IN SODOM
by: Francis Saltus (1846-1889)
- ERE rose
the reeking altar-grees of Bel,
- And Yem, the king of the exalted Gods,
- And Bar, the hero of all heroes, stood
- In lustrous bronze beside all potent Nin,
- With Bita, king of oceans and of fish,
- And Anu, holier than the holy stars.
-
- Here reigned the great terror-dealing Beltis,
- The pure, impeccable and beauteous goddess,
- And in the perfumed temples before her
- Maidens would swoon in holy prostitution,
- Adoring her fecundity and beauty,
- Filling the temple with their sighs of rapture,
- Low and delicious like the dove's soft cooing.
- Here would they wait to lure the idle passer,
- Tempting his glance by bare and fragrant bosoms,
- Calling upon their goddess and Sheruba,
- Divine Ishtar, and lily limbed Anuta,
- To make their flesh a love-light and a wonder,
- To win the timorous stranger and the passer
- Their languid limbs were radiant with jewels;
- Their thighs were smeared with warm, voluptuous ointments
- And tiaras of gold coin amid their tresses
- Shone in the gloom like the fond eyes of angels.
- They smiled and languished in their lustful dreaming,
- Watching their eyes flash in their copper mirrors,
- Beautiful, redolent, supple-limbed and tempting,
- Carelessly tapping on their noisy tabrets,
- Screened by the goddess in the temple's arches,
- Yearning for some sweet stripling of the city
- Or the grave, palm-oiled warriors of Gomorrah,
- And, as they toyed with gold and silver ouches,
- Prayed unto Hea to relieve and send them
- Some dainty zonah, some delicious zonah,
- Who, lacking lovers, would with joy caress them,
- Ay love them sweetlier for lacking lovers.
-
- Within Ashur's colossal almug temple,
- Around the holy altar sacrificial,
- Drowsy with cassia fumes and stringent spices,
- The heady nekoth, the sweet smell of heaven,
- Lying and dozing with the sacred serpents,
- Listening to eunuchs idly thrum the viol,
- Nodding their chins upon their tuneless nebels,
- Linger the chosen lovers of the altar.
- Perfumed and supple, in a gaudy raiment,
- Oiled to the beard and like fresh lilies fragrant,
- Drenched with balsam and cinnamon's sweet juices,
- Praying to Anu to secure them lovers;
- Lovers who would reward their warm caresses
- With costly gifts of onycha and ointment;
- Lovers who lavish galbanum in plenty,
- When cloyed and satisfied with their embracing,
- And they to all will amorously pander,
- Being of love's mysterious and strange passions
- The slaves, the chosen and the perfect masters.
"In Sodom" is reprinted
from Poetica Erotica. Ed. T.R. Smith. New York: Crown
Publishers, 1921. |
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