DELILAH.

In the midnight of darkness and terror,
When I would grope nearer to God,
With my back to a record of error
And the highway of sin I have trod,
There come to me shapes I would banish--
The shapes of the deeds I have done;
And I pray and I plead till they vanish--
All vanish and leave me, save one.

That one with a smile like the splendor
Of the sun in the middle-day skies--
That one with a spell that is tender--
That one with a dream in her eyes--
Cometh close, in her rare Southern beauty,
Her languor, her indolent grace;
And my soul turns its back on its duty,
To live in the light of her face.

She touches my cheek, and I quiver--
I tremble with exquisite pains;
She sighs--like an overcharged river
My blood rushes on through my veins',
She smiles--and in mad-tiger fashion,
As a she-tiger fondles her own,
I clasp her with fierceness and passion,
And kiss her with shudder and groan.