The low beating of the tom-toms, 
The slow beating of the tom-toms, 
     Low … slow 
     Slow … low–
     Stirs your blood. 
          Dance! 
A night-veiled girl 
     Whirls softly into a 
     Circle of light. 
     Whirls softly… slowly, 
Like a wisp of smoke around the fire–
     And the tom-toms beat, 
     And the tom-toms beat, 
And the low beating of the tom-toms 
     Stirs your blood.

(first published in Crisis, 1922)