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Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces

by Charles Tennyson
  

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64

DIXIT ET AVERTENS &c.

VIRG. ÆN. II.

When Venus, late like wood-nymph drest
Departing breath'd diviner soul,
When downward flowed her gather'd vest,
And godhead o'er the huntress stole,
How lovely must the change have been!
How beautiful the shifting mien!
I would I had been there to see
That burst of nobler charms and higher,
Losing in prouder symmetry
The simple lineaments of Tyre,
Tho' but a moment she delay'd,
In glory of great beauty clad.

65

And stay, oh! stay, the hero cried,
As far—far off—the vision shot,
Why is thy conference denied,
Or granted, when I know thee not?
And thus, at last, to break the spell
But saddens more thy bright farewell!