Nature

Orgie

by Madison Cawein 1865–1914

From The Poems of Madison Cawein (1907)

Nature

On nights like this, when bayou and lagoon
Swoon in the moonlight’s mystic radiance,
I seem to walk like one deep in a trance
With old-world myths born of the mist and moon.

Lascivious eyes and mouths of sensual rose
Smile into mine: and breasts of luring light,
And tresses streaming golden to the night,
Persuade me onward where the forest glows.

And then it seems along the haunted hills
There falls a flutter as of beautiful feet,
As if tempestuous troops of Mænads meet
To drain deep bowls and shout and have their wills.

And then I feel her limbs will be revealed
Like some great snow-white moth among the trees;
Her vampire beauty, waiting there to seize
And drag me downward where my doom is sealed.

MLA

Cawein, Madison. “Orgie.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/cawein/288/.

Chicago

Cawein, Madison. “Orgie.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/cawein/288/.

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