Part 22 (1/2)

Here the arch Cupid slyly seems to glide By with bloom-laden basket. There the shapes Of genii press with purpling feet the grapes, Here springs the wild Bacchante to the dance, And there she sleeps [while that voluptuous trance Eyes the sly faun with never-sated glance]

Now on one knee upon the centaur-steeds Hovering--the Thyrsus plies.--Hurrah!--away she speeds!

Come--come, why loiter ye?--Here, here, how fair The goodly vessels still! Girls, hither turn, Fill from the fountain the Etruscan urn!

On the winged sphinxes see the tripod.-- Ho!

Quick--quick, ye slaves, come--fire!--the hearth prepare!

Ha! wilt thou sell?--this coin shall pay thee--this, Fresh from the mint of mighty t.i.tus!--Lo!

Here lie the scales, and not a weight we miss So--bring the light! The delicate lamp!--what toil Shaped thy minutest grace!--quick pour the oil!

Yonder the fairy chest!--come, maid, behold The bridegroom's gifts--the armlets--they are gold, And paste out-feigning jewels!--lead the bride Into the odorous bath--lo! unguents still-- And still the crystal vase the arts for beauty fill!

But where the men of old--perchance a prize More precious yet in yon papyrus lies, And see ev'n still the tokens of their toil-- The waxen tablets--the recording style.

The earth, with faithful watch, has h.o.a.rded all!

Still stand the mute penates in the hall; Back to his haunts returns each ancient G.o.d.

Why absent only from their ancient stand The priests?--waves Hermes his Caducean rod, And the winged victory struggles from the hand.

Kindle the flame--behold the altar there!

Long hath the G.o.d been wors.h.i.+pless--to prayer.

NAENIA.

Even the beauteous must die! This vanquishes men and immortals; But of the Stygian G.o.d moves not the bosom of steel.

Once and once only could love prevail on the ruler of shadows, And on the threshold, e'en then, sternly his gift he recalled.

Venus could never heal the wounds of the beauteous stripling, That the terrible boar made in his delicate skin; Nor could his mother immortal preserve the hero so G.o.dlike, When at the west gate of Troy, falling, his fate he fulfilled.

But she arose from the ocean with all the daughters of Nereus, And o'er her glorified son raised the loud accents of woe.

See! where all the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses yonder are weeping, That the beauteous must fade, and that the perfect must die.

Even a woe-song to be in the mouth of the loved ones is glorious, For what is vulgar descends mutely to Orcus' dark shades.

THE MAID OF ORLEANS.

Humanity's bright image to impair.

Scorn laid thee prostrate in the deepest dust; Wit wages ceaseless war on all that's fair,-- In angel and in G.o.d it puts no trust; The bosom's treasures it would make its prey,-- Besieges fancy,--dims e'en faith's pure ray.

Yet issuing like thyself from humble line, Like thee a gentle shepherdess is she-- Sweet poesy affords her rights divine, And to the stars eternal soars with thee.

Around thy brow a glory she hath thrown; The heart 'twas formed thee,--ever thou'lt live on!

The world delights whate'er is bright to stain, And in the dust to lay the glorious low; Yet fear not! n.o.ble bosoms still remain, That for the lofty, for the radiant glow Let Momus serve to fill the booth with mirth; A n.o.bler mind loves forms of n.o.bler worth.

ARCHIMEDES.

To Archimedes once a scholar came, ”Teach me,” he said, ”the art that won thy fame;-- The G.o.dlike art which gives such boons to toil, And showers such fruit upon thy native soil;-- The G.o.dlike art that girt the town when all Rome's vengeance burst in thunder on the wall!”

”Thou call'st art G.o.dlike--it is so, in truth, And was,” replied the master to the youth, ”Ere yet its secrets were applied to use-- Ere yet it served beleaguered Syracuse:-- Ask'st thou from art, but what the art is worth?

The fruit?--for fruit go cultivate the earth.-- He who the G.o.ddess would aspire unto, Must not the G.o.ddess as the woman woo!”

THE DANCE.

See how, like lightest waves at play, the airy dancers fleet; And scarcely feels the floor the wings of those harmonious feet.

Ob, are they flying shadows from their native forms set free?

Or phantoms in the fairy ring that summer moonbeams see?