Six months and I sit still and hold
In two cold palms her cold two feet;
Her Hair, half grey half ruined Gold,
Thrills me and burns me in kissing it.
Love bites and stings me through to see
Her keen face made of sunken bones.
Her worn-out eyelids madden me,
That were shot through with Purple once.”
from “The Leper”
Swinburne (1837 – 1909)
