University of Virginia Library


257

SONNET III
VENUS

What do they tell thee of me,—that I sing
Of white-armed Venus? that in English air
I find alone the old Greek visions fair?
That love-gifts towards the old dead gods I bring?
Oh, thou art Venus! Linger ever there,
Where the wind touches with light-kissing wing
Thy beautiful brown unforgotten hair:
Be thou the goddess of the world's first spring!
Venus was goddess in the old sweet days,
And through the sunlit foam of Grecian bays
Shone radiant and divine her tender limbs.
So thou art goddess of the days when I,
Greek-souled and ardent, laughed to see the sky
So blue, and sang to it with marriage-hymns.