Her Sweet, Sweet mouth!

by Herman Melville

Herman Melville

Her sweet, sweet mouth!
The peach-pearl shell:—
Red edged its lips,
That softly swell,
Just oped to speak,
With blushing cheek,
That fisherman
With lonely spear
On the reef ken,
And lift to ear
Its voice to hear,—
Soft, sighing South!
Like this, like this,—
The rosy kiss!—
That maiden's mouth.
A shell! a shell!
A vocal shell!
Song-dreaming,
In its inmost dell!

Her bosom! Two buds half blown, they tell;
A little valley between perfuming;
That roves away,
Deserting the day,—
The day of her eyes illuming;—
That roves away, o'er slope and fell,
Till a soft, soft meadow becomes the dell.





Last updated March 26, 2023