How subtle-secret is your smile! Did you love none then? Nay, I know + 

Great Ammon was your bedfellow! He lay with you beside the Nile! + 

The river-horses in the slime trumpeted when they saw him come + 

Odorous with Syrian galbanum and smeared with spikenard and with thyme. + 

He came along the river bank like some tall galley argent-sailed, + 

He strode across the waters, mailed in beauty, and the waters sank. + 

He strode across the desert sand: he reached the valley where you lay: + 

He waited till the dawn of day: then touched your black breasts with his hand. + 

You kissed his mouth with mouths of flame: you made the hornèd god your own: + 

You stood behind him on his throne: you called him by his secret name. + 

You whispered monstrous oracles into the caverns of his ears: + 

With blood of goats and blood of steers you taught him monstrous miracles. + 

White Ammon was your bedfellow! Your chamber was the steaming Nile! + 

And with your curved archaic smile you watched his passion come and go. + 