Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN EPITHALAMIUM, by A LADY [PSEUD.]



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN EPITHALAMIUM, by                    
First Line: Lo! Hymen passes through th' admiring crowds
Last Line: And make one poor hermaphrodite at most
Alternate Author Name(s): A Lady
Subject(s): Hermaphrodites;marriage;mythology - Classical; Weddings;husbands;wives


Lo! Hymen passes through th' admiring crowds,
A saffron robe the hideous tyrant shrouds;
Behind stalks Plutus, with a tempting store;
A mimic Cupid bears the torch before:
False hopes and phantom joys, a gaudy train,
Surround his car, and dance along the plain:
Still, as he passes, witless maids and swains,
Lured by the show, put on his gilded chains.

Be wise, ye fair! and shun the tempting bait,
Nor flounce and struggle on the hook too late!
Too late the fatal cheat you will discover,
When you have caught the spouse, but lost the lover!
The pleasing scene shall vanish from your eye,
And gloomy discontents obscure the sky.
What though th' impatient lover's fervent kiss
May promise rapt'rous nights and endless bliss:
The hour shall be when you, become a bride,
Must hear him snore, inactive, by your side.

Mark well, ye fair! a blooming swain and maid,
While new-born flames their tender hearts invade!
He warm and active as the sun at noon,
She gay and genial as the wanton June;
They speak in raptures, and with transport move;
They meet, they kiss, they press, they pant, they love.
But lo! the longed-for flamen joins their hands,
And rivets on the everlasting bands;
The holy charm soon damps their warm desires
(For Hymen's torch still puts out Cupid's fires):
They grow Platonic, bodies leave off sporting,
While soul and soul go hand-in-hand in courting:
The vigorous lover, and the mistress gay,
Turned to a lifeless mass of mingled clay.

This sudden change in a young healthy pair
May make, perhaps, the beaus and women stare;
May puzzle court and city to detect
The mighty power, which works the sad effect.
But sages, who explore each hidden cause,
Know that, by nature's necessary laws,
Two distant bodies, while they're free and loose,
May action and reaction still produce:
But by compulsive force together tied,
No motion can begin from either side.

This single problem may suffice to prove
The dire effect that wedlock has on love;
In order to convince the learned few,
We bring them reasons physically true.
But since (to make an argument more strong)
Examples must be hauled in, right or wrong,
An ancient tale, served up in modern sort,
May chance to please the fair -- though 'tis but short.

While Hermes' son sports in the chrystal flood,
Salmacis lurks within the bordering wood;
Behind the twining boughs she stands, to view
His well-turned limbs, and pants to touch them too:
Then grown impatient, casts her robes aside,
And plunges furious through the yielding tide;
She grasps the struggling boy with eager love,
And thus directs her fatal prayer to Jove:
'Supreme of powers! oh, grant me to remain
Thus joined, for ever, to the lovely swain!'
Too well she's heard: the mingling sexes blend,
And the lost pair in a new monster end.

Thus many a hapless girl, through sad mistake,
Souses into the matrimonial lake,
In hope of raptures, bliss, and all the rest
Which lovers feel, possessing and possessed:
Warmed with the thought, she's tired of being alone,
Sees a brisk youth, and wishes him her own.
Her prayer is granted; by the church's doom
They're joined for ever, and one flesh become:
In wife and husband, girl and boy are lost,
And make one poor Hermaphrodite at most.





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