A slavegirl dances wildly for pagan brutes on the sands as an Arab beats a drum and flutes play tunelessly. The narrator watches her body sway like a pendulum as she weaves intricate movements, noticing her limbs bronzed by the sun and seeing within her eyes visions of strange caravans marching across desert lands until nightfall.
A slavegirl dances wildly for pagan brutes on the sands as an Arab beats a drum and flutes play tunelessly. The narrator watches her body sway like a pendulum as she weaves intricate movements, noticing her limbs bronzed by the sun and seeing within her eyes visions of strange caravans marching across desert lands until nightfall.
A slavegirl dances wildly for pagan brutes on the sands as an Arab beats a drum and flutes play tunelessly. The narrator watches her body sway like a pendulum as she weaves intricate movements, noticing her limbs bronzed by the sun and seeing within her eyes visions of strange caravans marching across desert lands until nightfall.
And tuneless is the wailing of the flutes As on the sands a slavegirl executes Her dance of wantonwild delirium; Her body swaying like a pendulum Backwards and forwards, while in evolutes She weaves and weaves before fierce pagan brutes Who gaze at her in wonder that is dumb. I look upon her limbs bronzed by the sun, And see within her eyes strange caravans, Marching all day across blank desert lands, Until they come at night to where in rings The Nomad fires glimmer, one by one, around the tombs of longforgotten kings. Back to SIX POEMS index Back to Harry's Homepage