Venus Transiens
Amy Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925)
Tell me,
Was Venus more beautiful
Than you are,
When she topped
The crinkled waves,
Drifting shoreward
On her plaited shell?
Was Botticelli’s vision
Fairer than mine;
And were the painted rosebuds
He tossed his lady,
Of better worth
Than the words I blow about you
To cover your too great loveliness
As with a gauze
Of misted silver?
For me,
You stand poised
In the blue and buoyant air,
Cinctured by bright winds,
Treading the sunlight.
And the waves which precede you
Ripple and stir
The sands at my feet.
The Lover Speaks
E. E. Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962)
Over the wires came leaping
and I felt suddenly
dizzy
With the jostling and shouting of merry flowers
wee skipping high-heeled flames
courtesied before my eyes
or twinkling over to my side
Looked up
with impertinently exquisite faces
floating hands were laid upon me
I was whirled and tossed into delicious dancing
up
Up
with the pale important
stars and the Humorous
moon
dear girl
How I was crazy how I cried when I heard
over time
and tide and death
leaping
Sweetly
your voice
‘gauze flowers’
dizzy with the pale girls
skipping over a star
I was crazy over you
and your rosebuds were mine
tell me
are you blue
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transiens
blue february
silvertide drift on pale sands
light gauze of shell mist
in handpainted air
cinctured by time and deathtide
words whirled at my feet
suddenly dizzy
I heard you my dancing girl
ripple-heel skipping
shouting of rosebuds
your delicious crazy voice
plaited in bright winds
you blow my cover
with your too great loveliness
venus on high wire
poised for the moonstar
tossed shoreward on silver flames
I stand in your light
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Botticelli’s Venus
More beautiful than silver wires, your sunlit waves
floating over sand,
your exquisite hands,
and your painted feet poised upon a crinkled rosebud shell
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Treading the Gauze
Tell me
Tell me more
Tell me about the waves
Jostling the sands I felt ripple and stir
Tell me about the tide, treading the gauze
— about death drifting,
Your transiens voice dizzy
My vision poised
Tell me
Tell me the words.
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Sean, can you take that stray comma out after gauze, please? Many thanks.
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I came back to this twice to re-read it. It sounds how I feel…and the repetitions make it haunting. Beautiful how you put those words together
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I Stir the Sands
Buoyant waves tossed death at my feet
Blue hands jostling wires
Leaping flames
Misted eyes
A tide of shouting
Painted the shell of me
Floating, drifting shoreward
As the moon treading sunlight
Laid me upon sands
And cried silver
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The vision of high-heeled Venus poised sweetly floating over
The buoyant Moon cinctured by the pale blue light of her loveliness and exquisite beautiful face—
Death transiens
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