Paul Verlaine – Desiderio / Wish
John William Waterhouse, The Awakening of Adonis, 1899 Ah! Fond speech! And the first mistresses! Hair’s gold, eyes’ blue, the flower of the flesh, Then, in the scent of the dear body’s mesh The shy spontaneity of caresses! How far away now is all that lightness And all that innocence! Ah, backwards yet, From black …