 | The Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant |  |
LOVE'S POWER.
FROM THE LATIN.
Thus all that live—swift fishes—painted birds—The desert's ravenous tribes—the harmless herds—
And prouder man—obey the powerful call,—
And Love's almighty frenzy masters all!
The lioness, to wilder fury stung,
Then terribly walks forth, and leaves her young;—
With bloodier ravages the shapeless bear
Pollutes his woods;—the tiger leaves his lair,
In fury stalks;—fiercer rushes forth the boar;—
Woe, then, to him that walks the Lybian shore!—
Mark how the well-known gales the steed inflame,
And shoot a shivering thrill through all his frame.
Him, as with sudden bound he bursts away,
Nor curb nor lash, ravines nor rocks delay,
Nor rivers interposed, whose torrents sweep
The uprooted mountains downward to the deep.
Great Barrington, 1817.
| The Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant | |