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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


DE EROTIO PUELLA by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS

First Line: THIS GIRL WAS SWEETER THAN THE SONG OF SWANS
Last Line: MY CHILD-LOVE AND MY PLAYMATE -- SNATCHT AWAY.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; LOVE - LOSS OF;

THIS girl was sweeter than the song of swans,
And daintier than the lamb upon the lawns
Or Lucrine oyster. She, the flower of girls,
Outshone the light of Erythraean pearls;
The teeth of India that with polish glow,
The untouched lilies or the morning snow.
Her tresses did gold-dust outshine
And fair hair of women of the Rhine.
Compared to her the peacock seemed not fair,
The squirrel lively, or the phoenix rare;
Her on whose pyre the smoke still hovering waits
Her whom the greedy and unequal fates
On the sixth dawning of her natal day
My child-love and my playmate -- snatcht away.



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