Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LONG AGO: 54, by KATHERINE HARRIS BRADLEY Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Adown the lesbian vales Last Line: Taught by a poet why sweet hesper glows Alternate Author Name(s): Field, Michael (with Edith Emma Cooper) Subject(s): Sappho (610-580 B.c.) | ||||||||
ADOWN the Lesbian vales, When spring first flashes out, I watch the lovely rout Of maidens flitting 'mid the honey-bees For thyme and heath, Cistus, and trails Of myrtle-wreath : They bring me these My passionate, unsated sense to please. In turn, to please my maids, Most deftly will I sing Of their soft cherishing In apple-orchards with cool waters by, Where slumber streams From quivering shades, And Cypris seems To bend and sigh, Her golden calyx offering amorously. What praises would be best Wherewith to crown my girls ? The rose when she unfurls Her balmy, lighted buds is not so good, So fresh as they When on my breast They lean, and say All that they would, Opening their glorious, candid maidenhood. To that pure band alone I sing of marriage-loves ; As Aphrodite's doves Glance in the sun their colour comes and goes : No girls let fall Their maiden zone At Hymen's call Serene as those Taught by a poet why sweet Hesper glows. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AFTER SAPPHO by KENNETH REXROTH WHEN WE WITH SAPPHO by KENNETH REXROTH SO HELP ME SAPPHO by ANNE WALDMAN AD LESBIAM by GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS SUMMER MATURES by HELENE JOHNSON CYCLAMENS by KATHERINE HARRIS BRADLEY |
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