Ashurbanipal Reincarnated At a Desk in Rare Books and Music
A sternness in the beauty of his nose,
His eyebrows and the arch above them,
Its sweeping, upward, back—these all compose
An epic that should wear a diadem.
Its jewels should be from Asia and the isles
Of eastern seas, the gold from Indian crowns
Or Persian ones. His beauty like the tiles
Of Turkish mosques, as beautiful as frowns
In passion’s final, perfect spasms, these
Are harsh and angled, lovely as the strength
In temples made of marble and of frieze,
Ionic Greece stretched out in high white length.
..His handsomeness is male in every way
….And holds the pain of gods within its sway.
