Semele

I imagine an English Semele -
A gawky girl who strayed beyond the town
Picking at stalks, alarmed by puberty . . .
Who by the handsome stranger's side lay down

And when he'd gone lay still in meadow-sweet
Knowing herself betrayed into the world -
Soft flesh suffused with summer's languid heat,
The clement light in which the ferns uncurled.
...