| |
(American. 1895)
THE WORLD was finished. On their ceaseless flight | |
| God sped the jewels which adorn the night; | |
| Darkness rolled back before the light of day. | |
| And night shrank blushing from the morning ray. | |
| The skies were brilliant with a crimson hue, | 5 |
| Which softly blended with the azure blue; | |
| Each morn new beauties would the earth unfold, | |
| Draping the heavens with the tints of gold; | |
| While through the garden came the perfumed breeze, | |
| Sweet with fragrance of the budding trees; | 10 |
| And limpid babbling streams flowed gently by, | |
| Pure as the fount which crystals in the eye; | |
| While flowers bloomed with nature’s fairest dyes, | |
| Beneath the purple of the sunny skies. | |
| |
| In pristine vigor man remained alone | 15 |
| Till woman came to share his leafy throne, | |
| Fully as fair, but with a softer shade, | |
| The last and best of all the things God made | |
| They both from nature in their freshness came, | |
| But neither knew the blushing tints of shame; | 20 |
| The flowing tresses only veiled from view | |
| Those tempting charms that were as rare as new. | |
| |
| They wandered careless through the leafy grove, | |
| Basking in sunshine and their sinless love, | |
| Like children playing on a verdant lawn, | 25 |
| As free from passion as a timid fawn. | |
| No clouds had yet obscured the brilliant sun; | |
| The storm and tempest had not yet begun. | |
| It seemed that nature for itself did grieve | |
| When Adam knew the first embrace of Eve. | 30 |
| Passion as yet had never warmed their frames | |
| Nor stirred their blood with its insidious flames. | |
| Children in thought, but full of manly life, | |
| Their sleeping demons knew no heat nor strife. | |
| Love was a passion hidden in each heart, | 35 |
| Whose wild desires time would to each impart, | |
| Love has one object and ulterior goal, | |
| One blissful moment which deludes the soul, | |
| When melting nature gently dies away | |
| And cools the rapture of the heated clay. | 40 |
| Take lust from love and love would be no more— | |
| Life has no pleasure but the hopes in store. | |
| The blushing virgin to the altar led | |
| Looks fondly forward to the marriage bed; | |
| Sighs for the moment when a husband’s kiss | 45 |
| Preludes the rapture of a greater bliss; | |
| Sinks in the pressure of his burning arms, | |
| And gives unasked her most desirous charms. | |
| The garden scenes beneath fair Eden’s bower | |
| Are re-enacted every day and hour, | 50 |
| And every woman in her heart would grieve | |
| Were there no Adam for each loving Eve. | |
| This one great lesson from St. Paul we learn | |
| Better to marry than a virgin burn. | |
| During the day and oft at eventide, | 55 |
| They both reposed in slumber, side by side; | |
| Yet had not dreamed there was a fount within | |
| Lying in wait to tempt them both to sin— | |
| If it were sin to give way to the flood | |
| Of passion lurking dormant in the blood; | 60 |
| For, all unconscious of those hidden fires, | |
| They ne’er had yet felt love’s sweet, warm desires | |
| Nor known the joys they ne’er had tasted, | |
| Nor all the hours they both had wasted. | |
| Had they but known love’s pure and fond delight | 65 |
| “Forbidden Fruit” were tasted the first night. | |
| While Eve was lying in fair Eden’s bower, | |
| Herself the fairest and the sweetest flower, | |
| She sank in slumber near a murmuring stream | |
| And dreamed a sweet and most delightful dream; | 70 |
| For, while all shadowed on the grass she lay, | |
| Her truant soul was roaming far away. | |
| She thought herself within the groves above, | |
| Where angels whispered of the sweets of love— | |
| Thought a man was lying in her blissful arms, | 75 |
| Who kissed the cherries of her bosom’s charms; | |
| Sought her full lips and kissed an ardent kiss, | |
| Which woke the rapture of an unborn bliss. | |
| Her form lay stretched upon the flowing heath. | |
| While quick and hot came forth sighing breath, | 80 |
| An arm was thrown above her golden head, | |
| One knee was raised from off her rosy bed, | |
| One hand was toying with the silken hair | |
| That hid the treasures sweetly buried there; | |
| Her bosom, whiter than the ocean’s foam, | 85 |
| Rose white as marble in a passion dome, | |
| While on each breast in ruby lustre shone | |
| The red round nipple that surmounts each zone; | |
| And gently downward, like a floating wave, | |
| Lay the rich portals of her downy cave, | 90 |
| Whose full red lips, half hidden in their moss, | |
| Shone like bright corals in their dewy gloss, | |
| And her round limbs, like ivory polished bright, | |
| Whose rosy hues were struggling through the white, | |
| Lay coiled in beauty as she thus reposed, | 95 |
| With all her maiden charms at once exposed; | |
| The fairest thing of all God’s work below, | |
| As fair as marble and as white as snow; | |
| Man’s brightest jewel and God’s purest gift | |
| Lay softly sleeping, but without a shift. | 100 |
| From such a sight no mortal man could turn | |
| Who felt the fires of manhood in him burn. | |
| Priests preach of virtue, but of them beware, | |
| They would not turn from such a tempting snare. | |
| First they’d indulge and then perhaps might pray | 105 |
| That God would humble their rebellious clay. | |
| Adam beheld her, as in slumber sweet | |
| Some seraph seemed those rosy lips to meet; | |
| Hears her soft sighs and sees her bosom swell, | |
| And felt the blood within his veins rebel; | 110 |
| For such a sight would daze the purest eyes | |
| Of angels looking from the skies; | |
| A sight that man has never yet withstood | |
| Who felt love’s virus stealing through his blood. | |
| Yet Adam knew not that this vision bright | 115 |
| Which lay unconscious of his raptured sight | |
| Was made by nature as his better part, | |
| The one sweet solace of his troubled heart; | |
| Knew not the syren in a woman’s guise | |
| Would turn the garden into Paradise— | 120 |
| Paradise lost—but Paradise but found | |
| When first he saw Eve sleeping on the ground. | |
| Night came, all gilded with the sunset’s dyes, | |
| Studded with jewels the mild azure of the skies; | |
| The moon rose softly on her upward flight, | 125 |
| The queen of beauty and the gem of night, | |
| While flowers paled with the departing day | |
| And closed their petals with the sun’s last ray. | |
| The birds had ceased to sing their evening song, | |
| Save one, which into night his strains prolong, | 130 |
| Pouring, in liquid measure, love’s soft tale | |
| Through the soft shadows of the flowery dale, | |
| Beguiling sleep awhile from languid eyes. | |
| Like some fair spirit in a worldly guise. | |
| All living things were sinking to repose, | 135 |
| Dreading no danger from dark lurking foes; | |
| For on the fruit man had not yet been fed. | |
| And Eve, the virgin, had her maidenhead. | |
| Adam and Eve, at this sweet twilight hour, | |
| Sought their repose within a rustic bower; | 140 |
| But ere the silken gauze of balmy sleep | |
| Could o’er their drowsy eyelids creep, | |
| Eve thought her of the dream she’d had again | |
| And felt its memories stealing through her brain. | |
| A soft, voluptuous shade stole o’er her eyes, | 145 |
| The pulse of love within began to rise; | |
| Her cheeks were burning with a new desire, | |
| Her veins were boiling with an inward fire, | |
| Her lips were glowing with a warmth all new, | |
| Her breast was heaving as the passion grew; | 150 |
| Each nerve seemed thrilling through her heated frame, | |
| One blissful thought which ne’er had had a name, | |
| One blissful wish which she had never known, | |
| One fond desire that love could be her own. | |
| Gently an arm o’er Adam’s breast she threw, | 155 |
| While her lips moistened with the gathering dew; | |
| Her eyes seemed swimming in a sea of pearls, | |
| As from her breast she brushed the flowing curls, | |
| And, swelling high, her bosom seemed to flow | |
| With fire of passion fierce which burned below. | 160 |
| Love, now unfettered, she could not restrain, | |
| But felt it surging through each swelling vein, | |
| Rousing the serpent coiled within her breast | |
| Whose strong desire had never been repressed. | |
| To Adam’s lips she softly pressed her own, | 165 |
| While Adam’s arms around her form were thrown; | |
| Yet, even then, he did not dream the bliss | |
| That Eve awakened by her fervent kiss; | |
| Knew not the joys that kindred natures feel | |
| As love’s sweet fires through the system steal; | 170 |
| But each caress that stirred his tranquil blood | |
| Thrilled through his body with a fiery flood, | |
| Lighting his face and burning in each vein, | |
| Until its raptures nothing could restrain. | |
| His manly bosom heaved with many a sigh, | 175 |
| While lurid fires flashed from either eye; | |
| The breath came hot upon his burning lips | |
| While passion tingled to his finger tips; | |
| His frame was but a mass of heated clay, | |
| One strong desire now held unbounded sway; | 180 |
| And yet he little knew what lay before, | |
| What mystic pleasure was for him in store. | |
| But Eve, still trembling with her own desires, | |
| Added new fuel to her Adam’s fires, | |
| Glued her wet lips to his hot, glowing face | 185 |
| And held him closely in her warm embrace, | |
| Distilling passion through her melting sighs | |
| And rousing demons with her flashing eyes. | |
| Night looked on calmly, as if nature smiled | |
| To think that Adam should be thus beguiled. | 190 |
| The moon now threw a shadow o’er the scene, | |
| As if she fain their wantoness would screen; | |
| And e’en the stars half hid their sparkling rays, | |
| As if they blushed at such a scene to gaze. | |
| Eve, taught by instinct and inflamed by love, | 195 |
| Would fain the pleasure of their passion prove; | |
| Felt that the spot now half consumed by heat | |
| Was the choice fruit they were forbid to eat; | |
| And, like all women since that blissful time, | |
| Was half inclined to perpetrate a crime. | 200 |
| A crime so sweet that all have followed suit, | |
| And like it better for its being stolen fruit. | |
| Adam, meanwhile, had found his manhood’s pride, | |
| And Eve now acted as its faithful guide; | |
| Gently her hand around its ivory stole | 205 |
| And turned it quickly toward its natural goal; | |
| Then, lying prone upon her snowy back, | |
| Opened before it an untrodden track. | |
| Ecstatic joy her every nerve did thrill, | |
| Till heart and thought and even soul stood still. | 210 |
| Warmer and warmer were her kisses given, | |
| Until the pleasure seemed to her a heaven. | |
| And thus she lay in that intense delight | |
| Which women feel upon their wedding night, | |
| When heart and soul commingle in a kiss | 215 |
| And love’s fond rapture gives hymenial bliss. | |
| But, all too soon, each felt their strength give way | |
| As love dissolved in passion’s heated spray, | |
| And pouring forth, came then his gushing flood, | |
| Mixed with crimson of Eve’s virgin blood. | 220 |
| Then Adam sank, half-fainting, on her breast, | |
| With lingering sighs that could not be repressed. | |
| His eyes now gleamed not with a fiery glance, | |
| While o’er his frame there came that blissful trance | |
| Which poor dissolving nature sweetly feels | 225 |
| When love enraptured breaks a maiden’s seals. | |
| Blushing and modest, with unconscious grace, | |
| Eve hid ’neath Adam’s arm her glowing face; | |
| For now that passion had swept o’er her form, | |
| She lay all quivering from its pleasant storm, | 230 |
| And only wished her burning cheeks to hide | |
| The sweet, warm blushes of a new-made bride; | |
| While in her eyes a humid vapor stole, | |
| Which for a time seemed clouding o’er her soul, | |
| And trembling sweetly with her new delight | 235 |
| Felt light departing from her failing sight. | |
| Ah! who shall paint the rapture they first knew | |
| Beneath the sparkling canopy of blue, | |
| While in the pride of their full strength and youth | |
| They tasted sweetly of the cup of truth | 240 |
| And found that joy till then to man unknown— | |
| A priceless boon which he might call his own. | |
| And this pure bliss which in the garden came, | |
| Still thrills as sweetly through each mortal frame, | |
| And each new couple on their marriage bed, | 245 |
| When husband takes his young wife’s maidenhead, | |
| Repeats again the same old pleasure o’er | |
| And finds in love a never-failing store, | |
| When to her husband she gives up the gem, | |
| The sweetest jewel in love’s diadem. | 250 |
| Hark! to the mutt’rings that are heard afar, | |
| As nature feels an elemental war. | |
| Thunder is rolling booming in the skies | |
| And vivid lightning blinds their tearful eyes; | |
| The winds shriek onward with a shrieking blast, | 255 |
| And deep with gloom the skies are overcast. | |
| While from the clouds the pelting rains descend | |
| And with the storm the war of wild beasts blend; | |
| Each brute feels all its instincts wildly stirred, | |
| While in the air is heard the screaming bird. | 260 |
| In one wild shriek a thousand tongues give vent | |
| To the deep passion which the world has sent. | |
| Now storm and darkness settle o’er the land | |
| And the blue sea comes bellowing on the sand; | |
| The massive trees before the whirlwind rock, | 265 |
| The earth now trembles with the earthquake’s shock, | |
| For man has heard from God his awful doom. | |
| No more the fruits of Eden’s fruitful soil, | |
| His sweat shall moisten all he earns by toil, | |
| While Eve in anguish shall to life give birth | 270 |
| And leave a heritage of woe on earth. | |
| God made them pure, but out of worldly dust, | |
| And from the clay they gather all the lust. | |
| From that sweet scene, within the grove began, | |
| Came the sorrows that have tortured man; | 275 |
| And, till the trump of Gabriel gives us peace, | |
| Our woes entailed on earth shall never cease. | |
| |
