Classic Poem

STROPHE I

Oh Love! oh Love! whose shafts of fire
Invade the soul with sweet surprise,
Through the soft dews of young desire
Trembling in beauty's azure eyes!
Condemn not me the pangs to share
Thy too impassioned votaries bear,
That on the mind their stamp impress,
Indelible and measureless
For not the sun's descending dart,
Nor yet the lightning-brand of Jove,
Fall like the shaft that strikes the heart,
Thrown by the mightier hand of love.

ANTISTROPHE I

Oh! vainly, where, by Letrian plains,
Tow'rd Dian's dome Alphius bends,
And from Apollo's Pythian fanes,
The steam of hecatombs ascends:
While not to love our altars blaze:
To love, whose tyrant power arrays
Against mankind each form of woe
That hopeless anguish bleeds to know:
To love, who keeps the golden key,
That, when more favored lips implore,
Unlocks the sacred mystery
Of youthful beauty's bridal door.

STROPHE II

Alas! round love's despotic power,
Their brands what forms of terror wave!
The oechalian maid, in evil hour,
Venus to great Alcides gave.
As yet in passion's lore unread,
Unconscious of connubial ties,
She saw around her bridal bed
Her native city's flames arise.
Ah hapless maid! mid kindred gore
Whose nuptial torch the Furies bore:
To him consigned, an ill-starred bride,
By whom her sire and brethren died.

ANTISTROPHE II

Oh towers of Thebes! oh sacred flow
Of mystic Dirce's fountain-tides!
Say, in what shapes of fear and woe
Love through his victim's bosom glides!
She, who to heaven's imperial sire
The care-dispelling Bacchus bore,
Mid thunder and celestial fire
Embraced, and slept to wake no more.
Too powerful love, inspiring still
The dangerous wish, the frantic will,
Bears, like the bee's mellifluous wing,
A transient sweet, a lasting sting.