The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems | Page 2

ye to love who loved never--now ye who have loved, love anew!
Tunc liquore de superno spumeo et ponti globo,?C?rulas inter catervas, inter et bipedes equos, 10?Fecit undantem Dionen de maritis imbribus.?Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quiqiie amavit cras amet.
Ipsa gemmis purpurantem pingit annum floribus,?Ipsa surgentes papillas de Favoni spiritu?Urget in toros tepentes; ipsa roris lucidi 15?Noctis aura quem relinquit, spargit umentes aquas.?Et micant lacrim? trementes de caduco pondere:
Time was that a rain-cloud begat her, impregning the heave of the deep, 'Twixt hooves of sea-horses a-scatter, stampeding the dolphins as
sheep. 10?Lo! arose of that bridal Dione, rainbow'd and besprent of its dew! Now learn ye to love who loved never--now ye who have loved, love anew!
She, she, with her gem-dripping finger enamels the wreath of the year; She, she, when the maid-bud is nubile and swelling winds--whispers anear, Disguising her voice in the Zephyr's--"So secret the bed! And thou
shy?" 15?She, she, thro' the hush'd humid Midsummer night draws the dew from on
high;?Dew bright with the tears of its origin, dew with its weight on the bough,
Gutta pr?ceps orbe parvo sustinet casus suos.?En, pudorem florulent? prodiderunt purpur?:?Umor ille quern serenis astra rorant noctibus 20?Mane virgineas papillas solvit umenti peplo.?Ipsa jussit mane ut udas virgines nubant ros?;?Fusa Paphies de cruore deque Amoris osculis?Deque gemmis deque flammis deque solis purpuris,?Cras ruborem qui latebat veste tectus ignea 25?Unico marita nodo non pudebit solvere.?Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit cras amet.
Misdoubting and clinging and trembling--"Now, now must I fall? Is it now?" Star-fleck'd on the stem of the brier as it gathers and falters and flows, Lo! its trail runs a ripple of fire on the nipple it bids be a
rose, 20?Yet englobes it diaphanous, veil upon veil in a tiffany drawn To bedrape the small virginal breasts yet unripe for the spousal of dawn; Till the vein'd very vermeil of Venus, till Cupid's incarnadine kiss, Till the ray of the ruby, the sunrise, ensanguine the bath of her bliss; Till the wimple her bosom uncover, a tissue of fire to the view, 25 And the zone o'er the wrists of the lover slip down as they reach to undo. Now learn ye to love who loved never--now ye who have loved, love anew!
Ipsa nymphas diva luco jussit ire myrteo:?It puer comes puellis. Nee tamen credi potest?Esse Amorem feriatum, si sagittas vexerit. 30?Ite, nymph?, posuit arma, feriatus est Amor;?Jussus est inermis ire, nudus ire jussus est,?Neu quid arcu, neu sagitta, neu quid igne I?deret;?Sed tamen nymphse cavete, quod Cupido pulcher est;?Est in armis totus idem quando nudus est Amor! 35
Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit eras amet.
Conpari Venus pudore mittit ad te virgines:
"Go, maidens," Our Lady commands, "while the myrtle is green in the
groves,?Take the Boy to your escort." "But ah!" cry the maidens, "what trust
is in Love's?Keeping holiday too, while he weareth his archery, tools of his
trade?" 30?"Go! he lays them aside, an apprentice released; ye may wend unafraid. See, I bid him disarm, he disarms; mother-naked I bid him to go, And he goes mother-naked. What flame can he shoot without arrow or bow?" Yet beware ye of Cupid, ye maidens! Beware most of all when he charms As a child: for the more he runs naked, the more he's a strong
man-at-arms. 35
_Now learn ye to love who loved never--now ye who have loved, love anew! "Lady Dian"--Behold how demurely the damsels approach her and sue--
Una res est quam rogamus: cede, virgo Delia,?Ut nemus sit incruentum de ferinis stragibus.?Ipsa vellet ut venires, si deceret virginem: 40?Jam tribus choros videres feriatos noctibus?Congreges inter catervas ire per saltus tuos,?Floreas inter coronas, myrteas inter casas:?Nee Ceres nee Bacchus absunt, nee poetarum Deus;?De tenente tota nox est pervigilia canticis: 45?Regnet in silvis Dione; tu recede, Delia.?Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit cras amet.
Hear Venus her only petition! Dear maiden of
Delos, depart!?Let the forest be bloodless to-day, unmolested the
roe and the hart!?Holy huntress, thyself she would bid be her guest, 40
could thy chastity stoop?To approve of our revels, our dances--three
nights that we weave in a troop?Arm-in-arm thro' thy sanctu'ries whirling, till faint
and dispersed in the grove?We lie with thy lilies for chaplets, thy myrtles for
arbours of love:?And Apollo, with Ceres and Bacchus to chorus--
song, harvest, and wine--?Hymns thee dispossess'd, "'Tis Dione who reigns! 45
Let Diana resign!"?O, the wonderful nights of Dione! dark bough,
with her star shining thro'!?_Now learn ye to love who loved never--now ye who have
loved, love anew!_
Jussit Hybl?is tribunal stare diva floribus;?Pr?ses ipsa jura dicit, adsederunt Grati?.?Hybla, totos funde floras quidquid annus adtulit; 50?Hybla, florum rumpe vestem quantus ?tn? campus est.
Ruris hic erunt puell?, vel puell? montium,?Qu?que silvas, qu?que lucos, qu?que fontes incolunt:
Jussit omnes adsidere mater alitis dei,?Jussit et nudo puellas nil Amori credere. 55
Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit cras amet.?She has set up her court, has Our Lady, in Hybla,
and deckt