The power of lust
If a woman is a Cleopatra
And sets her eyes, any man is Antony
To fall at her, deserting his consort,
Who is virtuous like Octavius though.
03.11.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Antony: There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.
Cleopatra: I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 1, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy! | In Spanish | In Italian | In Romanian
Cleopatra’s glory
Cleopatra was the queen of Egypt;
Cleopatra was the queen of beauty.
She came to the throne at her eighteen
The first century BC witnessed it.
To get back her Egypt from her brother,
She sought the hand of Julius Caesar,
The mighty one Rome had ever seen,
And set to sell her asset of beauty.
While in exile, she was able to reach
Caesar when he chanced to visit Egypt,
By getting her smuggled in to his room,
Rolled up in a carpet sent as a gift
Cleopatra emerging from the roll,
Caesar was stunned and fell for her in love.
He made her queen of Egypt in no time
And made her his consort with all respects.
Bound by her charm, grace and wit together,
Caesar clued to her and bore her a son.
He brought her home to be adored by Rome.
They led a life, each proud of the other.
The rise of Caesar was the cause of his fall.
His rise in power and love for Egypt
Were good enough for his conspirators
To rise and annihilate him unaware.
Cleopatra with her son fled to Egypt
And Mark Antony succeeded the throne.
No wonder, her beauty arrested him.
No wonder, his valour imprisioned her.
.The Rome emperor and the Egyptian queen
Loved, like of which no pair ever did.
The spring sprang, love spurted, and the passion flowed.
She was all and she was the world for him.
He took to Egypt and slept with the queen.
His rivals from Rome used his weakness
And invaded the Egyptian sea.
War broke; Antony woke and fought but lost.
The majestic queen became the captive.
False news spread that she was killed. Shocked,
Antony killed himself with the sword he wore.
She saught to burry him with state honour.
She heard she would be taken to Rome,
To be chained and drawn in Rome she adorned.
Romans took care that she killed not herself
And so kept her ss safe amidst water.
She had serpents brought in the fruit basket
And had them sting her to join her lover.
She loved Caesar and lived a royal wife.
She loved Antony and lived a loyal wife.
A woman can love as much in succession.
Widowhood is not an impediment
And the land after the harvest is not waste.
Cleopatra is a perfect example.
‘Age cannot wither her, not custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.’ Shakespeare
01.04.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Cleopatra: I have immortal longings in me.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
Anthony and Cleopatra
A wrinkle poked his sodding alchemy
Bereft of reason and the truth of ships
But nothing pirouettes in blank sausages
As Antony kisses Cleopatra on the lips.
They went out late last night, clubbing in Alexandria
And Cleopatra was wearing her fishnet tights,
Antony wanted to get her somewhere quiet,
He didn't want to get involved in any fights.
He's got this paranoid fear of Caesar
Because Julius wants to rule the earth,
But perhaps if Cleopatra helps him
He'll show his enemies what he's really worth.
Past ruined palaces of fevered brow
The carved spinach of his twisted dreams
Erupts like ivory in trembling snow
And catches tigers in their early schemes.
poem by John Thorkild Ellison
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Charmian: By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.
Cleopatra: My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood,
To say as I said then.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 5, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy!
Countryman: I know that a woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
Madonna and Cleopatra
Men love Madonna like women
And lust Cleopatra like ones.
Virtuous woman are wives, serving
And others concubines, hooking men.
Having herown income to live on,
A woman need not be a Madonna..
13.02.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In a Township of Asia Minor
The news about the outcome of the sea-battle at Actium
was of course unexpected.
But there's no need for us to draft a new proclamation.
The name's the only thing that has to be changed.
There, in the concluding lines, instead of: "Having freed the Romans
from Octavius, that disaster,
that parody of a Caesar,"
we'll substitute: "Having freed the Romans
from Antony, that disaster,..."
The whole text fits very nicely.
"To the most glorious victor,
matchless in his military ventures,
prodigious in his political operations,
on whose behalf the township ardently wished
for Antony's triumph,..."
here, as we said, the substitution: "for Octavius Caesar's triumph,
regarding it as Zeus' finest gift—
to this mighty protector of the Greeks,
who graciously honors Greek customs,
who is beloved in every Greek domain,
who clearly deserves exalted praise,
and whose exploits should be recorded at length
in the Greek language, in both verse and prose,
in the Greek language, the vehicle of fame,"
et cetera, et cetera. It all fits brilliantly.
poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
If she were a Cleopatra
Let her be a whore, a sun burnt and
Over ripe with wrinkles on her face.
If she were a Cleopatra, with infinite
Variety and charisma to make hungry
She feeds, and throws her glance, hungry
I would grow and fall at her, head thrust,
The crest lost and other pursuits cast.
Woman is evil; man is devil.
03.11.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In praising Antony I have dispraised Caesar.
After Her Death I Dreamed Of My Love (Cavatina Sequence)
(After William Shakespeare)
After her death I dreamed of my love,
with eyes sparkling
somewhat divine like the stars that glitter,
somehow existing
in the dark outer space, with her two hands
reaching, touching,
the circumference of this great earth,
with a sash of vast planets in her girth.
White blazing braking thunder was her breath,
her eyes were blue
as the purest kind of cobalt hued sky
her love was true,
even much greater than it was before,
her retinue
were the elements, some power divine
and still she wanted to be only mine.
[Reference: 'Cleopatra's Lament' from 'Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Enobarbus: To be furious is to be frighted out of fear.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, Scene 13, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
Lepidus: But small to greater matters must give way.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy!
Enobarbus: Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy!
Charmian: Tempt him not so too far. I wish, forbear.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 3, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy!
Love's Reveller.
Hard have you won her, and must hold as fast!
She is Love's reveller — those tawny eyes
Are up and down still in warm passion cast,
And woe betide the soul whom they surprise!
Yet is she yours — you deem not for a while.
But have you felt the fiery stress of her?
It is a woman's, yet a serpent's smile
A Cleopatra yields her worshipper.
The cruel sweetness of her beauty lurks
In all her lovers' ruin; none may dare
To toy with her but love like poison works
To madness or the sorrow of despair: —
And you — the Antony of her desire?
Her love is still as a consuming fire.
poem by Robert Crawford
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The fire.
Passion is fire, it engulfs or dies.
It engulfed Antony and Cleopatra.
It died in us, the two cowards.
21.07.2003
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Sex through eyes
Man’s eyes fall on woman’s breasts
and hers on his shoulders.
To him her cheek is catchy
and to her his nose.
He devours with his eyes her curves
And she with her eyes, his steel.
The mere sight enthralls each other.
22.09.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Agrippa: Royal wench!
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
He plowed her, and she cropped.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy!
Much awaited
I heard much of Cleopatra.
I read much of Cleopatra,
Read with her lover Mark Antony.
But I never saw her beauty.
What sensation I would’ve got
Had I seen her in bone and flesh,
That sensation came to me hot
When you, Jessiamma, I met.
I wish I saw you a decade
Ago when you’re a young orchard.
Your kindness outlives your beauty.
It is unkind to deride your bounty.
I regard you in high esteem
As in you runs a crystal stream,
Wherein many want to bathe,
That you ward off to keep it clean.
You are gifted with a beauty
That women view as their envy
And men find as their energy.
Thus, your journey is made easy
17.07.2001 Ktm
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!