The Temple Dancing Girl
You will be mine; those lightly dancing feet,Falling as softly on the careless streetAs the wind-loosened petals of a flower,Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour.
And all the Temple's little links and lawsWill not for long protect your loveliness.I have a stronger force to aid my cause,Nature's great Law, to love and to possess!
Throughout those sleepless watches, when I layWakeful, desiring what I might not see,I knew (it helped those hours, from dusk to day),In this one thing, Fate would be kind to me.
You will consent, through all my veins like wineThis prescience flows; your lips meet mine above,Your clear soft eyes look upward into mineDim in a silent ecstasy of love.
The clustered softness of your waving hair,That curious paleness which enchants me so,And all your delicate strength and youthful air,Destiny will compel you to bestow!
Refuse, withdraw, and hesitate awhile,Your young reluctance does but fan the flame;My partner, Love, waits, with a tender smile,Who play against him play a losing game.
I, strong in nothing else, have strength in this,The subtlest, most resistless, force we knowIs aiding me; and you must stoop and kiss:The genius of the race will have it so!
Yet, make it not too long, nor too intenseMy thirst; lest I should break beneath the strain,And the worn nerves, and over-wearied sense,Enjoy not what they spent themselves to gain.
Lest, in the hour when you consent to shareThat human passion Beauty makes divine,I, over worn, should find you over fair,Lest I should die before I make you mine.
You will consent, those slim, reluctant feet,Falling as lightly on the careless streetAs the white petals of a wind-worn flower,Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour.
Words in this poem
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- wakeful a.
- Not sleeping; indisposed to sleep; watchful; vigilant.
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- resistless a.
- Having no power to resist; making no opposition.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Temple Dancing Girl is in the public domain. This text is taken from India's Love Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #8197; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Laurence Hope, The Temple Dancing Girl, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/the-temple-dancing-girl.html, id L22635.
Form and metre
The Temple Dancing Girl is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 8 of its 10 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB feetA · streetA · flowerB · hourB
- 2 ABAB lawsA · lovelinessB · causeA · possessB
- 3 ABAB layA · seeB · dayA · meB
- 4 ABAB wineA · aboveB · mineA · loveB
- 5 ABAB hairA · soB · airA · bestowB
- 6 ABAB awhileA · flameB · smileA · gameB
- 7 ABAB thisA · knowB · kissA · soB
- 8 ABAB intenseA · strainB · senseA · gainB
- 9 ABAB shareA · divineB · fairA · mineB
- 10 AABB feetA · streetA · flowerB · hourB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You will be mine; those lightly dancing feet, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Falling as softly on the careless street | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| As the wind-loosened petals of a flower, | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour. | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| And all the Temple's little links and laws | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Will not for long protect your loveliness. | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| I have a stronger force to aid my cause, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nature's great Law, to love and to possess! | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Throughout those sleepless watches, when I lay | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Wakeful, desiring what I might not see, | 10 | /˘˘/˘····· |
| I knew (it helped those hours, from dusk to day), | 10 | ·····/···· |
| In this one thing, Fate would be kind to me. | 10 | ·········· |
| You will consent, through all my veins like wine | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| This prescience flows; your lips meet mine above, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Your clear soft eyes look upward into mine | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Dim in a silent ecstasy of love. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| The clustered softness of your waving hair, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| That curious paleness which enchants me so, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| And all your delicate strength and youthful air, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Destiny will compel you to bestow! | 10 | /˘˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Refuse, withdraw, and hesitate awhile, | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Your young reluctance does but fan the flame; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| My partner, Love, waits, with a tender smile, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Who play against him play a losing game. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I, strong in nothing else, have strength in this, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The subtlest, most resistless, force we know | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Is aiding me; and you must stoop and kiss: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The genius of the race will have it so! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Yet, make it not too long, nor too intense | 10 | ········˘/ |
| My thirst; lest I should break beneath the strain, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the worn nerves, and over-wearied sense, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Enjoy not what they spent themselves to gain. | 10 | ˘/····˘/·· |
| Lest, in the hour when you consent to share | 10 | ···/··˘/·· |
| That human passion Beauty makes divine, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| I, over worn, should find you over fair, | 10 | ·········· |
| Lest I should die before I make you mine. | 10 | ·········· |
| You will consent, those slim, reluctant feet, | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| Falling as lightly on the careless street | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| As the white petals of a wind-worn flower, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour. | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.