Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white,
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk.
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font,
The fire-fly wakens: waken thou with me.
Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost, And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.
Now lies the earth all Danae to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.
Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
A shining furrow as thy thoughts in me.
Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake :
So fold thyself, my dearest thou, and slip
Into my bosom, and be lost in me.
Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height: What pleasure dwells in height (the shepherd sang),
Οὐδὲν ποττὸν ἔρωτα πεφύκει φάρμακον ἄλλο
ἢ καὶ Πιερίδες.—THEOCRITUS.
PUNICA jam florum species, jamque alba quiescit, Perque cupressiferas conticet Aula vias.
Pinna nec auricolor trepidat per marmora fontis ; Flamma vigil muscæ nos vigilare jubet.
Jam fluit ad terram pavonis candor, ut umbra, Meque per incertum lumen, ut umbra, subit.
Panditur ad stellas, Danaë velut altera, tellus,
Et tua jam nobis corda reclusa jacent.
Utque nitet tacite lapso de fulgure sulcus,
Sic mea conlucet mens radiata tua.
Nunc et odoriferas concludunt lilia frondes,
Inque lacus repunt undique lapsa sinum;
Haud aliter venias, clarum velata decorem,
Mersaque cum nostro consociare sinu!
Huc ades, O virgo, montis juga celsa relinquens, Num qua voluptatem dant juga? pastor ait.
In height and cold, the splendour of the hills?
But cease to move so near the heavens, and cease
To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine,
To sit a star upon the sparkling spire;
And come, for Love is of the valley, come,
For Love is of the valley, come thou down
And find him; by the valley threshold, he,
Or hand in hand with plenty of the maize,
Or red with spurted purple of the vats,
Or foxlike in the vine; nor cares to walk
With Death and Morning on the Silver Horns,
Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine,
Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice,
That huddling slant in cloven furrow falls
To roll the torrent out of dusky doors :
But follow: let the torrent dance thee down
To find him in the valley; let the wild
Lean-headed Eagles yelp alone, and leave
The monstrous ledges there to slope and spill
Their thousand wreaths of dangling water smoke,
That like a broken purpose waste in air.
So waste not thou: but come, for all the vales
Await thee; azure pillars of the heath
Arise to thee; the children call, and I
Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound,
Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;
Myriads of rivulets hurrying through the lawn,
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Num tibi sunt cordi splendentes frigore colles?
Desine cælestes concelebrare plagas.
Neve jubar veluti pinum pete lapsa caducam,
Neu stellans nitida montis in arce sede.
Huc ades ad vallem, Lalage, non celsa jugorum,
Limina sed vallis læta frequentat Amor.
Plurima purpureis spargit vindemia labris,
Copiaque in flavos hunc comitatur agros ;
Pampinus aut vulpem condit; neque cornua montis
Mane novo secum Mors super alba rapit,
Nec datur anfractu vafrum laqueare nivali,
Nec freta venari per glaciata vagum,
Qua conferta tument, sulcatis pendula clivis,
Quave tenebroso flumen ab ore vomunt.
I, cito torrentis præceps te torqueat æstus,
Vallibus invenies delituisse deum.
Te sine clamores volucris Jovis effera fundat,
Sola ferens macrum per juga sola caput.
Te sine declivis spargat latera horrida montis
Mille vaporiferis pensilis imber aquis,
Tabeat et, tabent velut inrita vota, per auras;
Hoc cave tu virgo; nec mora, carpe viam.
Te poscunt valles, glaucæ tibi more columnæ
Tollitur a sparcis fumus ubique focis.
Teque vocant pueri, ludoque ego pastor avena,
Nec nisi suaviloquo rura canore sonant.
Dulcis at his præstas, dulci cum murmure quamvis
Gramineam rodant flumina mille viam,
Chaonis et volucris grandæva ploret in ulmo,
Agmen et innumerum lene susurret apum.
ALTHEA. Child, if a man serve law through all his life,
And with his whole heart worship, him all gods
Praise; but who loves it only with his lips,
And not in heart and deed desiring it,
Hides a perverse will with obsequious words.
Him heaven infatuates, and his twin-born fate
Tracks, and gains on him, scenting sins far off.
Be man at one with equal-minded gods,
So shall he prosper: not through laws torn up,
Violated rule, and a new face of things.
A woman arm'd makes war upon herself,
Unwomanlike, and treads down use and wont,
And the sweet common honour that she hath,
Love, and the cry of children, and the hand
Trothplight, and mutual mouth of marriages.
This doth she, being unloved: whom, if one love,
Not fire or iron, and the wide-mouth'd wars,
Are deadlier than her lips or braided hair.
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