Come, gentle Venus! and assuage A warring world, a bleeding age. For nature lives beneath thy ray, The wintry tempests haste away, A lucid calm invests the sea, Thy native deep is full of thee: The flowering earth where'er you fly, Is all o'er spring, all sun the sky. A genial spirit warms the breeze; Unseen among the blooming trees, The feather'd lovers tune their throat, The desert growls a soften'd note, Glad o'er the meads the cattle bound, And love and harmony go round. But chief into the human heart You strike the dear delicious dart; You teach us pleasing pangs to know, To languish in luxurious wo, To feel the generous passions rise, Grow good by gazing, mild by sighs; Each happy moment to improve, And fill the perfect year with love. Come, thou delight of heaven and earth! To whom all creatures owe their birth; Oh, come, sweet smiling! tender, come! And yet prevent our final doom. For long the furious god of war Has crush'd us with his iron car, Has raged along our ruin'd plains, Has foil'd them with his cruel stains, Has sunk our youth in endless sleep, And made the widow'd virgin weep. Now let him feel thy wonted charms, Oh, take him to thy twining arms! And, while thy bosom heaves on his, While deep he prints the humid kiss, Ah, then! his stormy heart control, And sigh thyself into his soul. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DRIVING INTO LARAMIE by JAMES GALVIN DESTINY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON EPITAPH IN A CHURCH-YARD IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA by AMY LOWELL VICTOR RAFOLSKI ON ART by EDGAR LEE MASTERS IN THE STREETS by LOUIS UNTERMEYER VARIATIONS FOR A SUMMER EVENING by MICHAEL ANANIA THE POPLAR by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX by ROBERT BROWNING A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 19. THE FAIRY QUEEN PROSERPINA by THOMAS CAMPION |