The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems | Page 2

atween, 5
And the bride-bed she weaves them, with myrtle enlacing,
with curtains
of green.
Look aloft! list the law of Dione, sublime and enthroned in
the blue: Now learn ye to love who loved never--now ye who have loved,
love anew!
Tunc liquore de superno spumeo et ponti globo,
Cærulas 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
lacrimæ 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 præceps orbe parvo sustinet casus suos.
En, pudorem
florulentæ prodiderunt purpuræ:
Umor ille quern serenis astra rorant
noctibus 20
Mane virgineas papillas solvit umenti peplo.
Ipsa jussit
mane ut udas virgines nubant rosæ;
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,
nymphæ, posuit arma, feriatus est Amor;
Jussus est inermis ire, nudus
ire jussus est,
Neu quid arcu, neu sagitta, neu quid igne Iæderet;

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 Hyblæis tribunal stare diva floribus;
Præses ipsa jura dicit,
adsederunt Gratiæ.
Hybla,