The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore Collected by Himself. In Ten Volumes |
I, II. |
III, IV. |
V. |
VI, VII. |
VIII, IX. |
X. |
The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore | ||
TO MRS. HENRY TIGHE,
ON READING HER “PSYCHE.”
For never has my heart or ear
Hung on so sweet, so pure a strain,
So pure to feel, so sweet to hear.
When the high heaven itself was thine;
When piety confess'd the flame,
And even thy errors were divine;
A glory round thy temples spread?
Did ever lip's ambrosial air
Such fragrance o'er thy altars shed?
The mystic myrtle wildly wreath'd;—
But all her sighs were sighs of fire,
The myrtle wither'd as she breath'd.
In all its purity, would know,
Let not the senses' ardent beam
Too strongly through the vision glow.
The night where heaven has bid him lie;
Oh! shed not there unhallow'd light,
Or, Psyche knows, the boy will fly.
Through many a wild and magic waste,
To the fair fount and blissful bower
Have I, in dreams, thy light foot trac'd!
Beneath whatever shades of rest,
The Genius of the starry brow
Hath bound thee to thy Cupid's breast;
Along whose verge our spirits stray,—
Half brighten'd by the upper ray ,—
Or, lingering here, dost love to be,
To other souls, the guardian bright
That Love was, through this gloom, to thee;
The song, whose gentle voice was given
To be, on earth, to mortal ear,
An echo of her own, in heaven.
See the story in Apuleius. With respect to this beautiful allegory of Love and Psyche, there is an ingenious idea suggested by the senator Buonarotti, in his “Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antici.” He thinks the fable is taken from some very occult mysteries, which had long been celebrated in honour of Love; and accounts, upon this supposition, for the silence of the more ancient authors upon the subject, as it was not till towards the decline of pagan superstition, that writers could venture to reveal or discuss such ceremonies. Accordingly, observes this author, we find Lucian and Plutarch treating, without reserve, of the Dea Syria, as well as of Isis and Osiris; and Apuleius, to whom we are indebted for the beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche,. has also detailed some of the mysteries of Isis. See the Giornale di Litterati d'Italia, tom. xxvii. articol. 1. See also the observations upon the ancient gems in the Museum Florentinum, vol. i. p. 156.
I cannot avoid remarking here an error into which the French Encyclopédistes have been led by M. Spon, in their article Psyche. They say “Petrone fait un récit de la pompe nuptiale de ces deux amans (Amour et Psyche). Déjà, dit-il,” &c. &c. The Psyche of Petronius, however, is a servant-maid, and the marriage which he describes is that of the young Pannychis. See Spon's Recherches curieuses, &c. Dissertat. 5.
The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore | ||