ARTHUR SYMONS

White Heliotrope

The feverish room and that white bed,
     The tumbled skirts upon a chair,
     The novel flung half-open, where
Hat, hair-pins, puffs, and paints, are spread;

The mirror that has sucked your face
     Into its secret deep of deeps;
     And there mysteriously keeps
Forgotten memories of grace;

And you, half dressed and half awake,
     Your slant eyes strangely watching me,
     And I, who watch you drowsily,
With eyes that, having slept not, ache;

This (need one dread? nay, dare one hope?)
     Will rise, a ghost of memory, if
     Ever again my handkerchief
Is scented with White Heliotrope.