Cecil Day Lewis
Naked Woman with Kotyle*
She moved to the slow
Dance of supplication;
Her body's flow
Was a moon in motion.
Like the moon that swims
In a cold river
And eddies at its whims
She seemed to her lover.
She danced alone,
Whiter than a column
Of the Parthenon,
Virginal and solemn.
So he prayed to the stars,
Took enamel and graver,
And toiling on this vase
Timeless grace gave her.
He looked with heartbreak
On the vase, so petty,
So frail a thing to take
All her live beauty.
Now are they gone—
Tranced and entrancer.
Dust dancing in the sun
Is that forgotten dancer.
* From a Catalogue of Greek Vases.
poetrymagazines note: Selected poems by C Day Lewis from The Complete Poems of C Day Lewis (© C Day Lewis, 1992) is reproduced by permission of PFD (www.pfd.co.uk) on behalf of the Estate of C Day Lewis.
Page(s) 18
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The