 | Poems Lyrical and Dramatic |  |
230
CUPID AND PSYCHE.
------ω δη το αισχρον προσθηκη του αλλοτριου προσηλθε και
εργον αυτω ειπερ εσται παλιν καλος, απονιψαμενω και καθηραμενω
οπερ ην ειναι. αισχραν δη ψυχην λεγοντες μιξει και κρασει
και νευσει τη προς το σωμα και υλην ορθως αν λεγοιμεν.—Plotinus
i. 5.
I found a fallen rose-bud
Where the mire lay gross and crass,
One sweet Milesian story
In the filthy Golden Ass;
And I thought as I lay dreaming
And turned the pages o'er,
That the Shade of Apuleius called
To me from death's dim shore.
Where the mire lay gross and crass,
One sweet Milesian story
In the filthy Golden Ass;
And I thought as I lay dreaming
And turned the pages o'er,
That the Shade of Apuleius called
To me from death's dim shore.
“My soul is fallen, fallen,
From the Star-land of its birth;
It has learned the earthly passions,
And mixed itself with earth.
It must seek the Heavenly Venus,
And rest re-reconciled
By Philosophy, too high for a man,
Too low for a little child.
From the Star-land of its birth;
It has learned the earthly passions,
And mixed itself with earth.
231
And rest re-reconciled
By Philosophy, too high for a man,
Too low for a little child.
“I have lived in the golden palace
Littered with shining gems,
The collars and the bracelets,
And the priceless diadems:
I knew the nuptial kisses
Of divine ethereal love;
But once I gazed on Love in the light,
And he fled like a frightened dove.
Littered with shining gems,
The collars and the bracelets,
And the priceless diadems:
I knew the nuptial kisses
Of divine ethereal love;
But once I gazed on Love in the light,
And he fled like a frightened dove.
“He left the aspirations,
The yearning endless pain,
But he himself was vanished
Ne'er to return again.
Then I wrought the three great labours,
And I reached the heavenly goal,
For I drowned vain love in toil for man
A crowned Olympian soul.”
The yearning endless pain,
But he himself was vanished
Ne'er to return again.
Then I wrought the three great labours,
And I reached the heavenly goal,
For I drowned vain love in toil for man
A crowned Olympian soul.”
| Poems Lyrical and Dramatic | |