Verse and Reverse (1921)/Pavlowa Dancing

Footsteps of youth through the springtime playing;
Footfalls of snow in a blue mist straying;
The rose of Russia in a bright wind swaying;—
A rose of fire and snow.

Voices chanting everywhere and no word said;
Fairy bells from ancient towers signalling the dead;
Light love tuning viols while the dance runs red—
A flaming dance of death.

White barbaric winters and a sky star-strung;
All the hidden pathways all the songs unsung
Caught in flying footsteps over wild music hung,
She dances—and the Czar lies dead.

O the cries and martyrdoms and fatal morns,
Scarlet nights and fiery wine and bitter scorns,
Dancing in a rose of joy from a field of thorns—
Rapture from a land of thorns.