Poetry

Poems

Venus and Adonis

“Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus ApolloPocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.”

Even as the sun with purple-colour’d faceHad ta’en his last leave of the weeping morn,Rose-cheek’d Adonis tried him to the chase;Hunting he loved, but love he laugh’d to scorn;Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,And like a bold-faced suitor ’gins to woo him.

“Thrice fairer than myself,” thus she began,“The field’s chief flower, sweet above compare,Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man,More white and red than doves or roses are;Nature that made thee, with herself at strife,Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.

“Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed,And rein his proud head to the saddle-bow;If thou wilt deign this favour, for thy meedA thousand honey secrets shalt thou know:Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses,And being set, I’ll smother thee with kisses;

“And yet not cloy thy lips with loathed satiety,But rather famish them amid their plenty,Making them red and pale with fresh variety,Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty:A summer’s day will seem an hour but short,Being wasted in such time-beguiling sport.”

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