APHRODITE.

Apollo never smote a lovelier strain,

When swan-necked Hebe paused her thirsty bowl

A-sparkle with its wealth of nectar-draughts

To lend a list'ners ear and smile on him,

As that the Tritons blew on wreathed horns

When Aphrodite, the cold ocean-foam

Bursting its bubbles, from the hissing snow

Whirled her nude form on Hyperion's gaze,

Naked and fresh as Indian Ocean shell

Dashed landward from its bed of sucking sponge

And branching corals by the changed monsoon.

Wind-rocked she swung her white feet on the sea,

And music raved down the slant western winds;

With swollen jowls the Tritons puffed the conch,

Where, breasting with cold bosoms the green waves,

That laughed in ripples at Love's misty feet,

Oceanids with dimple-dented palms

Smote sidewise the pale bubbles of the foam,

Which wove a silver iris‘ round her form.

Where dolphins tumbling stained the garish arch

Nereides sang, braiding their wet locks,

Or flung them streaming on the broken foam,

Till evetide showed her loveliest of stars —

Lost passion-flower of the sinking sun —

In the cool sheen of shadowy waters deep,

That moaned wild sea-songs at the Sirens’ caves;

Then in a hollow pearl, o'er moon-white waves,

The creatures of the ocean danced their queen,

Till Cytherea like a rosy mist

Beneath the star rose blushing from the deep.

On the pearled sands of a moon-glassing sea

Beneath the moon, narcissus-like, they met,

She naked as a star and crowned with stars,

Child of the airy foam and queen of love.