Helen

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)

 
From Heliodora (1924)

All Greece hates

The still eyes in the white face,

The luster as of olives

Where she stands,

And the white hands.

All Greece reviles

The wan face when she smiles,

Hating it deeper still

When it grows wan and white

Remembering past enchantments

And past ills.

Greece sees unmoved,

God's daughter, born of love,

The beauty of cool feet

And slenderest knees,

Could love indeed the maid,

Only if she were laid,

White ahs amid funereal cypresses.

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