"A Dream of Cleopatra"

A Dream of Cleopatra

Last night I slept beside the languorous Nile,

            And saw swart Cleopatra, proud and large,

            Drift slowly past me in her sumptuous barge.

Her crimson lips curved in a wanton smile,

Half-closed, her eyes flamed tenderness, the while

            She dreamed of Antony. Her round, bare arms

            Were clasped with jewels and Egyptian charms;

And her dark maids―the slow hours to beguile―

Perfumed her brow, and wove her glorious hair

            In serpent coils. Pink lotus blossoms slept

            On her warm breast; unevenly her breath

Came, fragrant, from her parted lips,―and ne’er

            Throbbed throat so sweet. . . . And all unnoticed crept

            Beside her, waiting, the dark reptile Death.

"A Dream of Cleopatra" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).