Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ODE: ACME AND SEPTIMUS; OR, LOVE DUET, by GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODE: ACME AND SEPTIMUS; OR, LOVE DUET, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Whilst on septimus' panting brest
Last Line: With acme's and septimius' life.
Alternate Author Name(s): Catullus, Caius Valerius
Subject(s): Love


WHilst on Septimius panting Brest,
(Meaning nothing less then Rest)
Acme lean'd her loving head,
Thus the pleas'd Septimius said.

My dearest Acme, if I be
Once alive, and love not thee,
With a Passion far above
All that e're was called Love,
In a Lybian desert may
I become some Lion's prey;
Let him, Acme, let him tear
My Brest, when Acme is not there.

The God of Love, who stood to hear him,
(The God of Love was always near him)
Pleas'd and tickl'd with the sound,
Sneez'd aloud; and all around
The little Loves, that waited by,
Bow'd and blest the Augurie.
Acme, enflam'd with what he said,
Rear'd her gently-bending head,
And her purple mouth with joy,
Stretching to the delicious Boy,
Twice (and twice could scarce suffice)
She kist his drunken, rowling eyes.

My little Life, my All (said she)
So may we ever servants be
To this blest God; and ne'r retain
Our hated Liberty again;
So may thy passion last for me,
As I a Passion have for thee,
Greater and fiercer much then can
Be conceiv'd by Thee a Man.
Into my Marrow is it gone,
Fix'd and setled in the Bone,
It reigns not only in my Heart,
But runs like Life, through ev'ry part.

She spoke; the God of Love aloud
Sneez'd again, and all the crowd
Of little Loves, that waited by,
Bow'd, and blest the Augurie.

This good Omen, thus from Heav'n,
Like a happy signal given,
Their Loves and Lives (all four) embrace,
And hand in hand run all the race.
To poor Septimius (who did now
Nothing else but Acme grow)
Acme's bosome was alone,
The whole world's Imperial Throne,
And to faithful Acme's mind
Septimius was all Human kind.
If the Gods would please to be
But advis'd for once by me,
I'd advise 'em, when they spie
Any illustrious Piety,
To reward Her, if it be she;
To reward him, if it be He;
With such a Husband, such a Wife,
With Acme's and Septimius' Life.





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