Hero and Leander and Other Poems | Page 7

Triton sound aloud,
Imagining that
Ganymede, displeas'd,
Had left the heavens; therefore on him he
seiz'd.
Leander striv'd; the waves about him wound,
And pull'd him
to the bottom, where the ground
Was strew'd with pearl, and in low
coral groves
Sweet-singing mermaids sported with their loves
On
heaps of heavy gold, and took great pleasure
To spurn in careless sort
the shipwreck treasure;
For here the stately azure palace stood,

Where kingly Neptune and his train abode.
The lusty god embrac'd
him, call'd him "love,"
And swore he never should return to Jove:

But when he knew it was not Ganymed,
For under water he was
almost dead,
He heav'd him up, and, looking on his face,
Beat down
the bold waves with his triple mace,
Which mounted up, intending to
have kiss'd him.
And fell in drops like tears because they miss'd him.

Leander, being up, began to swim,
And, looking back, saw
Neptune follow him:
Whereat aghast, the poor soul gan to cry,
"O,
let me visit Hero ere I die!"
The god put Helle's bracelet on his arm,

And swore the sea should never do him harm.
He clapp'd his
plump cheeks, with his tresses play'd,
And, smiling wantonly, his
love bewray'd;
He watch'd his arms, and, as they open'd wide
At
every stroke, betwixt them would he slide,
And steal a kiss, and then
run out and dance,
And, as he turn'd, cast many a lustful glance,


And throw him gaudy toys to please his eye,
And dive into the water,
and there pry
Upon his breast, his thighs, and every limb,
And up
again, and close beside him swim,
And talk of love. Leander made
reply,
"You are deceiv'd; I am no woman, I."
Thereat smil'd
Neptune, and then told a tale,
How that a shepherd, sitting in a vale,

Play'd with a boy so lovely-fair and kind,
As for his love both earth

and heaven pin'd;
That of the cooling river durst not drink,
Lest
water-nymphs should pull him from the brink;
And when he sported
in the fragrant lawns,
Goat-footed Satyrs and up-staring Fauns

Would steal him thence. Ere half this tale was done,
"Ay me,"
Leander cried, "th' enamour'd sun,
That now should shine on Thetis'
glassy bower,
Descends upon my radiant Hero's tower:
O, that these
tardy arms of mine were wings!"
And, as he spake, upon the waves
he springs.
Neptune was angry that he gave no ear,
And in his heart
revenging malice bare:
He flung at him his mace; but, as it went,

He call'd it in, for love made him repent:
The mace, returning back,
his own hand hit,
As meaning to be veng'd for darting it.
When this
fresh-bleeding wound Leander view'd,
His colour went and came, as
if he ru'd
The grief which Neptune felt: in gentle breasts
Relenting
thoughts, remorse, and pity rests;
And who have hard hearts and
obdurate minds,
But vicious, hare-brain'd, and illiterate hinds?
The
god, seeing him with pity to be mov'd,
Thereon concluded that he
was belov'd;
(Love is too full of faith, too credulous,
With folly and
false hope deluding us;)
Wherefore, Leander's fancy to surprise,
To
the rich ocean for gifts he flies;
'Tis wisdom to give much; a gilt
prevails
When deep-persuading oratory fails.
By this, Leander,
being near the land,
Cast down his weary feet, and felt the sand.

Breathless albeit he were, he rested not
Till to the solitary tower he
got;
And knock'd, and call'd: at which celestial noise
The longing
heart of Hero much more joys,
Than nymphs and shepherds when the
timbrel rings,
Or crooked dolphin when the sailor sings.
She stay'd
not for her robes, but straight arose,

And, drunk with gladness, to the
door she goes;
Where seeing a naked man, she screech'd for fear,

(Such sights as this to tender maids are rare,)
And ran into the dark
herself to hide
(Rich jewels in the dark are soonest spied).
Unto her
was he led, or rather drawn
By those white limbs which sparkled
through the lawn.
The nearer that he came, the more she fled,
And,
seeking refuge, slipt into her bed;
Whereon Leander sitting, thus
began,
Through numbing cold, all feeble, faint, and wan.
"If not for

love, yet, love, for pity-sake,
Me in thy bed and maiden bosom take;

At least vouchsafe these arms some little room,
Who, hoping to
embrace thee, cheerly swoom:
This head was beat with many a
churlish billow,
And therefore let it rest upon thy pillow."
Herewith
affrighted, Hero shrunk away,
And in her lukewarm place Leander
lay;
Whose lively heat, like fire from heaven fet,
Would animate
gross clay, and higher set
The drooping thoughts of base-declining
souls,
Than dreary-Mars-carousing nectar bowls.
His hands he cast
upon her like a snare:
She, overcome with shame and sallow fear,

Like chaste Diana when Actæon spied her,
Being suddenly betray'd,
div'd down to hide her;
And, as her silver body downward went,

With both her hands she made the bed a tent,
And in her own mind
thought herself secure,
O'ercast with dim and darksome coverture.

And now she lets him whisper in her ear,
Flatter, entreat, promise,
protest, and swear:
Yet ever, as he greedily assay'd
To touch those
dainties, she the harpy play'd,
And every limb did, as a soldier stout,

Defend the fort, and keep the foeman out;
For though the rising
ivory mount he scal'd,
Which is with azure circling lines empal'd.

Much like a globe (a globe