 | Julia Alpinula |  |
20
XI.
Calm flew those pleasant hours along;And when with dance, and festal song,
She came in meekness to resign
Youth's girdle at Diana's shrine,
For woman's high and sacred Zone,
Whose clasp, thenceforth, of whitest pearl,
Should temper with reserve, the tone
And fearless frankness of the girl,
Much she admired her statue, much
The stone no mortal's hand might touch;
The horns which cast a lunar glow
O'er forehead, chaste as driven snow;
The lips which breathed of bashfulness,
And that full, uninsculptured eye,
By Genius' most divine excess,
Fixed in the Vision of Virginity:
And though at times her pulse began
With new imaginings to stir,
As if a flood of music ran
Warm through the enthusiast worshipper,
She there remained before the shrine,
To offer to the Power Divine,
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The ambrosial pale that shuts out sin,
And gave Diana so to win,
In her, the loveliest votarist
That e'er her marble image kissed.
| Julia Alpinula | |