Javanese Dancers

Twitched strings, the clang of metal, beaten drums.
     Dull, shrill, continuous, disquieting;
And now the stealthy dancer comes
     Undulantly with cat-like steps that cling;

Smiling between her painted lids a smile,
     Motionless, unintelligible, she twines
     Her fingers into mazy lines,
Twining her scarves across them all the while.

One, two, three, four step forth, and, to and fro,
     Delicately and imperceptibly,
Now swaying gently in a row,
     Now interthreading slow and rhythmically,

Still with fixed eyes, monotonously still,
     Mysteriously, with smiles inanimate,
     With lingering feet that undulate,
With sinuous fingers, spectral hands that thrill,

The little amber-coloured dancers move,
     Like little painted figures on a screen,
     Or phantom-dancers haply seen
Among the shadows of a magic grove.