Poem text:
Our myrtle is in flower;
Behold Love's power!
The glorious stamens' crowded force unfurled,Cirque beyond cirque
At breathing, bee-like, and harmonious work;
The rose-patched petals backward curled,Falling away
To let fecundity have perfect play.O flower, dear to the eyes
Of Aphrodite, rise
As she at once to bare, audacious bliss;And bid us near
Your prodigal, delicious hemisphere.
Where thousand kisses breed the kissThat fills the room
With languor of an acid, dark perfume!from “Underneath the Bough” (1893)
by Katherine Harris Bradley and Edith Emma Cooper (pen name "Michael Field")