Chapter I: Imperia

A sculptor showed to me one day A hand, a Cleopatra's lure, Or an Aspasia's, cast in clay, Of masterwork a fragment pure.

Seized in a snowy kiss, and fair As lily in the argent rise Of dawn, like whitest poem there Its beauty lay before mine eyes,

Bright in its pallor lustreless, Reposing on a velvet bed, Its fingers, weighted with their dress Of jewels, delicately spread.

A little parted lay the thumb, Showing the undulating line, Beautiful, graceful, subtlesome, Of its proud contour Florentine.

Strange hand! I wonder if it toyed In silken locks of Don Juan, Or on a gem-bright caftan joyed To stroke the beard of some soldan;

Whether, as courtesan or queen, Within its fingers fair and slight Was pleasure's gilded sceptre seen, Or sceptre of a royal might!

But sweet and firm it must have lain Full oft its touch of power rare Upon the curling lion-mane Of some chimera caught in air.

Imperial, idle fantasy, And love of soft, luxurious things, Frenzies of passion, wondrous, free, Impossible dream-flutterings!

Romances wild, and poesy Of hasheech and of wine, vain speeds Beneath Bohemia's brilliant sky On unrestrained and maddened steeds!

All these were in the lines of it, Of that white book with magic scrolled, Where ciphers stood, by Venus writ, That Love had trembled to behold.