"Temptation"

"Temptation"

I met Temptation in a wood;

      She reached her tender arms to me,

And, O! her eyes were warm and dark,

      And, O! her lips were sweet to see;

Her unbound hair was flecked with gold,

      Like sunlight trembling thro’ the leaves,

And, O! her voice was soft and low,

      Like winds among the harvest sheaves.

Her breast seemed pure and white as snow,

      New-fallen on some mountain height,

Where only snows on the white snows fall,

      From night to day, from day to night.

Her slender waist was girdled round

      With purple poppies, crimson-tipped;

And, O! her breath was like red wine,

      And, O! she was delicious-lipped,

The light was dim within that wood—

      I kissed her, and I knew no more

Until I heard the sad sea waves

      Breaking their hearts against the shore,

And moaning like some living thing

      That could not bear its weight of woe;

Then I remembered other ties,

      And, all remorseful, prayed to go.

But, lo! the arms that held me close,

      Were hot as fire, strong as death;

Her golden hairs were bands of steel,

      And burning, scorching, was her breath.

The poppies, dying at her waist,

      Petal by petal, fluttered down;

Her lips were dry and parched, and

      Her eyes were shadowed by a frown.

The night was black within that wood,

      And still the waves sobbed on the shore.

“Temptation,” prayed I—but she laughed—

      “Temptation is your love no more;

Temptation, having won you, tired,

      And gave you me; my name is Sin,

And I will hold you close till death—

      Behold! Temptation is my twin.”

The night was black; the sad sea waves

      Still beat in grief against the shore;

That hour I knew that Sin and I

      Were wedded fast forevermore.

"Temptation" printed in an unidentified publication in 1893 with a revision by Ella Higginson, clipping courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA.