 | Judith, Esther, and other poems |  |
Written after passing an evening with E. W. R. A*******, Esq. who has the finest person I ever saw.
--- --- I took it for a faëry vision,
Or some gay creature of the element
That in the colours of the rain-bow lives,
And plays i' th' plighted clouds.
Milton.
Or some gay creature of the element
That in the colours of the rain-bow lives,
And plays i' th' plighted clouds.
Milton.
Who that has seen the breathing stone,
Or loved the Rhodian art,
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With pleasure-quickened heart,
Or who that ever felt that fire
Which prompts the minstrel's lays
Can sink to rest, nor strike the lyre
One moment to thy praise?—
Thus ere his guilt, sweet Paris strayed
Through wondering grots and groves,
Ere yet his fair Idalian maid
Weeps him untrue—but loves.
Thus from the bath young Phaon came,
With that divine infusion
All glowing, to the Lesbian dame,
Like a bright dream's illusion.
Like thine around his yellow hair
The fond light loved to play,
Like thine his lip allured the air
More fresh when breathed away.
Like thee he towered, his blue eye beamed
Like thine; a matchless grace
So o'er his form soft floating, seemed
To veil its powerfulness.
And yet not so—had Phaon shone
So fair, Apollo's pride
Had never such a rival borne
And Sapho had not died.
| Judith, Esther, and other poems | |