 | Pygmalion |  |
Cytherea.
Uprisen from the sea when Cytherea,
Shining in primal beauty, paled the day,
The wondering waters hushed. They yearned in sighs
That shook the world: tumultuously heaved
To a great throne of azure laced with light
And canopied in foam to grace their Queen.
Shrieking for joy came Oceanides,
And swift Nereides rushed from afar
Or clove the waters by. Came eager-eyed
Even shy Naiades from inland streams,
With wild cries headlong darting thro' the waves;
And Dryads from the shore stretched their lorn arms.
While hoarsely sounding heard was Triton's shell;
Shoutings uncouth; sudden, bewildered sounds;
And the innumerable splashing feet
Of monsters gambolling around their God,
Forth shining on a seahorse, fierce, and finned.
Some bestrode fishes glinting dusky gold,
Or angry crimson, or chill silver bright;
Others jerked fast on their own scaly tails;
And seabirds, screaming upwards either side,
Wove a vast arch above the Queen of Love,
Who, gazing on this multitudinous
Homaging to her beauty, laughed:
Shining in primal beauty, paled the day,
The wondering waters hushed. They yearned in sighs
That shook the world: tumultuously heaved
To a great throne of azure laced with light
And canopied in foam to grace their Queen.
Shrieking for joy came Oceanides,
And swift Nereides rushed from afar
Or clove the waters by. Came eager-eyed
Even shy Naiades from inland streams,
15
And Dryads from the shore stretched their lorn arms.
While hoarsely sounding heard was Triton's shell;
Shoutings uncouth; sudden, bewildered sounds;
And the innumerable splashing feet
Of monsters gambolling around their God,
Forth shining on a seahorse, fierce, and finned.
Some bestrode fishes glinting dusky gold,
Or angry crimson, or chill silver bright;
Others jerked fast on their own scaly tails;
And seabirds, screaming upwards either side,
Wove a vast arch above the Queen of Love,
Who, gazing on this multitudinous
Homaging to her beauty, laughed:
She laughed
The soft delicious laughter that makes mad;
Low warblings in the throat that clench man's life
Tighter than prison bars.
The soft delicious laughter that makes mad;
Low warblings in the throat that clench man's life
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Then swayed a breath
Of odorous rose and scented myrtle mixed,
That toyed the golden radiance round her brows
To wavy flames. When lo! sweet murmurings
Spread sudden silence on that gathered host!
And, as sped arrows to their mark; as bees
Drop promptly on the honey'd flower, as one
Shone the three daughters of Eurynome,
Aglaia, and Thalia; each an arm
In reverence taking fondled tenderly;
Then pressed their blushing cheeks against her breasts:
And loved Euphrosyne, scarcely less fair
Than Cytherea's self, lay her white length
Kissing the sacred feet.
Of odorous rose and scented myrtle mixed,
That toyed the golden radiance round her brows
To wavy flames. When lo! sweet murmurings
Spread sudden silence on that gathered host!
And, as sped arrows to their mark; as bees
Drop promptly on the honey'd flower, as one
Shone the three daughters of Eurynome,
Aglaia, and Thalia; each an arm
In reverence taking fondled tenderly;
Then pressed their blushing cheeks against her breasts:
And loved Euphrosyne, scarcely less fair
Than Cytherea's self, lay her white length
Kissing the sacred feet.
Such honour paid
The powers of nature to the power of Love,
Creation's longed-for Wonder sprung to life!
Now, as a man lifts up a little child,
The powers of nature to the power of Love,
Creation's longed-for Wonder sprung to life!
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The wave of mighty azure forward driven
By magic impulse sheer in downward slope
Fell, then drawn backward sank, and was no more;
Leaving the Goddess on her Cyprian coast.
And when her feet first touched the trembling sand,
She fired awakened Earth's remotest veins
To strange ethereal ecstasies; as birds
Brighten to clamour by the fires of morn.
Thus to Pygmalion beamed the wondrous Birth;
And this in pure immortal marble he
Laboured to show; bound by those rules of Art
The Wise had found inexorably fixed.
| Pygmalion | |