HOW fair these stones, and with what deftness graven! Here Hermes binds Ixion to the wheel. Here is the yet unfreed Andromeda. Here Theseus slays the Minotaur, and there A naked soul quails before Rhadamanthus, The calm judge of the dead. On this is figured The moon-cold Goddess of the bow and quiver. On this, Medea drives her dragon team. Lo, Psyche there, at last made one with Eros, And all her sorrows over! And on this sard You may behold Achilles, not in wrath, But with a brow of pity, as when he mourned Penthesilea. Carven in green jasper, Here stands Actaeon, by his own hounds torn, As men are torn by their own fierce desires, Who hunt delight too madly. And upon This amethyst, Arachne at her loom, Daring to match the perfect woof of Pallas, Weaves her own perfect woe. Fair gems indeed! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE YOUNG MYSTIC by LOUIS UNTERMEYER SEADRIFT by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE LEPRECAUN, OR THE FAIRY SHOEMAKER by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM TO A GARDEN IN APRIL by WALTER CONRAD ARENSBERG FOUR SONNETS: 2 by FRANK DAVIS ASHBURN |