DAPHNIS AND CHLOE

CHLOE'S LONGING

Beauteous dawn! An eternal night have
I waited to behold your
luminous countenance! Your smile now
brings forth happy tears,
as the skies pour night's sparkling jewels
into your rosy lap.

How your splendour heals and succours
my weary form, my sad
spirit! Restore to me my senses, for I am
wretched with ecstasy! 
No sooner do blushes sear my skin than
I am pale as a daylily.

Such joy courses thro' my veins in father's
garden, as the poppies
drink deep of your hues! Yet, my Daphnis' 
beauty drives shards
into my heart, stops my very breath.

Am I ill? My unceasing pain has made of
me a poetess. Thoughts
and words wash o'er me, as violet-scented
breezes bathe the vine-clad
hillocks and pastures. His smile enrobes
the anemones, his laugh
tints the wine, the tide speaks his name.

At the spring he awaits me, by the sacred
grotto of the Nymphs,
garland of hyacinths upon his brow, dark
loops and swirls of his
ample tresses waving as vine tendrils in
the warm summer breeze.

Your every word is a butterfly's kiss 'pon
my cheek, my Daphnis,
yet, your melodies wound my soul as the
brambles tear my flesh.
Save me, o beloved Nymphs! Wherefore
do I, a simple shepherd
girl, now hollowed, now glutted, suffer so?

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: Daphnis et Chloé
Source: www.liveinternet.ru
Artist: Louis Hersent