University of Virginia Library

IV.

Ariadne from her slumber
Woke and rose, and smiled benignly;
Radiant from the rapturous dreams,
That stirred her secret soul divinely.
Round her stood the Mænad maids,
Round her swelled their tuneful chorus;
Round her wheeled their floating dance,
To a piping reed sonorous.
With them danced a prick-eared crew,
Hairy-limbed, with goatish features;
Pans and Satyrs strange to view,
Forest-haunting, freakish creatures.
Old Silenus, bald and broad,
Stood beside, his bright face showing
Wreathed with laughter; his full eye
Brimmed with mirth to overflowing.
Strange; but Ariadne saw,
With strange eyes, a sight yet stranger;
Troops of shaggy forest whelps
Thronged around, and brought no danger.
Bearded goat, and tusky boar,
Fox that feasts on secret slaughter,
Tawny lion, tiger fierce,
Harmless looked on Minos' daughter.
Lo! a spotted pard appears
At the feet of Ariadne;
Comes, and, like a prayerful child,
Kneels before thee, Ariadne.
Pleased the savage brute she sees
Bend like sleekest ass demurely;
Mounts the offered seat, and rides
On the panther's back securely.
Forward now the spotted pard
Moves with measured pace and wary;
Then aloft (O wonder strange!)
Paws the heavenward pathway airy.
Fear thee not, thou Cretan maid,
Gods are with thee where thou fliest;
Dionysus waits for thee,
Near the throne of Jove the Highest.
In Olympus' azure dells,
Waits the god in ivy bowers,
Where for thee immortal Hebe
Twines the amaranthine flowers;
Where the purple bowl of joy
Brims for thee; where bitter sorrow
Grows not; where to-day's keen thrill
Leaves no languid throb to-morrow.
Flourish there, immortal bride,
Flourish in the minstrel's story;
Shine, to sorrowing hearts a sign,
High amid the starry glory!