Théophile Gautier

“ Thou mightest, like the lost Gulnare, prove,—
In whose heart-stirring, passionate caress
In one wild, tremulous note there blend and mount
A woman's sigh of plaintive tenderness,
And virile accents from a firmer fount. ”

“ ENAMELS AND CAMEOS BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER TRANSLATED BY AGNES LEE
CONTENTS
THE GOD AND THE OPAL
TO THÉOPHILE GAUTIER
Gray caught he from the cloud, and green from earth,
And from a human breast the fire he drew,
And life and death were blended in one dew.
A sunbeam golden with the morning's mirth,
A wan, salt phantom from the sea, a girth
Of silver from the moon, shot colour through
The soul invisible, until it grew
To fulness, and the Opal Song had birth.
And then the god became the artisan. ”

“ Sat dreaming, and, safe in my nook,
Enamels and Cameos fashioned.
AFFINITY
A PANTHEISTIC MADRIGAL
On an ancient temple gleaming,
Two great blocks of marble high
Thrice a thousand years lay dreaming
Dreams against an Attic sky. ”