Now Lies the Earth...

I was reminded of this gorgeous, sexy poem while reading (the excellent) The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark:

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;

Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;

Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font;

The firefly wakens, waken thou with me.

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,

And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,

And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves

A shining furrow, as thy thoughts, in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,

And slips into the bosom of the lake.

So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip

Into my bosom and be lost in me.

Titian's Danaë (1553: Prado, Madrid)