Enwreathed with flowers luxuriant and fair,
Yet poisonous as the Upas in their breath.
Her sparkling eye, keen as the basilisk’s,
Who marks his prey, beams with a flashing light—
False as the flame which hovers o’er the gulf
Of dark oblivion—tempting to destroy.
Mysterious power! men shudder while they gaze—
Despise, yet own her fascinating spell.
As bursts the “deafening thunder of applause,”
’Mid showers of votive wreaths, and parfum vif—