhead swung heavy shadowy bowers         Of blue and purple grapes,         And strange fantastic shapes         Of varied birds, where lanterns hung and dimly burned.         The melon and the orange, turned to use         As golden balls with laughter lightly tossed,         Lay burst and drained of their sweet juice,         Uselessly ripened and for ever lost;         All glowing as they lay upon the ground,         As envious of their fellows,         Who, piled in luscious reds and yellows,         Enriched the tables all around,         The tables low,         Sheltering the reclining grace;         Here, through the curling smoke, a swarthy face,         And jewelled turban bound about the head,         And here the glow         Of red carnation pressed to lips as warmly red.         And as they lay in their luxurious ease,         Playing with grapes and rose-leaves, slim         And willowy slave-girls, in the hope to please,         Twisted and danced before them, to the dim         Uncertain music in the shadows played;         Some came with supple limb,         With Mystery's aid         And snake-like creep,         Others with riotous leap         And made festivity to Bacchus wed;         Others with stiff Egyptian tread,         And straight black hair hanging in glossy braid,         They danced, unnoted, and exhausted fled.                      *            *            *            *            *         Still floated from beneath the acacia-tree         The droning Eastern music's minor key.