The Dance of Love

The music sighs and slumbers. It stirs and sleeps again . . . Hush, it wakes and weeps and murmurs Like a woman's heart in pain ; Now it laughs and calls and coaxes. Like a lover in the night. Now it pants with sudden longing. Now it sobs with spent delight.

Like bright and wind-blown lilies, The dancers sway and shine. Swift in a rhythmic circle. Soft in a rhythmic line ; Their lithe limbs gleam like amber Thro' their veils of golden gauze, As they glide and bend and beckon, As they wheel and wind and pause.

The voices of lutes and cymbals Fail on the failing breeze. And the midnight's soul grows weary With the scent of the champak trees ; But the subtle feet of the dancers In a long, returning chain. Wake in the heart of lovers Love's ecstasy and pain.