Mythological Introduction

A white girl lay on the grass
With her arms held out for love;
Her goldbrown hair fell down her face,
And her two lips move:

     See, I am the whitest cloud that strays
     Through a deep sky:
     I am your senses’ crossroads,
     Where the four seasons lie.

She rose up in the middle of the lawn
And spread her arms wide;
And the webbed earth where she had lain
Had eaten away her side.



—Philip Larkin