Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DE EROTIO PUELLA, by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS Poet's Biography First Line: This girl was sweeter than the song of swans Last Line: My child-love and my playmate -- snatcht away. Alternate Author Name(s): Martial 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ROSE AND MURRAY by CONRAD AIKEN THOUGH WE NO LONGER POSSESS IT by MARK JARMAN THE GLORY OF THE DAY WAS IN HER FACE by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON LOVE COME AND GONE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON CHAMBER MUSIC: 28 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 33 by JAMES JOYCE A SCOTCH SONG by JOANNA BAILLIE DOCTOR FELL by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS |
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