Versos English Algernon Charles Swinburne Messalina

English poem

Messalina

by

Listen in the reader

I am the queen of Italy. These were the signs God set on me; A barren beauty subtle and sleek, Curled carven hair, and cheeks worn wan With fierce false lips of many a man, Large temples where the blood ran weak, A mouth athirst and amorous And hungering as the grave's mouth does That, being an-hungred, cannot speak.