A Summer Nymph Poem by Peter Black

Introduction

I gave up love, set it beside
Hopes, dreams: unreachable as sky,
For I had a love seeming fair;
Erred, called delusion, love: despair,
And thought with my hand I could breach
The billowing welkin and truth reach,
But soon saw nothing in its heights
Though my eyes strained with all their might.
And the love once so pure and soft
Found hate and was forever lost.
Then to treat my sick misery
Sought secret woods for company,
But what happened next to retell
Easier are whole forests felled
Alone, if my words can not stand.
I from Cytheria demand:
To kiss the muses on the lips,
Perfume their words with amored bliss,
So that when they touch mine with dew,
Secondly with love are imbued,
And I may sing of love again,
And my stories events begin.

I.
In the deep woods I retired,
Hidden I planned to conspire:
Never again a human see,
Nor again touch humanity.
Such was the sorrow that I felt,
I feigned my sense and better health.
In dead thistle and thorn I laid,
And with them my own body flayed,
Cutting into long faded scars;
The blood to me: a just reward,
By it, a mud I made with dirt,
Stripped bare, and clothed my self in earth.
Over my skin I rubbed the paste;
Through the woods my dreams, I chased.
Frantic, I collapsed in the shade
And from the foliage a bed made.
Exhausted, I gave up and slept.
Somnus touched the tears I had wept.

II.
In the morning dew I awoke,
As from the chambers of night broke,
Off of my body slipped the dirt,
And by braid of flowers was girt,
From my hair a perfume up-rose
And in the wind its scent did blow.
I lied naked upon my back
And watched aurora on her track
Through the sky pushing away night,
Allowing the sun down from its height.
A light filled the secluded scene;
But remained cool, shaded by trees,
Reposed, by the flowers was calmed:
Their nectar to me was a balm.
In the forest's nook I found peace
But sadness from my heart still seeped.
I sensed that part of me was dead,
And gently I laid down my head.

III.
From cover, I heard cracking stems
And so I lifted up my head.
Behind the trees a doe appeared:
An elegant fertile deer.
When I saw her, my body burned
Like an animal for one yearned.
She walked ten paces towards me
And all the blood through my veins streamed.
Right there, the doe, I would have bed,
But as I further turned my head,
She leaped, and into the woods raced,
Then on my feet I gave her chase.
So nimble through the trees she pranced,
Fleet and gracious was her dance,
That my desire peaked and grew;
After her amber hide I flew,
Seeking the white puff of her tail,
Following the faint scent of her trail.
Through the crest of the trees I came,
Into a circled, open plain.


IV.
No doe did I see but a Nymph
And at once my body went limp.
Lying on her side she was spread,
And naked from her feet to head,
Her amber locks covered the ground:
Laying flat here and there in mounds,
Like a rolling thin stranded sea
That ebbed every time she breathed.
Light from her sapphire eyes shined
And froze me when they locked with mine.
I longed for her soft velvet lips,
To blend mine with hers by a kiss.
How heavenly her body was:
Godly and lacking any flaw,
Shaped like a thin necked vase and round
Near her thighs, then tapers down;
O! Rounded perfectly her breasts:
Firm and slight upturned like crests.
She moved slowly her thin framed limbs
And seemed to above her hair swim.


V.
From her body an ether bloomed,
It lingered over her skin: loomed,
Sat, and drifted across her face,
Stomach, body, and smelled of grace;
But it was a musty scent:
It harassed my eyes, and loins scent
Wild, ferocious, and alive;
If held constrained thought I would die.
Her body lifted off the ground
Slightly and her hair wrapped around
My arms and legs, then her hips rolled,
Fell to the earth keeping her hold;
Gyrated her rich loins and thighs:
She spread her milky legs aside.

VI.
She drew me towards her and on;
The sadness was forever gone:
By kiss, a drop of ichor passed
From heaven to earth and I grasped
The Nymph, quivered in tender throes,
Quaking and my whole body moaned:
It did not fade but always grew;
Each move caused pleasure to renew;
Feeling as though through water flied,
Broke its surface and met the sky
And remained between firmaments.
So strongly by her earth was bent,
It seemed to speed up by an age;
Or Uranus and Gaia laid,
Together over and bellow us;
With each touch the ancient gods thrust!
Then the Nymph and I were one,
All pleasure before became none.
Her spirit's true form was like a shade:
Half of earth, and half heaven made,
For at times my thrusts caused her speak;
But at times found a mist beneath;
So where once living flesh spoke out,
At others the essence of clouds;
Locked as one, I needed not breathe
Nor had voice for a loving scream.

VII.
What is a day when love is bound;
In ten I but a minute found,
And then I woke as from a dream,
Nor could say things were as they seemed.
My summer Nymph had disappeared;
No longer heartache did I feel.
But wrapped around my legs and wrists,
Were twisted strands: marks of our tryst.
Though she was gone, I knew she was
In the woods or among the stars.

Now ask the poet was is lust and love;
Truth in idea, or truth in form.
Question not, look to the heavens.
At one spot a celestial orb sits,
Burns in fiery reds, her name is Venus;
But behind in the empty barren cold
Sits True Love and each night he cries alone,
Before the existence he helped create;
His purpose is lost in our human states.